Daily News

2 April 2012

David Coltart, the smaller MDC faction’s legal secretary says President Robert Mugabe’s insistence on elections this year without reforms is a blunder he will live to regret.

Coltart was speaking at a discussion on “Elections and costs in Zimbabwe this year” last week where he said holding of elections would only be possible after the necessary reforms and GPA.

“The political party that is going to force through this election will most likely alienate itself from very powerful leaders in the region and donors who have invested political capital to make sure some normalcy returns to this country.

“We will be literally slapping the African Union, Sadc and President Zuma who have invested and taken a lot of strain in trying to convince these organisations. The UNDP has sunk in millions of dollars to drive this process,” said Coltart.

He said he did not see any of the MDC formations participating in a sham election and that the only parties that would likely take part would be Zanu PF and some “stooge parties and whoever forces this election will incur frightening political costs.

“There is a cost to Zanu PF because an election is most likely to cause divisions within the party because they have no consensus within that party to the holding of elections this year.

“It will be a huge political cost that could be Zanu PF’s biggest undoing and may result in the creation of two separate political entities. Mugabe cannot afford any more divisions over failure to consult with a view of going ahead with elections,” Coltart said.

He added that another cost will be political stalemate while sanctions will get tightened. The little legitimacy that Zanu PF had in 2008 will be eroded.

MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora agreed with Coltart saying Mugabe wanted a quick exit from this presidency because it was an international embarrassment.

“Mugabe was not elected in 2008 and he knows it. He has met with young democratically elected leaders over the past four years and its humiliating him.”

“But we are saying if Zanu PF is genuine about elections this year, why don’t we just agree on the modalities of a free and fair poll then hold elections tomorrow — open up the airwaves, repeal oppressive legislation and reconstitute the electoral commission,” Mwonzora said.

Zanu PF’s representative at the discussion Goodson Nguni said Zuma or Sadc will not tell his party on what to do.

“Read my lips, you will not see more of Lindiwe Zulu (Zuma’s political advisor) here much more and Zuma will not be telling us what to do with our country anymore.

“The president of Zanu PF and the country’s head of state has categorically stated that he would pull our party out of the GNU because we are tired of working with imperialist stooges and the people of Zimbabwe will be the final arbiters on who they want to rule them. We must afford them that chance this year,” Nguni said.

Coltart said Zimbabwe did not have the money to fund elections this year and Zanu PF would probably have to fork out money to fund the plebiscite.

“We cannot print anymore money, that era is over. Now we have to spend hard cash and I can speak with a degree of certainty that our capital account is in the red.

“The country may have to forgo social delivery services like education which is already compromised to fund elections,” Coltart said.

The Chronicle 

2 April 2012

Virginity testing in schools is contrary to the Government policy and heads that do that will be subjected to disciplinary procedure, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said yesterday.

Responding to reports of virginity testing at Tsetse Primary School in West Acre, Minister Coltart said schools had no right to unilaterally sanction such tests.

The minister’s remarks come at a time when villagers and school officials are already at each other’s throats over the matter.

“We certainly do not condone virginity testing in schools as that is contrary to Government policy. Any teacher who does that would be subjected to disciplinary procedure.

“Headmasters do not have a right to make decisions of that nature. Matters of health about the child should be handled with the full consent of the parents,” said Minister Coltart in a telephone interview.

“In matters like these, no matter how well intentioned the school heads might be, they should not do it on their own. It is fundamentally wrong to do so.

“If there are any allegations of rape, the head should work closely with parents to decide on the issue. Parents have a right also to approach our district, provincial and national offices, even myself if they have problems over these issues.” Minister Coltart said he was going to liaise with Bulawayo provincial education director Mr Dan Moyo to produce a report of what transpired at the school.

Mr Moyo on Sunday said he was not aware of the issue.

Contacted for comment Childline Bulawayo officer Mrs Mlala also condemned virginity testing at the school and distanced her organisation from it.

“Those people did their exercise alone and as Childline we were not involved. We were not part of the programme. Those are some of the things that we condemn and we do not know how our name is linked to that. Thank you,” said Mrs Mlala before dropping the phone.

Allegations are that sometime at the end of February, Tsetse Primary officials invited some medical practitioners from Nyamandlovu to examine all Grade Seven pupils at the school.

According to the school’s development committee chairman Mr Mandson Tshuma, the tests were conducted after discovering that there were many reports of child physical and sexual abuse in the community.

Although the school authorities feel there is nothing wrong with the exercise, which was meant to expose perpetrators of child abuse, some villagers feel the act was meant to embarrass their children.

The parents alleged that their children were stripped naked in front of their male counterparts while male nurses examined their private parts.

They also said they were not consulted over the issue and described the move as a form of abuse.
Tsetse Primary is situated at Kllspring Farm in West Acre, about 27km from Bulawayo along Bulawayo-Plumtree Road.

The school was opened in 2005 and has an enrolment of 245 pupils and seven teachers including the head.

• Looks as if Senegal is going to peacefully replace their President. ZANU PF needs to realise that Africa is changing and becoming democratic #
• Thanks to all the MDC MPs who gave me great moral support in Parliament this evening when I responded to the allegations re unicef textbooks #
• UK Zims urged to support ‘Cheetahs’ at Twickenham http://t.co/FXA5me5e Hope all Zims in London will support them including my family #
• Textbooks donated by British aid to Zimbabwe end up in hawkers' hands – Telegraph http://t.co/xmRj1lHF But numbers stolen are few relatively #
• Stormers you beauties!!! – Stormers 20, Bulls 17. Only team unbeaten in SupeRugby #
• Elections in Zimbabwe in 2012 will divert resources away from feeding people who are starving http://t.co/t3bBOiro #

The Herald

By Felex Share

31 March 2012

Government owes the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council US$1,9 million, which has seen the body fail­ing to pay last year’s Ordinary and Advanced Level markers.

Markers say the situation will affect future examinations as a lot of people were “continuously” losing faith in Zimsec.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart, yesterday said Treasury did not release money for the running of last year’s Grade Seven examinations, forcing Zimsec to divert “reserved” money to fund the exams.

Zimsec does not charge pupils fees for Grade Seven examinations.

Minister Coltart said this created cash flow problems at the examination body as some of the money Zimsec had budgeted was for paying markers.

Zimsec diverted the money in antic­ipation that Government would release money for Grade Seven exami­nations.

The markers were supposed to be paid between 90 cents and US$1,20 per script marked.

Markers were expecting between US$600 and US$700 but only got about US$300.

Said Minister Coltart: “The Gov­ernment policy is that Grade Seven examinations are for free.

“That cost has to be paid by Gov­ernment but it is unfortunate the Min­istry of Finance did not release US$1,9 million for the running of these exam­inations.

“This meant that Zimsec had to look for other alternatives, which they did by taking their own revenue to ensure the examinations progress smoothly.”

Minister Coltart said he had written to Finance Minister Tendai Biti over the issue but he was still to respond.

“I wrote to him (Biti) two weeks ago asking him to release the money in respect of the Grade Seven examina­tions but he has not communicated his position, probably because of engage­ments as he is currently in Brazil,” he said.

“It is our hope that Treasury would give an ear to this genuine concern because this is part of the money, which will be used to settle the mark­ers’ dues.”

The markers were supposed to be fully paid seven days after finishing marking in January this year.

Zimsec has since sent letters of apol­ogy to the markers, advising them they will be paid “soon”.

“Who will volunteer to go and work for free next time.

“We thought things were getting back on track in the edu­cation sector but it seems we are going down the drain,” said one maker, who preferred anonymity.

“They might think they have processed examinations smoothly but they are going to have problems when they invite markers next time.”

Some said the move was inconve­niencing teachers who dedicated their time to marking the examinations.

“What pained us is that the terms of the contract Zimsec has breached were never set in consultation with the markers,” said another marker.

“We were patriotic enough to agree to those terms thinking that Zimsec would honour them but we are now realising that we were tricked.”

Zimsec public relations manager Mr Ezekiel Pasipamire said the insti­tution had communicated with the markers.

New Zimbabwe

31 March 2012

Education Minister, David Coltart said Friday it is investigating how school text books donated by the U.N. children’s agency wind up in the hands of bookstores and street vendors.

The United Nations Children’s Fund has supplied 22 million books since late 2010 after a decade of economic meltdown that left many schools without teaching materials. In some schools, scores of pupils had shared a single book.

Coltart said Friday that culprits behind the theft and sale of books – officially the property of government schools – will be prosecuted.

The books, stamped and identifiable, sell for up to $10 on the street or $20 in a bookstore. A main teachers union says teachers may be stealing them to make up for poor salaries of about $220 a month.

Coltart said the donated books became the responsibility of individual schools across the country.

The joint schools program with UNICEF ended acute shortages of books and made Zimbabwe the only country in Africa with an estimated ratio of one book for each pupil, Coltart said in a statement.

The books were stamped with UNICEF and education ministry emblems and the legend “Not For Sale.” Each delivery was signed for and accounted for by principals at registered state schools.

Coltart said a likely market for stolen books was among unregistered and informal schools.

The Progressive Teachers Union says it has confiscated scores of books from street vendors and believes thousands more are being sold illegally.

The Patriot

By Mashingaidze Gomo

30 March – 5 April

The Coltart story in The Herald issues of March 21 and 22 makes interesting reading.

Under the Education Transition Fund, UNICEF sponsored Zimbabwean schools with textbooks to the commendable ratio of one book per student.

The tender to supply the books was awarded to Longman Zimbabwe.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Sports and Culture alleged tender procedures were flouted because Longman Zimbabwe turns out to be a mere front for Longman International (UK).

Coltart denies involvement and in his defence, UNICEF claim they followed their own procedures and preferred the UK front over local companies.

Asi kuhwanda nemunwe, because the bottom-line remains that in a supposed act of goodwill to Zimbabweans, it is awkward that alien procedure that does not benefit them should take precedence over local procedure that can benefit them.

In this respect, I have found it necessary to go back to an observation I made in an earlier submission that at the formation of the MDC in 1999, the Rhodesian appointments of: Coltart for legal adviser, Eddie Cross for policy chief and Bennett for treasurer, spoke of ‘massive handholding’ of a myopic Tsvangirai, that left nothing to chance in pursuit of regime change.

It was a brazen claim of ownership of the MDC project by the West.

Today, I feel the Coltart scandal has just vindicated me.

I have come across the textbooks given to secondary school students and every one of them has been prefaced and signed by Coltart.

The preface reads:

“This textbook is a gift from Zimbabwe’s friends in the international community which include (in alphabetical order): Australia, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Through the generosity of these countries and our ability to work together in the education transition fund (established by the ministry of education, sports and culture in September 2009), we have already over seventeen (17) million textbooks to all primary schools. It is now the turn of secondary schools and several million textbooks like this one are being distributed countrywide to schools.

“…The future of Zimbabwe depends on your generation. My hope is that the provision of this textbook will inspire you to study hard and through that you will play a significant role in transforming Zimbabwe into the jewel of Africa .

“Senator David Coltart

Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture

July 2011.”

And, it is important to note that Australia, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and USA are the bloc of countries that unilaterally imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe in a bid that contests black empowerment through equitable redistribution of the country’s resources in a manner that reflects black majority rule.

In essence the bloc is contesting the legitimacy of African sovereignty and the country’s future as represented by black children.

One critical principle informing the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the current Government of National Unity (GNU) was the global recognition that there are sanctions against Zimbabwe, that the sanctions are illegal and that they must go because they interfere with our sovereignty and are detrimental to the development of Zimbabwe.

The recognition was also an unambiguous identification of Zimbabwe’s enemies as those who imposed the sanctions and are even as I write this statement refusing to remove them.

Three years after the GPA, the sanctions have conversely been widened (by these ‘friends’) to include the country’s diamonds with the intention of hamstringing Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.

And, the painful irony of the thing is that the ‘honourable’ Coltart became minister in the Government of National Unity courtesy of the tragedy created by those sanctions.

In that light, Coltart’s preface irrefutably comes across as a very surreptitious regime change agenda, which the nation should not take lightly.

Education constitutes first line defence of any nation.

The nation’s classrooms are in essence its briefing rooms.

It is through education that a nation plans what it wants to be.

And, the tragedy unfolding right before our eyes is that we have entrusted that critical task to an enemy agent, and the brief they are getting is that our enemies are their saviours!

Our children are being instructed to show gratitude to those who hate us (their parents); those whose illegal unilateral sanctions are making it impossible for us to meet their educational needs and to choose what we want them to be as informed by our bitter colonial experience.

And, while what I am suggesting might be viewed by some to be mweya wechinya, the truth of the matter is that it is not.

I am actually invoking the same principle that legally binds all manufacturers of tobacco to warn those, who enjoy smoking that: ‘Smoking is hazardous to health’.

The only difference is that we are here talking of an ideological hazard, with the long term capacity to destroy the whole nation.

In that light, it indeed becomes imperative that Coltart’s preface should tell our children that our capacity to buy them textbooks on our own has been interfered with by the same people, who are now coming to them as angels.

Honesty must prevail on him to also tell the black beneficiaries of this textbook gesture that it is coming from people who wish their parents ill.

It is indeed perfectly within our cultural rights to expect this strange custodian of our culture to also warn our children kuti: Zino irema, rinosekera warisingadi. Or,kuti itsitsi dzeyi tsvimborume kubvisa mwana wemvana madziwa?

And, as a lawyer, professionally bound to tell ‘the truth and nothing but the truth’, the ‘self-proclaimed Rhodesian liberal’ must also put it on record that the nationalist Zimbabwean Government’s commitment to the education of Zimbabweans has an irrefutable precedent.

The first commitment of the nationalist government was to put in place an infrastructure that ensured free education for all black children whom he (Coltart) had helped to marginalise by force of arms. And, all the MDC fragments are predominantly led by beneficiaries of that free education.

And, in the instance of there being no way of proving Coltart’s involvement in awarding the textbook tender to Longman Zimbabwe, (fronting for Longman International — UK ), it must be conceded that the preface on the textbooks certainly leaves his credibility on slippery ground.

The long and short of the issue is that Europe and North America are in dire economic recession and are looking outside for solutions to recover.

They have already occupied Libya for its oil and are using it to cushion the austerity of their own recovery measures.

It is the Libyans, who are now bearing the austerity for them. And, when you come to think of it, it is consistent with the historical trend in which Africans have traditionally borne all European economic austerity measures from slavery to space age.

In the case of Zimbabwe, those who contributed to the Education Transition Fund could simply not countenance a situation where Zimbabwean companies benefited from the arrangement.

They made the business benefit their own kith and kin in Europe.

And, as a parting shot, I would like to insist that it is imperative for Zimbabweans not to rely on the sweet ‘charity’ words of our enemies for truth.

Let us read the ground around them for the real truths.

Let us go back to Chitepo’s warning that the Rhodesian settler ‘…can and truly should be looked upon really as the immediate local agents of a huge international capitalistic manoeuvre to control and continue to exploit the resources of Zimbabwe in which they include ourselves.’ Coltart has just proven that, and we do not need a ZINATHA prophecy to tell us how MDC would help the West to loot our wealth.

Coltart is already showing the way!

Coltart’s preface is a regime change suggestion or regime change investment in our children and it is not far-fetched to read it this way:

‘The future of Zimbabwe depends on you, the generation sponsored by those, who sanctioned your parents. My hope is that the provision of this textbook will inspire you to study hard and through that you will play a significant role in regime change.’

In the Western world that sponsors Coltart, that is how it would be read, and he would have been asked to resign.

If he had prefaced all textbooks in British public schools with a message of gratitude to British friends from Iran or Kaddafi’s Libya, he would have been jailed.

This is true!

The Telegraph

By Aislinn Laing

30 March 2012

Textbooks donated to Zimbabwe’s schools aided by British funding are being hawked on Harare’s streets, it has emerged, as Britain pledges another £23m for the country’s stricken education sector.

Some 22 million books have been distributed to more than 3,000 schools since the UN-run programme was launched in September 2010, bringing the pupil to textbook ratio from 10:1 to 1:1.

Such was their value that those delivering the books were only paid once head teachers had confirmed their arrival, and each school was given steel cabinets to guard against theft.

Nonetheless, hundreds, many still with the stamp of the schools they came from along with the Unicef logo, have turned up in the hands of street vendors who are selling them for around half their market value at £6 each.

Raymond Majongwe, Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union, said that education officials and teachers seeking to supplement their “meagre” incomes were most likely to blame – teachers in Zimbabwe are paid little more than £180 a month.

“We are seeking the help of law enforcement agencies to confiscate books from vendors but quite a sizeable chunk of books are still on the streets of Harare and many other towns,” he said.

Textbook hawkers interviewed by The Herald newspaper said they obtained the books from “education officials” or claimed they were salespersons for “big people”.

“This is not our problem. I buy them for $3 or $4 from my suppliers. I do not know where they get them,” said one.

Britain contributed £5.6 million towards the textbook funding. On top of that it has pledged a further £23m towards training teachers, improving water and sanitation in schools and giving children who dropped out a “second chance” to get an education.

It forms part of an annual £88 million of average funding to Zimbabwe each year. Many have questioned Britain’s commitment to its aid budget which despite other swingeing cuts will rise by more than a third to £10.6 billion in 2014/15.

Chris Heaton-Harris, a member of the Public Accounts Committee which recently raised concerns about “hit and miss” educational aid spending, said the Department for International Development needed to be more demanding about accountability from its partners.

“The issue is that contracting the distribution of aid money out to third parties also results in the contracting out of the checks and balances you would expect to have in place when using tax payers’ money,” he said.

Mr Majongwe said Britons had every right to question where their money was going but that a few “bad apples” should not be allowed to ruin a good system.

“We are coming from a war situation and dealing with people with an insatiable appetite for money but we are dealing with these blockages and correcting our weaknesses to bring Zimbabwe’s great education system off its knees,” he said. “We can’t do it without help.” David Coltart, the Education Minister from Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, in a shaky coalition with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, said that the numbers of stolen textbooks was a “drop in the ocean” compared to the numbers in schools.

He suggested that Zanu PF had flagged the story to undermine the gains made.

“It’s deeply embarrassing to elements in Zanu PF that the British government is helping health and education because it goes against their propaganda that British sanctions are damaging Zimbabwe and that Britain is hostile towards us,” he said.

He said that foreign aid had helped the schools system improve “dramatically”.

A spokesman for DFID said it was aware of the allegations and was awaiting for the outcome of the Unicef investigation before taking action.

“The UK has tough safeguards in place to protect its funding, making sure our education support in Zimbabwe directly helps millions of children,” he added.

Newsday

29 March 2012

Zanu PF supporters on Wednesday turned President Robert Mugabe’s launch of a government e-learning programme at Chogugudza Primary School in Domboshava into a party event, turning up clad in their party regalia and chanting praise songs for the 88-year-old party leader.

MDC-T national organising secretary and Information Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa, who also officiated at the event, objected to this and said such behaviour provoked and alienated other political parties taking part at such events.

The e-learning programme is a joint project administered by Mugabe, Chamisa and David Coltart’s Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“We are in an inclusive government and I am excited I am here to celebrate the significance of successfully delivering education to our children,” Chamisa said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Mugabe said: “We want to build a legacy. We will not live forever and we should live wise people. You heard him (Chamisa) say he got to where he is because of the education system that was there.”

The Zanu PF leader later donated 10 computers each to 20 schools in Mashonaland East Province.

On Monday, MDC-T sources accused Mugabe of hijacking the project from Chamisa.

But Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba dismissed the allegations, saying his boss had initiated the programme by doling out thousands of computers throughout the country’s schools 10 years ago.

The launch was attended by Mashonaland East governor Aeneas Chigwedere and Cabinet ministers from Zanu PF and the MDC formations.

By Felex Share

28 March 2012

Government and its development partners yesterday signed a U$38 million agreement under the Education Transition Fund Phase II. The funds, provided by UKAid, are expected to enhance and improve governance systems and training of teachers.

Unicef, working with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, will manage the fund for the next four years. The agreement comes at a time Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart yesterday said his ministry had engaged the Ministry of Home Affairs to curb illegal selling of textbooks donated to Government.

Minister Coltart said Government will not hesitate to punish provincial and district education officers and headmasters who might have diverted the textbooks. “I have talked to the Home Affairs Ministry and they said they would soon give a directive to the Zimbabwe Republic Police such that they launch a blitz on the vendors,” he said.

Minister Coltart said the vendors will be quizzed to reveal their sources.

“If this continues, we would destroy the education sector which we have been building for many years.”

He said transporters of the textbooks were paid once confirmation of receipt of the delivery of all books was provided by each school.

He said upon delivery, all school authorities were instructed to ensure appropriate stamping and identification of the books to keep the books protected from illegal sales.

Steel cabinets were also provided to the schools to ensure safekeeping of the books. “My permanent secretary will issue a directive to all education directors at provincial level down to the headmasters telling them of their responsibilities.  “Anyone found on the wrong side of the law will face the full wrath of the law.”

Thousands of the 22 million textbooks donated to schools under the ETF Phase 1 have flooded the informal market with reports that some officials involved in the distribution exercise diverted them for their personal gain.

Minister Coltart said the agreement signed yesterday will have a “huge impact” on Zimbabwe’s education.  “This phase is broader in scope as it covers a lot of strategic areas,” he said.  “The funds will also help in the finalisation of a national sector planning framework for education, the development of a national school grants initiative and train key ministry personnel.”

He said the facility will also introduce second chance programmes to school drop outs.  “This provides all children with equal opportunity that can transform their future,” he said.

Head of UKAid in Zimbabwe Mr Dave Fish said this was a country of “massive potential”.

“Its natural human resources are so great that if used for the benefit of all the people there would soon be no need for external donors.” He said governments should give children the necessary support to develop as they are the future of any nation.