SW Radio Africa

12 July 2012

Recently Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere caused a major panic when he said schools were to be indigenised, meaning they had to hand over 51% of their shares.

The new regulations to take over private schools were published in a notice in the Government Gazette last week.

But now Minister of Education David Coltart has said he has reached an agreement with Kasukuwere: Writing on his Facebook page he said: “I am pleased to report that I had a very constructive discussion with (Empowerment) Minister Saviour Kasukuwere this (Wednesday) evening regarding the Indigenisation notice recently issued.”

“We are agreed that the rights contained in section 20(3) of the Constitution, namely the right of religious and other groups to set up and run schools, will be fully respected by Government.

“Accordingly all mission, church, religious, community and trust schools run not for profit will not be subject to any indigenisation policy.”

Coltart also posted on Facebook a statement by Kasukuwere saying: “Sen David Coltart and I had a discussion around the General Notice, specifically on the education sector. In our engagement with him we advised that the instrument had at no point talked about Trust schools, Religious/Christian schools and Community. The Notice was specific to companies engaged in education as a profit making venture. I am happy that the law is clear and was always clear. I appeal to fellow citizens to read the notice and satisfy ourselves so that distortions are minimized.”

So Kawukuwere appears to be blaming people for not reading the notice correctly, by pointing out that the indigenisation regulations only affect anyone who is trying to make a profit out of an entity.

In most nations, forcing someone to hand over half of a profitable company is called theft.

Zimbabwe’s Education Minister formally launched a £12 million investment in girls’  education on Wednesday that will enable 24,000 girls from the poorest rural families to enrol in and complete secondary school.

The investment from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) represents a major achievement for Camfed, which began in Zimbabwe in 1993 by supporting just 32 girls in two districts. The latest investment allows Camfed to provide four times as many secondary school bursaries as it currently offers and will increase its reach to 28 districts.

“We are so excited by this investment from DFID, it allows us to realise our potential,” Executive Director and former Camfed bursary recipient Angeline Murimirwa said in an address to guests at Chifamba High School in Guruve District.

“It allows us to utilise the huge capacity and commitment existent in the national, district and community partners with whom we work. It gives us the chance to transform the opportunities for a generation of girls today… and not ask them to wait for another year, decade or century.”

Minister of Education, Sport, Arts & Culture, Senator David Coltart, told the audience: “It is recognised universally that educating the girl child is one of the most important requirements for promoting sustainable development and economic progress.”

He added: “The Government of Zimbabwe has limited resources and because of this our education programmes to ensure equality and excellence in education are restricted. It is in this context that the work Camfed does is so critical and we are delighted that DFID has provided the generous support it has to guarantee that the good work Camfed has done in the past will continue.”

Since its launch in Zimbabwe in 1993, Camfed has helped to secure a better quality education for almost 2 million children in five countries. Girls supported through Camfed bursaries have gone on to become lawyers, teachers, doctors and businesswomen.

To read some of the Camfed speeches made at the launch, click here: ZimBursarySpeechAM ZimBursarySpeechBM

The DFID investment complements its recent $38m contribution to the second phase of Zimbabwe’s Education Transition Fund, which supplies books and other materials to schools. For further details on DFID’s work in Zimbabwe see http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Africa-Eastern–Southern/Zimbabwe/

The Sunday News

9 July 2012

WITH close to a 100 percent literacy rate and being number one in Africa, Zimbabwe has achieved a milestone in the field of education.

The nation is undoubtedly the envy of many in the region. because of the importance the nation attaches to education many parents invest so much towards ensuring that their children receive the best tutorials money can buy. Children just have to pass because this is the only license to progress. This development has seen some hungry but enterprising teachers organising private tutorials and charging an arm and a leg from parents.

What has been unsettling to most parents have been the fact that some of the teachers mobilised whole classes from boarding schools and brought them into the city for the holiday lessons. Being the class teachers, all the students obliged because there was the risk that the teacher would not go back to the topic come opening of schools. This was real ransom and parents had no choice but to pay.

This is a teacher who deliberately does not finish the syllabus and capitalises on this to make a killing through holiday lessons.

In yesterday’s issue of our sister paper Saturday Chronicle Government announced that it was working on prosecuting teachers who conduct private lessons at a fee in a bid to protect parents and guardians from such unscrupulous educators.

“The tendency in the past has been that teachers would spend much energy conducting private lessons for a fee at the expense of formal lessons in the classroom,” the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr David Coltart, said.

We welcome this development and urge the Government to translate its threats into real action. Over the years several pronouncements and threats to take action on headmasters who sent students home for non-payment of fees have been made but no tangible action was taken. Mr Coltart would order heads of schools not to send children home and before the ink of his threats dried children would be returning home on the opening day. This scenario left many wondering who runs the Ministry of Education — the Minister and his permanent secretary, provincial education  directors, education officers or the headmasters.

The war of words between Zimbabwe’s Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Central Bank chief Gideon Gono over the transfer of majority bank shares to local blacks has escalated, exposing fissures and policy discord in the shaky coalition government.

Voice of America reports that the spat between the two intensified in the past few days after Kasukuwere gazetted a notice last Friday targeting foreign banks for indigenization. The financial institutions were given one year to comply with the law.

Gono said in a statement the notice is null and void. The central bank governor said Kasukuwere, a shareholder in the collapsed Genesis Investment Bank, “is not a fit and proper person to deal with banks having been involved with the failed indigenous bank”.

Gono, backed by Finance Minister Tenda Biti, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Education Minister David Coltart, says Kasukuwere is acting unlawfully.

The empowerment minister hit back Thursday in a Facebook entry accusing Gono of being “immature”. He said there was no going back on the indigenization of the financial sector.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Harare of the destabilizing effects of tinkering with the financial sector.

But Kasukuwere’s legal adviser Psychology Mazivisa said there is no going back on the empowerment program, adding his ministry is simply following the law.

Parliamentary budget and finance committee chairman Paddington Zhanda said Gono is misleading the nation as Kasukuwere is simply implementing the law, good or bad.

Independent  economic consultant Luxson Zembe said Harare must exercise caution on indigenizing foreign-owned banks.

• The things I love about Zimbabwe – great opinion piece by Vine Musewe http://t.co/RfMwnmue #
• We need a transparent national debate regarding developments at Mana Pools. See my posts on FB. We must protect this national jewel. #
• Zimbabwe set to become one of the fastest growing economies http://t.co/WG7BQF8d – that is so long as we can bring sanity to our policies #
• ESPN: "Chris Gayle's scores since his international return: 53, 2 , 85*, 53, 63*, 50*" Well done he is almost as good as Hamilton Masakadza! #
• Hamilton Masakadza this year: v NZ 53, 62, v Bangladesh 14, 102*, 62, 56, v SA 55, 36 and 58*. Come on ESPN that is better than Gayle! #
• Strength to the collective arms of Bosso as they take on Caps United this afternoon. I know I am meant to be neutral but so be it! #
• Zimbabwe Minister, Central Bank Chief Spar Over Indigenization of Banks http://t.co/8TJY5pmv #
• Off to Barbourfields to watch Bosso take on Caps United. Go Bosso! Let's get this championship all sown up. #

The Chronicle

By Freedom Mupanedemo

6 July 2012

GOVERNMENT is working on prosecuting teachers who conduct private lessons at a fee in a bid to protect parents and guardians from such unscrupulous educators, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, said.

In an interview on Thursday, Minister Coltart said the ministry was concerned with the high number of private tutorships in the country.

He said the development was compromising the teachers’ work rate in the formal classroom.

“As the responsible ministry, we want teachers to exhaust their energy in the formal classroom teaching rather than conduct private lessons. This makes life very difficult for parents and guardians by charging exorbitant fees,” said Minister Coltart.

“The tendency in the past has been that teachers would spend much energy conducting private lessons for a fee at the expense of formal lessons in the classroom.”

The minister’s remarks came amid revelations that his ministry had launched a clampdown on unregistered private colleges and individual teachers who were conducting private lessons while demanding huge sums of money from guardians and parents.

Minister Coltart said his ministry would, however, not bar teachers from conducting “genuine” extra lessons meant to benefit pupils.

“The problem is that there are some who have turned extra lessons into a business. The ministry will, however, not bar teachers from conducting genuine extra lessons where they do not charge anything. We want to protect parents from paying money for these so called private lessons,” he said.

Minister Coltart said the clamp down on commercial private lessons and unregistered private colleges was a national programme meant to flush out all corrupt teachers and unregistered private colleges which “are ripping-off parents and guardians”.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officials in the Midlands province have closed down a number of unregistered private colleges as part of the ongoing clampdown.

A number of teachers conducting private lessons in their homes have also been netted.

“All the teachers and unregistered private colleges which have been forced to close operations have been operating in breach of Section 42 of the Education Act,” said an official.

He said those found conducting unsanctioned private lessons would be reported to the police.

Some of the private colleges that have so far been closed in Gweru include New Era College, A Plus Academy and Pinnacle College.

“For some time, I have been concerned about what I perceive as an inequitable distribution of international sporting fixtures in Zimbabwe. For example, the Warriors have not played outside of Harare for some time, thus depriving football supporters throughout Zimbabwe of the opportunity to watch the national team.”

With these words David Coltart, the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, directed the Sports and Recreation Commission to stage national soccer matches outside Harare. My spontaneous reaction as I came across this was – Bravo Mr Coltart! Having lived in Johannesburg for the past four years, I have seen South African national teams, including the senior men’s national side, play in all provinces.

I have travelled to the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit and Durban’s Moses Mabhida, flown to the Cape Town Stadium in the Mother City and the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to watch Bafana Bafana in action, recognising the importance of all supporters. The gesture by the South African Football Association to decentralise the national teams has made it appeal to every South African. When the team wins, the whole country celebrates, and when it loses, the feeling of despair engulfs the whole of South Africa.

Someone has at last awakened the supreme sporting body to the fact that a fan living at Number 4 in the hot mining town of Hwange, Mkoba in Gweru, Makokoba in Bulawayo, Mhlotshana in Victoria Falls and Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge is as important as their counterpart in Mbare/Msika, Harare.

This will not power the Warriors above Spain in terms of performance, but will make them resonate with every soccer fan’s mind and make them truly national. A child from Binga’s Siabuwa is very eager to see Knowledge Musona turn defenders inside-out at the Colliery Stadium, just as one from Luveve would love to be sent in frenzy as Khama Billiat rattles the nets in national team colours at Barbourfields Stadium.

There are many Zimbabwean adults who never got the opportunity to watch Peter Ndlovu in action in his international career that spanned 15 years and saw him bang in more than 30 goals, yet they wished to. It is also beyond debate that most Zimbabweans, especially in the western region, would rather identify with Bafana Bafana than the Warriors because they feel shunned.

This is a negative that Coltart’s directive, if followed, will effectively address. Some businessmen outside Harare do not find reason to sponsor the national team because they stand to gain no mileage from its games if they continue to be played only in Harare, away from the target markets. Development of not only soccer stadia, but the road network and hospitality infrastructure in the provinces will also follow.

It boggles the mind why the SRC has not seen this before. Comically, when the Warriors lost 0-1 to Guinea in a World Cup qualifier this year, the National Sports Stadium turf was criticised, yet this same could have been avoided by shifting the game to another venue.