The University of Venda (Univen) has entered into a joint venture programme with Zimbabwe’s Masvingo State University (MASU), in a move that will see the introduction and teaching of Venda at MASU.

The director of Univen, Dr Makgale Makgopa, who was in Masvingo town in Zimbabwe last week, said his institution was geared towards assisting in the teaching of Venda at MASU.

"We want Tshivenda to gain the recognition it deserves, considering that it is treated as a minority language in Zimbabwe and therefore we have entered into a joint programme with Masvingo State University so that it can be taught up to university level," he said. He said South Africa and Zimbabwe were neighbours that had a lot in common, hence the need to share resources and expertise.

"You will realise that South Africa and Zimbabwe are neighbours, only separated by the Limpopo River, yet we have a number of commonalities which are of mutual interest," Makgola said. He also donated some Venda and Shangani textbooks to MASU and promised to support the smooth running of the teaching of the language at the Zimbabwean institution.

MASU Vice-Chancellor Professor Obert Maravanyika, said he was humbled by the gesture shown by Univen in offering to assist his institution through their educational curriculum support.

"We see this partnership as a beginning of a lifelong relationship and therefore we are saying that MASU, through the support of the stakeholders, will give the Thsivenda language the desired respect. This is because we recognise the language as a pillar of development and we are the only university teaching a language in its purest form," he said.

The Venda language, which is also largely being a spoken in Beitbridge, has for years been sidelined in the neighbouring country’s education curricula, as it was only taught up to grade three level. However, other local languages such as Shona and Ndebele are taught up to university level.

Mr Ntshavheni Smutha Ndou, of the local Venda Promotion Association, said the last time Tshivenda was taught was at Grade 8 level in 1965 during the then Rhodesia era.

"Our worry is that today we have some local Venda children who are unable to speak fluent Venda, let alone write it," he said.