International

By Graham Howard

19^th March 2012

Graham Howard recounts his recent interview in Zimbabwe with the country’s minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Senator David Coltart. 

Senator David Coltart is the current minister of Education, Sport and Culture in the Zimbabwean coalition Government of National Unity (“GNU”) formed in 2008. Senator Coltart is a member of the Movement for Democratic Change party headed by Welshman Ncube (“MDC-N”). Prior to taking up his position in government, Senator Coltart practised law as a partner in the Bulawayo law firm Webb, Lowe and Barry. I recently interviewed Senator Coltart at his ministry in Harare.

David, delighted to see you again and thanks for agreeing to make time in your busy schedule to talk. As a starter question how would you describe the legal basis of the GNU and what is the General Political Agreement (“GPA”)? What is the role of the Southern African Development Community (“SADC”) in all this and how effective are these institutions?

Sen Coltart: The GPA is the so called “global political agreement” brokered by SADC to resolve the political impasse in Zimbabwe following the violent June 2008 presidential election. The GPA provisions were subsequently incorporated in Constitutional Amendment 19 of the Zimbabwean constitution which now governs the process, the powers of the GNU and its duration. The GPA is a fragile and imperfect arrangement but it has survived 3 years and will probably see Zimbabwe through to fresh elections to be conducted in terms of a new constitution.

Most people are aware that the GNU came about following hotly disputed and fiercely contested elections in 2008. We are now some years out from those days. I wonder whether you could recall how things were in Zimbabwe in 2008 especially with regard to the economy, human rights and the rule of law? In other words can you summarize the achievements of the GNU?

Sen Coltart: It is important when criticizing the GPA to recall what it has saved Zimbabwe from. 2008 saw the murder of some 400 political activists, the torture and detention of hundreds of others. At the same time Zimbabwe experienced hyper-inflation and the near total melt down of its economy. Thousands of Zimbabweans were forced into exile. Zimbabwe came very close to degenerating into a Somalia or Liberia and the GPA managed to pull the nation back from the brink. Zimbabwe’s economy, although still in poor shape, has stabilised – inflation is down to below 4% and the economy grew 9% last year. Schools and hospitals are open again and life is gradually improving. Human rights abuses have lessened dramatically.

What changes have you seen since 2008 in terms of general economic development and prosperity? In particular, why was the United States dollar introduced as the official currency and how successful has it been in countering inflation?

Sen Coltart: As mentioned above the economy has stabilised and is now starting to grow albeit off a very small base. The US$ was adopted because the Zimbabwean public lost complete faith in the Zimbabwe dollar.

The past 11 years have seen the dispossession of thousands of farmers from the land. What is the legal basis for the land grab and what are the implications for the rule of law in Zimbabwe? It is said that the government flouts SADC rulings and also Zimbabwe court rulings relating to such evictions. Is this the case and what does the future hold?

Sen Coltart: Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party will say that Constitutional Amendment 17 provides the legal basis for the often violent acquisition of land from white farmers. My view is that amendment 17 would not pass constitutional muster because it destroys one of the key pillars of any constitution, namely the right to due process. Zanu PF has flouted several rulings of the SADC tribunal which have challenged the constitutionality of the acquisition of land. Zanu PF has not had to worry in recent years about rulings handed down by our own courts because these courts are comprised of judges who themselves received land and their judgments have faithfully followed the Zanu PF line. Until there is a restoration of the rule of law and a return to constitutionality, this fundamental breach of the natural laws of justice will continue.

Extra judicial detention, beatings, police harassment, torture and other gross human rights violations are said to remain a feature of daily life in Zimbabwe. Is there any due process of law in terms of the investigation and resolution of these alleged issues. For example, is it still commonplace for state organs to ignore or flout the order of a judge?

Sen Coltart: As I have stated above, the incidence of human rights abuses have greatly decreased in the last 3 years but there are still ongoing cases of the abuse of the rule of law and serious human rights violations. Having said that there are some elements of due process left – there remains a strong legal profession and there are pockets of independently minded judges and magistrates. Generally law enforcement agents do not have to worry about judgments that they would have difficulty following because as stated above the judiciary is packed with judges who follow the Zanu PF party line. On the rare occasions where a judgment is handed down which does not follow the party line those judgments are usually complied with.

What level of cooperation is there between the different parties to the GNU at cabinet level, and what do you think the future holds in terms of such cooperation?

Sen Coltart: There is reasonable cooperation between the 3 parties which constitute the GNU especially on non-contentious issues. For example in education I have received good support from Zanu PF on certain aspects of the education policy I have implemented. However where the debate focuses on issues which go to the core of political power, such as the reformation of the army, there is little cooperation. As for the future – without the backing of SADC and South Africa in particular the GNU would have collapsed – as long as SADC remains firm we will see the process through despite these machinations.

How is life for lawyers in Zimbabwe these days and in particular what challenges are faced by human rights lawyers? To what extent does the separation of powers still exist in Zimbabwe?

Sen Coltart: Lawyers have had a very difficult time in the last decade. Their businesses have suffered greatly from hyperinflation. Legal practice has been difficult – on occasions lawyers themselves have been threatened and even detained simply for representing those who oppose Zanu PF. But the profession has played a very important role in defending the rule of law. There has been very little meaningful separation of powers in Zimbabwe for a long time – the executive has been all powerful and has dominated the legislature and judiciary, and has done all in its power to crush the fourth estate, namely the media.

What are the prospects for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe and how can such an outcome be achieved? What can the international community do in this regard? To what extent does Zimbabwe have an independent electoral commission?

Sen Coltart: If SADC stands firm we will have elections which should be markedly better than those held in Zimbabwe since 2000. However if SADC relents and allows Zanu PF to go ahead with an early election, before fundamental constitutional reforms have been implemented, then we will have another round of violent elections in which the will of the people will be ignored or subverted. The international community needs to insist that the GPA be allowed to follow its course and that all its provisions be implemented before an election is held. Zimbabwe’s election commission is more independent than it has ever been but it is still relatively weak and surrounded by powerful forces such as the police who are often brazenly partisan.

New Zimbabwe

19 March 2012

Zimbabwe faces a huge grain deficit this year after a third of the current maize crop was written off due to a prolonged dry spell, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said.

Made has halted maize sales from the country’s strategic grain reserves after a state crop assessment showed that a third of the 1.689 million hectares put under maize had been declared a write-off.

Although the production of the staple maize has rebounded from its low of 400,000 tonnes in 2007/08 to 1.35 million tonnes in 2010/11, the country still struggles to meet its annual grain consumption of nearly 2 million tonnes.

Zimbabwe is likely to resort to grain imports, although there were fears that regional suppliers South Africa, Zambia and Malawi may not be in a position to export.

“There are indications that our neighbouring countries are likely to have grain shortages. We are calling farmers to… see how much in terms of grain they are likely to deliver,” Made said.

Jonathan Chifuna, a senior forecaster with the Meteorological Services Department says the dry spell experienced in some parts of Zimbabwe since December was caused by tropical cyclone Erena which hit neighbouring Mozambique.

The worst hit areas are the Matabeleland South and North provinces, parts of the Midlands, parts of Manicaland and parts of Masvingo.

But in contrasting fortunes, some parts of the country including Harare, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central received more than average rainfall. Farmers in these provinces complained about too much rainfall which had turned their crops yellow due to sublingual watering.

Senator David Coltart (Khumalo), said: “We had great rain in large parts of Matabeleland last Friday, but the crops are gone. We need it to continue raining for ground water and cattle generally.”

Standard Newspaper

18 March 2012

A church service will be held on Tuesday in Bulawayo for Paul Chizuze, a human rights activist, who has been missing for almost six weeks. Chizuze was last seen on February 8 this year and close friends and colleagues say it was highly unlikely for him to disappear, raising fears that he may have been abducted.

Education minister, David Coltart, who in the past has worked closely with Chizuze, said they did not have any factual evidence regarding what may have happened to the activist, but their searches and campaigns have so far drawn a blank.

“It is not in his character to just disappear,” Coltart said. “As a human rights activist one fears that someone wanted to prevent him from speaking about something.”

Those wishing to attend the service have been asked to bring a candle, a Catholic church tradition, symbolising the shining of light where there’s darkness.

“It’s symbolic – we want to shed light where there’s darkness,” he said.

An extensive media and social media campaign was launched in the hope that this could yield results in the search for the missing activist, but this has so far not yielded anything.

Chizuze’s disappearance has raised concern as it has shades of the disappearance of another activist, Patrick Nabanyama 11 years ago.Nabanyama was Coltart’s aide during the 2000 elections and he has since been declared dead.

• Glasgow Celtic unbeaten in 26 domestic games this season – on course for the treble. Go Celtic you beauties – and Bosso please emulate! #
• Enjoyed spending time with Zimbabwe Diaspora Education Support Initiative folk yesterday in Johannesburg – thanks for a great meeting. #
• Taylor eyes Essex deal http://t.co/omqJRPTl via @newsdayzimbabwe Well done Brendan – I hope this comes off – Essex will be the richer for it #
• Interesting development in Zim with allegation that 2 zanu pf cabinet ministers caught up in parliamentary fraud scandal; impunity or not? #
• It is raining in Harare but oh my goodness how we need that in the south of Zimbabwe as well. The crops are gone but we still need water. #
• We launched the 2012 Zimbabwe Open Golf Championships at Royal Harare this evening to be held in April. Great it has been resuscitated. #
• It is now 5 weeks since my great friend and colleague Paul Chizuze disappeared. We need the press and police to do more to find him. #
• Who Pays When Private Schools Close?: http://t.co/OiEX6Jal via @youtube #
• AfricanBrains – Innovation Africa http://t.co/cJ4YJ7Oj via @AfricanBrains – Exciting conference set for Cape Town October 20112 #
• IRB lauds dangerous Zim: http://t.co/WPydHuPZ Good luck to the Cheetahs as they prepare for the Hong Kong 7s next week #
• Pass the Books. Hold the Oil.: http://t.co/UZW6ozJ3 A profound message for Zimbabwe as we squander our diamond money and neglect education #
• Service for missing activist Paul Chizuze at 6pm Tues 20 March at Christ the King Catholic Church, Hillside, Bulawayo. Bring a candle. Share #

Sunday News

18-24 March 2012

The Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), a programme that assists disadvantaged children to access education and complete school, has received a financial package worth over US$15 million from the United Kingdom to fund the shortfall of disadvantaged primary school children.

Mr Dave Fish, head of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), handed over the money to the Zimbabwean Government last Thursday.  Meanwhile, Government is also in the process of reviewing the BEAM administration with the intention of doing away with it’s ambiguities and irregularities that have existed amid accusations the BEAM committees might have engaged in imprudent practices.

Education stakeholders have been complaining that they way BEAM is presently running was not in line with its particular purpose of serving the vulnerable children.

This made Government undertake a comprehensive assessment on the way BEAM was operating and made recommendations so that it makes changes to support the disadvantaged children.

During the handover, Mr Fish said he was delighted the UK was lending a hand to Zimbabwean efforts, which sort to provide education for all and assist underprivileged schoolchildren.

“We are delighted to help the Government of Zimbabwe channel assistance to those Zimbabweans who most need it. The $15 million we are committing today as an investment in Zimbabwe’s future, which we, as friends of Zimbabwe, are only too happy to support,” he said.

Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, expressed gratitude saying the package would help “hundred thousands of the most vulnerable Zimbabwean children who would have been deprived of an education this year,” if BEAM failed to access money.

Also on hand to receive the money, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mrs Paurina Mpariwa, said: “We are highly appreciative of the $15 million assistance to BEAM 2012 provided by the UK Government. This will change the lives of 400 000 orphans and children in need.”

Since 2000, BEAM has been supporting orphans and vulnerable children through its basic education package that includes levies and school and examination fees but over the years the administration has suffered knockdowns due to the deteriorating economy.

Therefore, BEAM has failed to cover children against the increasing numbers there is now compared to what it was back then when the demand was manageable.

This year the Government has allocated $15 million to BEAM to fund secondary schools students and at the request of the ministries responsible for the programme- Finance, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, and Labour and Social Welfare- the UK through DFID, agreed to fund the shortfall for the primary school students.

Sunday News

18-24 March 2012

Fact sheet:

• 900 high school maths and science teachers needed in Bulawayo
• City has a mere 135 qualified maths and science teachers
• There is a deficit of 765 teachers
• Critical shortage of maths and science teachers in the Matabeleland region
• Low enrolment at teachers’ colleges

Matabeleland is facing an acute shortage of mathematics and science teachers, a situation which has resulted in the region recording poor results in last year’s public examinations, it has been learnt.

This comes amid revelations that Bulawayo has 135 qualified teachers instead of the required 900, a deficit of 765 teachers.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Senator David Coltart, said the Matabeleland region had an unacceptable ratio of unqualified teachers and this was impacting negatively on the region’s overall performance during final examinations.

The minister could, however, not issue the exact figures of the backlog in the ministry.

“As a ministry we have noted that since the turn of the century there has been an urban drift that has seen most teachers shunning the rural areas, some provinces like the two Matabeleland provinces have been the worst affected, which has seen some schools going without a single science or mathematics teacher.

“When we talk to our sister ministry, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, who train the teachers, they tell us there is a drop in student teacher enrolment so they can’t assist anyhow,” said Senator Coltart.

Senator Coltart said the other reason for the poor pass rate was the gap between rural and urban schools, the children at the rural schools lack resources as compared to their urban counterparts.

“There is also the problem of there being fewer schools in the region. This is not a political statement, but Matabeleland still suffers the effects of the 1980’s, when Government did not build schools here, giving the excuse that there were disturbances in the area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bulawayo provincial education director Mr Dan Moyo said as a provincial education office they had the disadvantage of having to operate at a deficit in terms of mathematics and science teachers.

“Bulawayo is experiencing a shortage of qualified teachers to take up the mathematics and science departments as we have a deficit of about 765 qualified personel. Currently we have only 135 instead of the needed 900 professionals,” he said.

Hel blamed the poor results on the flight of teachers to neighbouring countries adding that their reluctance to comply with the amnesty which was provided by the Government further crippled the education sector in Matabeleland.

“Most of the teachers left the country to neighbouring countries and that has seen quite a number of schools being left with a few qualified teachers forcing them to recruit many unqualified teachers who need to be trained so as to produce good results but that will take long.

“Most of the teachers that left the country are from the towns that are closer to the borders, towns such as Beit Bridge, Gwanda and Bulawayo, so the pass rate is understandable considering that these schools have the least number of teachers,” he said.

He further revealed that most of the teachers that are in the system are untrained, which he said made it difficult to reach the high pass rate level.

Mr Moyo said they were in the process of training those that were new but that would take long yet the pass rate needs to be improved.

“We are making sure that these temporary teachers were trained but still that will take long yet we need the pass rate to be improved as a faster rate,” he said.

Early this month, the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council released a table of the top 10 schools with the highest pass rate at A-level, and a top 50 chart of the best performing schools at O-level from last November’s examinations.

Of the 10 A-level toppers, Mashonaland East contributed four schools, Manicaland three with the Midlands, Masvingo and Harare contributing one each.

Manicaland and Mashonaland were again dominant in the O-level league, claiming 10 spots each and leaving the other eight provinces in their wake.

Only five schools from the region John Tallach (6th), Marist Brother (14th), St Columbus’ (30th), Mtshabezi (35th), Usher Girls (45th) made it in the list.

Sydney Morning Herald

By Sam Vincent

17 March 2012

The last time I visited Zimbabwe I was knee-high to a hyena – a precarious position in the African food chain, as anyone who has seen The Gods Must Be Crazy II will know. In that film a young Kalahari bushman, threatened by a hyena, holds a piece of wood above his head to fool the animal into thinking it is smaller than him. “He remembered his father had said: ‘If you’re taller than the hyena, it will keep its distance,”‘ the narrator says, David Attenborough-like.

I could have done with a stump on that childhood trip to Zimbabwe. My family was in a game park, where we were shown an enclosure containing three hyenas. As the shortest member of the group, I was the sole object of the hyenas’ attention; wherever I walked, they would follow, a flimsy fence the only thing preventing me becoming their lunch. My three older sisters thought it was hilarious, as did the hyenas. I did not.

We were visiting my father, who spent much of the late 1980s and early ’90s working in Zimbabwe. After each trip he would return with enchanting tales of the world’s biggest waterfall, burping hippos and night skies brighter even than those at the farm where we lived. Finally, my mother, sisters and I followed him there.

Like many in the West, my father admired the man who turned Rhodesia into Zimbabwe, once considered a model of post-colonial transition; the man whose government my dad served as a consultant. His name? Robert Mugabe.

His 32-year dictatorship has been synonymous with violence, rigged elections, land seizures and economic mismanagement on a farcical scale (so rampant was inflation that by 2008 Zimbabwean $100 trillion notes were in circulation).

Mirroring the economic and political implosion has been the collapse of a once-thriving tourism industry. Its national parks and game reserves were looted by poachers and illegal miners; the game lodges were expropriated by drunk and stoned “war veterans”.

But things are slowly improving in Zimbabwe. In 2009, a year after another stolen election and the inevitable collapse of the economy, Mugabe agreed to form a power-sharing government with arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), an arrangement that remains intact despite efforts by hardliners to destroy it. In the years since, the US dollar has been adopted as the national currency, inflation reined in and life has improved for many Zimbabweans. Supermarket shelves are full, as are bowsers.

Zimbabwe’s recent stability has prompted the cautious return of tour operators and a trickle of tourists; Emirates began a regular service from Dubai to Harare (via Lusaka, Zambia) last month. Buoyed by rumours of game parks, lodges and galleries open for business but bereft of tourists, I board a flight to Harare for the first time since that childhood adventure.

Harare is a city of ’80s skyscrapers, purple jacarandas and a surprisingly vibrant arts scene, best known for the Harare International Festival of the Arts, a celebration of music, dance, theatre and fine arts held yearly in the last week of April.

Traditional Zimbabwean art takes the form of stone sculpture, but from the 1990s the country’s painters and installation artists gained international recognition for politically charged works critical of the Mugabe regime. The Zimbabwean pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale, for example, had a distinctly anti-Mugabe theme.

Within Zimbabwe, however, the intimidation of dissidents continues and censorship prevents the mainstream exhibition of political art. For an uncensored glimpse of Zimbabwean artistic expression, I head to the small, independent Gallery Delta, housed in a handsome red-roofed bungalow that once belonged to Rhodesian landscape painter Robert Paul.

Over tea in the gallery’s sculpture garden, “friend of the gallery” Shingai Masakadza (not her real name) explains the cat-and-mouse game. “When someone comes who we don’t trust and asks what a certain painting means,” she says, “we tell them it’s a pretty picture, even if it is full of political symbolism.”

Masakadza shows me such works. Some are oblique: dreamy oil abstracts of human figures with animal heads representing the clan totems of certain politicians; others are overtly political. One painting depicts a black Christ on a cross, blood oozing from his wounds and a Zimbabwean flag covering his torso. In the background an apathetic family watches television on the couch, one figure resting a stubby on his gut.

Masakadza is the first of many Zimbabweans I meet whose opposition to the dictatorship at great personal risk is profoundly inspiring. “It’s a revolution we’re supporting here,” she says. “A revolution with paintbrushes.”

From Harare I fly to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe’s most famous landmark. As my plane is about to land I see a herd of elephants. Beyond them a plume of mist rises with a rumble, evoking the local name for the falls: Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Smoke That Thunders. The town of Victoria Falls was once the centre of Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, but in the past decade visitors have abandoned it for Livingstone, its cross-border Zambian rival. As the Zimbabwean tourism sector recovers, however, this side of the falls is once more at the forefront, with cyber cafes, pubs and youth hostels reopening.

This is where I join an Intrepid Travel group exploring Zimbabwe. The Australian-based company halted tours in 2008 but resumed last year. All 15 members of our party are awed by the majesty of the falls, with its perpetual rainbow. I smile when I remember my father’s explanation for the falls’ amber colour to his gullible young son: hippos peeing upstream in the Zambezi.

It’s a short drive south to our next stop, Hwange National Park, and as we approach the reserve I see signs of the 30,000 elephants that live here: half-chewed branches, flattened trees and traffic-hazard scats.

As an animal-obsessed farm boy, the highlight of my childhood trip was Hwange’s wildlife. Apart from elephants I was fascinated by giraffes, warthogs and the submerged waterhole boulders that would reveal themselves to be hippos.

Zimbabwe’s wildlife has suffered greatly in the past decade from increased poaching and hunting for food; rhinos, especially, now face extinction in this country. Those who work in the field hope that conservation efforts can be improved now tourism is picking up. We spend an afternoon and a night tracking wildlife by jeep with Andy and Norman, two Zimbabwean safari guides. We see plenty of “blotchy poles” (giraffes) and “disco donkeys” (zebras) as well as antelopes and elephants. For me, more impressive are the people guiding us; Andy and Norman are passionate conservationists.

“If our politicians ever get their shit together,” Andy tells me, “this country will boom. I am so damn proud to show this place to visitors.”

The history of Matabeleland, the western province that is my final destination, shatters the myth that Mugabe was a good politician who turned bad. In 1983, three years after assuming the presidency, Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade commando unit murdered up to 20,000 Ndebele, a people who had not supported his Shona-dominated ZANU-PF party at independence.

Matabeleland has been neglected since; its residents are poor even by Zimbabwean standards. The tragedy of Matabeleland is magnified by the fact that this is one of Zimbabwe’s most beautiful regions: big skies, boulder-strewn hills and distinctive baobabs.

This part of the country is forever associated with Rhodesia’s founder, Cecil Rhodes; it was here that he persuaded the Ndebele to lay down their arms against the British and where he would later choose to be buried. As we enter Bulawayo, the region’s principal city, I’m immediately reminded of Rhodes, such is the time-warp feel of the place. There’s a Victorian-era city hall, regal clock towers and a public library where a sign declares: “A-level textbooks may be borrowed here.”

I remember Bulawayo as the place where our train derailed, leaving our family stranded for hours on the city’s outskirts and preventing us visiting the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Matobo Hills nearby.

We arrive at “Land’s End”, as Rhodes’s tomb site is known, with the sun setting over the Matobos, illuminating the orange boulders scattered across the hills among acacias, their distinctive canopies squashed flat like clouds.

As our guide, Ian, describes Rhodes’s divisive legacy, I find myself listening instead to the sounds of the bush, quickening with the onset of night. I recognise the hooting of hornbills and the shrieks of baboons. But it is the bark of a hyena that makes me smile. Matobo Hills has plenty of tree stumps, so if an unusually tall hyena comes my way, this time I’ll know what to do.

Official Summit for Education, ICT, Science & Technology, Research & Development.

Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 October 2012

Following the highly successful 2012 Southern African ICT for Education Summit, hosted by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture in Victoria Falls, organisers AfricanBrains prepare for the Innovation Africa Summit. Please follow the link below for more details.

http://www.africanbrains.net/ia/

The Zimbabwean

By Keith Scott

15 March 2012

Dave Fish, Head of the Zimbabwe Office of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), today announced that Britain is committing £10 million (over $15 million) to support the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), a Zimbabwean Government programme which pays for disadvantaged children to access education and complete school.

BEAM was set up in 2000 and supports orphans and vulnerable children through a basic education package that includes levies and school and examination fees. In 2012, the Government allocated $15 million to BEAM to fund secondary school students. At the request of the Ministries responsible for the programme – Finance, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, and Labour and Social Welfare – the United Kingdom Government, through DFID, agreed to fund the shortfall for primary school students.

Paurina Mpariwa MP, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, said: “We are highly appreciative of the $15 million assistance to BEAM 2012 provided by the UK Government. This will change the lives of 400,000 orphans and children in need”.

Senator David Coltart, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, said: “On behalf of the Zimbabwean Government, I would like to express my gratitude to the British Government for this generous assistance, without which hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Zimbabwean children would have been deprived an education this year”.

Dave Fish, Head of DFID Zimbabwe, said: “I am delighted that the United Kingdom has once again been able to help the Government of Zimbabwe channel assistance to those Zimbabweans who most need it. The $15 million we are committing today is an investment in Zimbabwe’s future, which we, as friends of Zimbabwe, are only too happy to support.”

For further information on DFID Zimbabwe Programmes please visit www.dfid.gov.uk

SW Radio Africa

By Tichaona Sibanda

15 March 2012

Rights activist Paul Chizuze has been missing since 8th February. Despite extensive efforts made civil society organizations to determine his fate his whereabouts are still unknown. Many of his friends and family now fear the worst.

Chizuze went missing on the night of 8th February and his friends and colleagues launched a campaign on social media networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, to try and find out where he is.

Pressure group Sokwanele first put out an alert on its website saying Chizuze ‘allegedly left his home around 8 pm on 8th February, and what happened after this remains a mystery. He may have been murdered, hijacked or abducted by parties unknown.’

He was last seen driving a white twin cab Nissan Hardbody (registration ACJ 3446) which is also missing. Organizations led by the Christian group Churches in Bulawayo and the Solidarity Peace Trust have issued several appeals saying they fear Chizuze may have been ‘murdered.’

Chizuze was well known for his paralegal work with civic organizations like the Amani Trust. Over the last three decades, Paul has been either employed by, or active with, the Legal Resources Foundation, Amani Trust Matabeleland, The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, ZimRights, Churches in Bulawayo, CivNet, and Masakhaneni Trust. He also worked closely with Senator David Coltart, the Education Minister.