The school was founded by a group of prominent individuals of both European and African races and both sexes to be a leading high school for African boys though it had been set up with the view of it becoming a multiracial international school., and it was so in the early days. However Bernard Mizeki College did not achieve inter-racial enrollment because the demand for high school places amongst Africans was quite huge while the number of schools which could take them up was extremely low hence the school tended to concentrate on enrolling Africans only. The school is affiliated to the Anglican Church but is an independent school, not diocesan.
The founders had seen the winds of change sweeping across Africa and felt they had to provide high quality education, equivalent to what Europeans were receiving, for the future leaders of an independent Rhodesia. The whole idea behind the school was to bring up well-rounded African leaders in areas of industry, business, education, medicine, law, military and politics. Rt. Reverend Cecil Alderson, like his predecessor Bishop Edward Paget, realised the need for a senior college for Africans had become increasingly urgent, and within a few weeks of his translation from the Bloemfontein Diocese, Bishop Alderson began to investigate ways of meeting it. At the same time Canon Robert Grinham had been working to see the existence of schools for Africans whose facilities equaled or approximated to those of Ruzawi, Springvale and Peterhouse. To this end he devoted his energies after his retirement from Springvale.[26] A steering committee of interested persons was then found under the chairmanship of the Bishop of Mashonaland. With the consent of the trustees of the Diocese of Mashonaland, the land belonging to and adjacent to St Bernard’s Mission was taken over.
The Rt Rev Cecil Alderson, then Bishop of Mashonaland and Canon Robert Grinham, raised one hundred British pounds with which they formed the Bernard Mizeki Schools Trust which was then mandated to establish schools. The trust deed was prepared at Honey and Blackenberg and registered in 1959 while another trust with the same name was registered in the United Kingdom in July 1962 under trust number 313889.[3] A pledge of forty thousand pounds was then made to Bishop Alderson at the Lambeth Conference in London so that the project could be realized. A significant chunk of that money is believed to have come from the Beit Trust and then anonymous individuals well wishers banks and corporates. Thus Bernard Mizeki College was established on two thousand acres of land known as Bovey Tracey Estate ten miles north East of Marondera Town. The estate and surrounding areas had been surveyed and demarcated by a Mr Greathead in December 1899[4] the estate was then handed to the Church of England and a small school for African boys was established as St Bernards Mission, which later was taken over by the trust with the consent of the Board of governors .The Bernard Mizeki Schools Trust cited as its core objective “To educate pupils in a liberal manner not limited by vocational or examination requirements, with the aim in particular of developing in such pupils the qualities of character and leadership”. At the request of Sir Humphrey Gibbs the founders modeled Bernard Mizeki College on Eton College in the United Kingdom and other private European schools in South Africa and the then Rhodesia.
Architectural designs and a master plan of the school were done by John Vigour in 1959.[5] The actual construction of the College started in 1960 with the arrival Bruce Berrington, together with some artisans who had built Peterhouse. The school was sited amidst brachystegia woodland, a bird-watcher’s paradise, and among the baboon and dassie inhabited granite bouldered kopjes that are so typical of Zimbabwe. This had been the site of St Bernards School since 1891.[6] The first hostel to be completed was Kamungu hostel in 1960 followed by Molele Hostel in 1961. The headmaster’s lodge was the house next to Kamungu hostel before the other staff houses were completed. In those days the current library served as the dining hall and chapel
The school was intended to appeal to the upper African class and charged fees three to four times higher than ordinary mission schools. The first head to be appointed, Peter Holmes Canham a civil servant, came from British West Africa (Ghana). Canham was described as a passionate and charismatic figure eccentric with a fiery, if short-lived, temper. Canham arrived in September 1960 to take up the headship of the College. Upon the commencement of the construction of the College Canon David Neaum left St Bernards Mission for Chikwaka Mission protesting against the construction of the school due to what he considered as the importation of elitism into an Africa crying out for universal education, especially of girls, was iniquitous.[7] Unknown to him was the fact that the African Education Department had already offered another piece of Land near Mutare for a girls school on which now stands St Davids Bonda, the ministry had intentionally decided against making Bernard Mizeki College a co-education institution.
The college opened in January 1961 with 70 Form 1 boys in one Boarding House: Kamungu completed in 1960 followed by Molele completed in 1961. The Building Programme planned the addition of one boarding house every year and ancillary buildings to the completion in 1966 of a college for 420 boys from form 1 to Form 6 in 6 Boarding Houses. Bernard Mizeki Primary School came under the headmastership of Mr. G.F. Coney. After Mr. Coney left for New Zealand Mr. B. Witt became the headmaster of the primary school.
Though Peter Canham was very successful with the students and staff, Canham was always at loggerheads with the Executive Committee, chaired by F. R. Snell, because of the ever-rising costs of the schools activities. During the foundation years the schools income was derived from the Ministry of Educations, African Education Department(AED). The school provided accommodation, buildings, meals and even a sports programme as well as teaching staff mostly Oxford or Cambridge graduates. For a while the school provided horse riding golf out of country tours which increasingly troubled the Board as the school was financed with funds from private individuals, companies and school fees which stood at £120.