ZimEye

By Herbert Mugwagwa

21 February 2012

President Robert Mugabe has threatened to reject or better said expel President Jacob Zuma as facilitator to the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mugabe on Monday said he would unquestionably hold elections this year, even though the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Movement for Democratic Change party have been pressing for reforms first. Concidentally Morgan Tsvangirai has also decided to call it quit and to straightaway jump into elections possibly this year-2012.

The peripettic turn by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on elections could have far-reaching consequences for Zimbabwe and change the course of history not only for the major political players like Mr Robert Mugabe, Mr M Tsvangirai himself and Mr Welshman Ncube in particular, but also for the other actors at senatorial, parliamentary and ward level in general, and indeed, for the whole of Zimbabwe.

No doubt after this watershed election some will never taste the juicy succulent fruit of power again having been thrown into political oblivion. The life of the Government of National Unity has been quite taxing and frustrating especially to the two reluctant bed fellows, Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai who kept impeding each other with a tug-of-war being the order of the day.

On the other hand, Prof Arthur Mutambara seems to enjoy the ride, the joy and the glory that accompanies the power that goes with his position and associating with the two icons, including sitting side by side with President Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

What every politician needs to understand is that you can underestimate Mr Robert Mugabe at your peril. He is extremely old now, in his late eighties, but is still that wily fox that out-manouvred the late Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, outwitted the late Dr Eddison Zvobgo, humbled Dr Joshua Nkomo, stopped Bishop Abel Muzorewa, retired Ian Smith, outclassed George Bush, embarrassed Tony Blair,used(perhaps abused) Thabo Mbeki to broker the GNU, and co-habited with Mr Tsvangirai in an abusive relationship in which the latter was the less mortal and generally the powerless of the two even though he had won an election.

That Mr Tsvangirai has agreed to go into plebiscite with him now could be a mistake unless nature or fate twists things in his favour given the harsh reality of the uneven political field. Mr Mugabe is right to call for elections now for the Government of National Unity which he leads has exceeded its mandated lifespan and, though it was good enough as a transitional arrangement, it is not good enough to catapult Zimbabwe into the world of greatness. Its pros are far outnumbered by its cons. Its greatest achievement to date is that it has brought bread(read sadza) on our tables and halted the death of many by starvation. In spite of having a good number of great leaders like Nelson Chamisa(Technology portfolio), Tendai Biti(arguably best Finance Minister in Africa and (Zimbabwe since independence) and the hardworking, clear-minded Education Minister David Coltart, it has failed to deliver big time because of unnecessary bickering and politicking.

Judging by its performance, the GNU is a monumental failure in the sense that though it brought on board some of the best brains and top notch performers the nation has, it failed to accomplish that which it had set out to achieve in the first place. For one, it had set out to write a new constitution for the country, but unfortunately, instead of the task being placed in the hands of detached, fair and impartial persons, the task was placed in the hands of interested political players who were more interested in cheap political bickerings, settling old scores, scoring political goals and generally fattening their pockets with money from the UNDP than writing a constitution for the country.

However, that money will definitely come in handy in the electoral campaign. Thus, ZANU(PF) became stern and cut the Gordian knot:elections now under the new constitution or the old and hence forced COPAC to come out with a hurried constitution with glaring weaknesses here and there. Thus, it shows that ZANU(PF) is still calling the shots but the uncomfortable power sharing has helped MDC to acquire on -the-job governance training, an apprenticeship that might come in handy tomorrow.

The media reforms have not been made to everyone’s expectation leaving us with a public media that still spawns and puffs out hate speech and is generally disrespectful of the Prime Minister but hides behind the freedom of speech mantra. Licences for broadcasting were recently dished out by Mr Tafataona Mahoso to those sympathetic to the old guard sending others away empty-handed. POSA and AIPPA are still intact. The security sector reformation must be approached with caution because whatever our inherent weaknesses we have security organs that are the best and envy of many in the world who jump at the slightest opportunity to understudy us and train with us. What is perhaps training to reorientate personnel to put Zimbabwe first and not individuals. It will be political naivety to carry out changes recommended by foreigners. But whatever happens to our political landscape, we hope and pray for the best leadership to run Zimbabwe and like the Swazi commander at the advent of their independence we can only say, ‘We don’t know the future but we know Him who has got the future in his hands.’ I wish Zimbabwe well.

The Telegraph

By David Blair

20 February 2012

Suppose a government chooses to spend nothing on equipping secondary schools, while blowing 1 per cent of public expenditure on trips for the president and the prime minister. Imagine if the two men at the top of this sorry administration reckoned their own offices were more deserving recipients of taxpayers’ money than, say, capital expenditure on health and education for a country of 12 million people.

Step forward the government of Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe, the ageing autocrat who will celebrate his 88th birthday tomorrow, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader turned prime minister. Leaf through Zimbabwe’s national budget for 2012 and you discover the grotesque sense of priorities of the two men who run one of the poorest countries in the world.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai spent US $45.5 million on travel last year, accounting for 1.2 per cent of total public expenditure (if David Cameron and Nick Clegg followed suit, their bill for foreign trips would be more than £7 billion or $11 billion).

Meanwhile, “capital expenditure” for secondary education in 2011 was, well, a blank. If page 207 of the national accounts is correct, Zimbabwe’s government spent precisely nothing on capital assets for secondary schools last year, an omission that was probably unique in the world.

In fairness, the figures show that Mugabe and Tsvangirai budgeted $5.3 million for this purpose, generously conceding that the next generation was worth 11.6 per cent of their travel allowance. But this sum does not appear to have been spent: the amount actually disbursed was, in fact, zero.

How fortunate, then, that Britain is helping to fill the gap. The Mugabe-Tsvangirai government evidently believes that kitting out secondary schools is not worth a penny of Zimbabwean citizens’ money, but our Department for International Development (DFID) thinks that British taxpayers should write the cheques. We have duly paid £6 million ($9.5 million) to a United Nations programme that distributed 15 million textbooks to Zimbabwe’s schoolchildren.

DFID has also spent £16.5 million (about $26 million) on “emergency” medicines for Zimbabwe’s public hospitals. This is good news for the country’s suffering patients: Mugabe and Tsvangirai do not worry much about health. They reckoned that state hospitals should make do with $14.6 million (£9 million) of capital expenditure last year.

Their own offices, however, were far more worthy causes. Mugabe spent $109.3 million on his (by way of comparison, total capital expenditure on the entire health and education systems was only $32 million). Meanwhile, Tsvangirai’s office cost a relatively modest $10.9 million – a mere 75 per cent of capital spending on health. If Cameron shared Tsvangirai’s sense of priorities, the budget for running Downing Street would be well over £3 billion ($4.7 billion).

And so it goes on: Zimbabwe’s national accounts stretch to 356 pages and most reveal some glaring absurdity. Mugabe spent $5.1 million on “state residences” (i.e. palaces) last year; all the primary schools in the country made do with less than $25,000 of capital expenditure. More than two million pupils use those schools: little wonder that most have no chairs.

Meanwhile, Tsvangirai managed to spend $218,000 on “hospitality”. This is a man who courageously opposed Mugabe’s tyranny for two decades, only to form a coalition with the old dictator and end up spending more on parties than on renovating primary schools.

No one would seriously defend this sense of priorities, certainly not the reforming finance minister, Tendai Biti, who was honest enough to call the travel budget of his two bosses a “cancer in the management of our public finances” (although he still signed the cheques). Nor, I suspect, would the energetic and dedicated education minister, David Coltart, view these decisions with anything except horror.

But are we partly to blame? If we pick up the bill for textbooks and medicines, does this serve only to perpetuate a grotesque misallocation of resources?

The law of unintended consequences works more perniciously in the field of aid and development than perhaps any other. DFID has embarked on the most ambitious expansion of its short history, aiming to spend £11 billion ($17.4 billion) in 2013/14, a 29 per cent jump in one year from the £8.6 billion planned for 2012/13. In the process, Britain will keep its promise to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid.

DFID’s operation in Zimbabwe will spend £80 million ($126 million) in 2011/12, ensuring that children get textbooks, patients get medicines and slum-dwellers get sanitation, and many other useful things.

But the government of Zimbabwe clearly has the money to do all of this. Last year, capital expenditure on the army plus the costs of the offices of Mugabe and Tsvangirai came to more than $181 million. Cut that by 90 per cent and Zimbabwe could pay for the entire DFID programme and have plenty left over.

By covering the cost of basic essentials that the government chooses not to fund, we risk underwriting – albeit indirectly – the monstrous way in which Zimbabwe’s leaders spend their country’s resources. The mistake is to believe that a poor nation simply lacks money, which leads to the obvious answer that we should step in. Often, as in Zimbabwe, the situation is more complex: how the government spends its budget is at least as much of a problem.

If you simply offer more cash, the risk is that you make an indefensible set of priorities “sustainable”, to use a word beloved of DFID officials.

So what is the answer? After all, there is a genuine dilemma here. Pay for the textbooks and you perpetuate the Mugabe-Tsvangirai sense of priorities. Hold back the funds and the government of Zimbabwe will not develop a conscience and find the money for children to get an education. Instead, the kids will go without books and Mugabe and Tsvangirai will carry on exactly as before. It’s also worth remembering that no DFID money goes directly into Zimbabwean government coffers: all the funding is channelled via the UN or international development agencies.

The best of two terrible options is probably to carry on picking up the bill. But this is not exactly the inspirational case for aid made by Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary. Last month, he told the Telegraph that “by building up governance structures in the Middle East and by getting girls into school in the Horn of Africa”, Britain would make itself “safer”.

The truth is more prosaic. In a country like Zimbabwe, we pay for school textbooks because the men in charge are so rotten that they prefer to spend money on parties and trips. They don’t care about their people, but we do – and so we pay up.

But what if the leaders are spending their money on far worse things than palaces and entertainment? Suppose they skew their national budgets towards building up big armies, while leaving us to fund health and education?

In the 1990s, Uganda received about half of its budget from foreign donors. President Yoweri Museveni duly constructed a powerful military machine which he used to invade the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998, helping to start one of the bloodiest wars in modern history.

Uganda could only fund this military campaign because outsiders were willing to pay such a big share of the nation’s bills. Inadvertently and indirectly, foreign donors ended up subsidising a conflict that laid waste to Congo. With hindsight, it would have been better for Africa if Uganda had not received a penny of foreign aid.

None of this suggests that aid is always damaging, nor that DFID’s budget increase is necessarily unjustified. But delicate case-by-case judgments have to be made. On balance, giving aid to Uganda in the 1990s was wrong; doing so for Zimbabwe today is probably right, but only as a policy of despair.

The danger is that if you start with the belief that aid is the way to make Britain safe – and your budget is rising by 29 per cent in one year – there is a greater chance that you will get these decisions wrong. If so, the poor will pay the price.

The Herald

By Wencelous Murape

20 February 2012

Some parents want the gradual scrapping of public service teachers’ incentives as Government reviews their salaries.

Some teachers in State schools are now earning well above the poverty datum line calculated at US$565 a month.

Even Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart recently hoped that the incentives would be eventually scrapped as salaries rise.

But most teachers want incentives to become a permanent feature, saying the PDL should not be used to mark their earnings as they are professionals, not unskilled workers.

This comes as rural teachers have been granted state-paid incentives set at 20 percent of their gross salaries which works out to an average of US$84 a month.

Rural teachers feel incentives are unfair, as usually only families can afford to pay extra and some rural teachers want urban teachers to join them in collective job action for better pay.

Urban teachers rarely strike since they would then lose their incentive pay.

Teachers’ incentives vary with those in low-density suburbs and mission schools tending to get more than those in high-density schools.

But teachers in Government schools tend to get between US$150 and US$300 a month as incentives.

This is on top of the US$419 salary that was reviewed up from US$353 at the beginning of this month.

Teachers at Glen View High School are reportedly getting US$200 per month as an incentive.

Rakodzi High School in Marondera is giving teachers US$150 per month.

The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture has instructed that all schools keep their incentive bill at a maximum of 15 percent of the levies charged.

A circular dated September 30, 2011 concerning payment of incentives was send to all provincial education directors by the acting secretary of education Mr Lazarus Bowora.

According to the Circular, SDCs’ should allocate 10 percent of the levies for teachers’ incentives, while five percent goes to the non-teaching staff.

“Please ensure that this is strictly adhered to and appropriate disciplinary action should be taken against anyone who deviates from the provisions of this Circular,” wrote Mr Bowora.

One example of teachers fighting the gradual scrapping of incentives is at Lord Malvern High School in Harare who are objecting to a downward adjustment of their incentives.

“Initially, teachers were given US$200 each per month, but we were informed last week that each teacher was to receive US$150, while non-teaching staff would receive US$50,” said one teacher who requested anonymity as civil servants are not permitted to speak to media without written permission from their parent ministry.

The head of the school Mr Dandawa said he could not comment as there are official ways of communicating with the press.

Teachers in trust and private schools are not civil servants and their salaries are paid in full from fees with no input or contribution from the Government.

• Ou thoughts are with our neighbours Zambia in the AFCON final this evening – go Chipolopolo Zimbabwe is right behind you! #
• Hearty congratulations to our northern neighbours, brothers and sisters Zambia on winning AFCON 2012. We are all so proud of the Chipolopolo #
• Drove around parts of Matabeleland South yesterday and the situation is dire. This must now officially be a drought. Crops a write off. #
• 12 voted in UN against Syrian people
  Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, N Korea, Ecuador, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Zim #
• Zimbabwe the only African Nation to vote against Syrian people. No discussion in Cabinet about this action which I do not support. Appalled. #
• German President Wuff resigns for taking an undisclosed loan. Mere child's play in Zim politics where brazen theft can lead to promotion. #
• Well done to Zimbabwean heavyweight boxer Dereck Chisora for such a brave WBC title defence fight last night http://t.co/TcwRHxH2 #
• Who indeed are the ultimate beneficial owners of some of Zimbabwe's diamond mines? Zimbabweans have the right to know. http://t.co/VabutwSr #

The Zimbabwe Independent

By Faith Zaba

19 January 2012

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC says Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri should not be re-appointed as police chief because of his alleged selective application of the law, numerous human rights violations and partisan approach to law enforcement.

Chihuri’s actions, the party says, were in violation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Police spokesperson assistant  police commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena refused to comment on the allegations.
“I will not comment on that,” he said yesterday.

In a 28-page document titled “Partisan Policing” detailing various violations allegedly committed by the police between 1999 and 2011, the MDC-T accused Chihuri of making inflammatory statements which undermine the letter and spirit of the GPA.

The party quoted Chihuri on November 26 2010 saying: “…this country came through blood and the barrel of the gun and it will never be re-colonised through the pen which costs as little as five cents.”

Chihuri’s contract, together with that of Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General  Constantine Chiwenga, expires at the end of this month, while Prisons Services Commissioner retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi, Air Force commander Air Marshal Perance Shiri and Zimbabwe National Army commander Lieutenant-General  Philip Sibanda’s tenures end in February.

The two MDC formations have said they will fight President Robert Mugabe legally, politically and regionally if he re-appoints the service chiefs without consulting Tsvangirai.

The GPA stipulates that the president should consult the prime minister when making key appointments.

The MDC-T has indicated that the expiry of the contracts gave the inclusive government an opportunity to get rid of Chihuri, who took over from Henry Mukurazhizha in 1991 as acting commissioner before assuming the position on a full time basis in 1993.

Chihuri’s contract, the MDC-T said, was renewed 13 times since his first term expired in 1997.

“Augustine Chihuri assumed the title of commissioner-general in January 2008. Despite assuming a new title, Commissioner-General Chihuri maintained his partisan approach to law enforcement which he had adopted prior to January 2008,” reads the document seen by the Zimbabwe Independent.

“In the months preceding the June 2008 presidential run-off elections, MDC supporters were subjected to violence by state security agents and Zanu PF supporters, which saw hundreds of them being brutally murdered.

“Despite overwhelming evidence of the violent campaign against MDC supporters by state security agents, Commissioner-General Chihuri maintained that the MDC was responsible for the violence.

“As a result of the Commissioner-General’s bias against MDC, none of the perpetrators of violence against MDC supporters have been arrested and prosecuted.”

Some of the cases outlined in the document,which alleges Chihuri failed in his duties, include the murder of Tsvangirai’s driver Talent Mabika and Tichaona  Chiminya, whom the MDC-T claims were killed by state spy Joseph Mwale accompanied by Tom Kitsiyatota in April 2000.

MDC-T said despite a High Court ruling directing the police and the Attorney-General (AG) to arrest and prosecute Mwale, no action was taken against him by the police or the AG’s office and he has remained free to date.

The MDC document also cited the abduction in 2000 of Education minister David Coltart’s polling agent Patrick Nabanyama, who was kidnapped by 10 armed men driving a Mazda truck with no number plates.

He was never seen again and on August 11 2010, a Bulawayo magistrate declared Nabanyama dead.

The police, the MDC-T said, have not apprehended the persons suspected of having kidnapped and murdered him despite the fact that they had been identified.

The party contends Chihuri has failed to act against police officers that have been accused of fabricating evidence against its supporters.

One such example was that of six MDC supporters, including former MDC legislator Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, who were accused of murdering war veteran Cain Nkala.

The police staged a discovery of Nkala’s body, with the accused making indications pertaining to the location of the shallow grave and purported manner in which they murdered him.

In her judgement, High Court Judge Justice Sandra Mungwira found that the police had framed the accused.

The MDC-T said despite the fact that Tsvangirai was assaulted at Machipisa Police Station on March 11 2007 and sustained a skull injury, no one was arrested in connection with the assault.

“Between the years 2000 and 2008, Chihuri’s police were involved in numerous violations of human rights of citizens, most of who were perceived to be opponents of Zanu PF, a party Chihuri has publicly sworn allegiance to,” reads the MDC-T report. “During these years Chihuri’s police became a law unto itself ignoring High Court orders when it suited them.”

On selective application of the law, the document said: “The selective application of the law by the police  Commissioner-General since January 2011 have considerably compromised the letter and spirit  of the GPA, to the extent that there is a clear paralysis of government rendering it almost dysfunctional.

“Police Commissioner-General Chihuri has resorted to selective arrests of victims of political violence in a manner which aids and abets the perpetrators of violence.”

The document went further to say: “In addition, in violation of the GPA and Section 16 of the Constitution, police Commissioner-General Chihuri has wilfully refrained from acting on three police reports of criminal misconduct that have been made against  Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Dr IG (Ignatius) Chombo and to date the police Commissioner-General has not acted on these. This reflects partisan conduct on the part of Police-Commissioner General Chihuri.”

There have also been police reports against prominent businessman Philip Chiyangwa and two senior Harare City Council officials, Cosmas Zvikaramba and Psychology Chiwanga, who have been implicated in fraudulent acquisition of public property, said the document.

This, it said, was in sharp contrast to the arrest of Energy minister Elton Mangoma on March 10 and 25 2011 on corruption charges and that of Co-Minister of National Healing and Reconciliation Moses Mzila-Ndlovu on April 15 2011 for allegedly holding a meeting without authority. Mangoma was brought to court in leg irons on April 19 2011.

The MDC-T also accused Chihuri of being partisan in the manner in which he has dealt with political rallies and meetings organised by Zanu PF opponents.

NewsDay

15 February 2012

The successful introduction of Tonga in the education curriculum has spurred the government to kick-start efforts to pursue a similar programme with other indigenous languages, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart has said.

In an interview on Tuesday, Coltart said he had engaged his counterparts in neighbouring countries to assist in the projects.

“I have had discussions with my Zambian counterpart that we use their materials in teaching the Tonga language since that country has a larger Tonga population,” he said.

“The long-term plan is to include other local languages and take them beyond Grade 7.” Coltart said languages such as Venda and Sotho would be incorporated into the curriculum in the long run.

“I have also had discussions with my counterparts in South Africa to carry out a pilot project in future for languages such as Sotho and Venda,” he said.

Coltart said there were important factors such as the issue of teachers for those particular subjects, which the ministry needed to look into before introducing the languages in schools.

At least 77,6% of Grade 7 pupils who sat for Tonga in the national examinations last year passed, a development officials say is an indication the two-year old pilot programme has been a success.

Tonga-speaking pupils first wrote the examinations in 2010 as a pilot programme to assess whether pupils were ripe to sit for public examinations.

Following the successful pilot programme, Tonga language was then tested under the Zimbabwe Examinations Council regulations at Grade 7 level in 2011.

Male pupils recorded a 75,5% pass rate while their female counterparts registered a pass rate of 79,75%.

Think Africa Press

By Kiran Madzimbamuto-Ray

15 February 2012

The government claims it lacks the resources to pay public sector workers above poverty line while hundreds of millions in diamond revenues remain unaccounted for.

Double wages may seem an ambitious demand for a public sector strike, but for the 236,000 workers earning well below that poverty line at an average of $250 a month from the Zimbabwean government, it is a question of survival.

Although this wage is higher than that of many Zimbabweans in other sectors, and although the majority of Zimbabweans in fact live far below the government’s own defined poverty line of $538, the protesters’ demands are basic and fundamental: a salary that meets the poverty line, medical insurance, improved pensions, and a travel allowance from rural areas.

The recent four day strike at the end of January, the first since the unity government came to power three years ago, closed negotiations agreeing to give an extra $58 in transport and housing allowances. It was a weak offering by the government amid claims that it simply cannot afford to meet union demands of a $288 pay rise.

Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, claimed that government salaries already account for 60% of the national budget, to the detriment of the country’s healthcare and education expenditure. However with reports of ministers’ unashamedly extravagant and lavish lifestyles also filling the local press, it is not surprising that civil servants are voicing their frustration over merely reasonable wages. The recent rise in government minister and senior employee allowances to $105 a night, in addition their $3000 monthly salary, also brings into question the credibility of their defence.

Where has all the money gone?

Considering the government’s 51% stake in the Marange diamond fields, scepticism over government claims that they cannot afford to offer public sector workers a more considerable rise is unsurprising.

Diamond profits are the state’s third largest source of revenue and one company alone mined $1.4 billion worth of Marange diamonds last year, three times the amount actually reported by the mining ministry for the whole of the Marange area.

“It’s quite clear that there’s much more money floating around than is justified by the level of economic activity,” said Eddie Cross, an MP from the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC). Clearly not all this money is making it to the national treasury. Despite the Finance Ministry being under the control of the MDC’s Finance Minister, tens of millions of dollars in diamond profits are reportedly being diverted into ZANU-PF personal and political interests.

Questions are also being asked within ZANU-PF, with one former official stating that “when you look at the fields they are mining and how rich they are and what they later declare, you see that there must be a huge difference”. As well as outright greed at the expense of the civil sector, the political implications of these profits being used in preparation for the contested upcoming election are also a cause of concern. There are reports of large procurements of weapons, financing of a new military academy, and troops being deployed to rural areas in an operation conveniently financed by the ZANU-PF member managing the state interest in Marange.

If the government cannot pay, who will?

With teachers making up the majority of government workers, it is the education sector which has been the hardest hit by the lack of accountability over government funds and the recent strikes are just the latest manifestation of a long standing dissatisfaction with the under-financed and under-resourced educational system.

Many children still have limited access to education, and for those that do get access, the teachers they encounter are often unmotivated and frustrated; hardly an optimum environment for effective learning. Undeniably, it is the government’s responsibility to provide education, but with the obvious dysfunction and failed attempts at accountability, what can be done to educate Zimbabwe’s children?

Action Aid Zimbabwe argues that increased corporate sector involvement is needed to innovate education through public-private partnerships. The Minister of Education, David Coltart, reiterated that, until Zimbabwe’s economy has been resuscitated through foreign direct investment, teachers will remain without a decent salary. According to Coltart, companies such as Apple, Intel and Epson recently expressed interest in investing in the education sector.

But is the private sector the answer, or should more be done to hold the government accountable for providing these services?

Transparency

Although only securing marginally better working conditions for civil servants, the recent strikes have drawn attention to the need for transparency and accountability in Zimbabwe. Through the negotiations, it was agreed that a committee of workers and government representatives would be created to track revenue flowing into the national treasury, an especially critical move considering the hopes of economic recovery pinned on diamonds.

By highlighting the hurdles faced by those attempting to transform power relations, the strikes have created an opportunity to evaluate the recourse available for civil servants to exert pressure on a government when their basic needs are not being met. Whether the government is forced to pay, or alternative methods of financing education are sought, for the ordinary people who depend on public services to survive, we must hope that the government discovers its sense of obligation to develop its country and its people.

ZimOnline

By Peter Marimudza

13 February 2012

More than half of Zimbabwe’s teachers have at one point during the past decade experienced some form of political violence including being threatened, beaten up, tortured or raped, according to a new report released at the weekend.

The report prepared by the Progressive Teachers of Union Zimbabwe (PTUZ) is based on the findings of a survey carried out between April and June 2011 involving 1 200 teachers randomly selected from across the country, but with particular bias to rural areas that have suffered the most political violence since 2000.

The document details how militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party, war veterans, soldiers and other state security agents have at every major election attacked teachers, with hundreds forced to flee schools mid-term in fear for their lives.

The report said: “51percent (of) teachers (interviewed) reported that they have directly experienced political violence of one form or another, and 55 percent stated that they had been forced to vote for a particular political party because of violence or threats of violence, with the worst election for such intimidation being June 2008.

“Sixty-eight percent stated that they had experienced violence in the June 2008 election, but high percentages also reported direct experience of violence in 2000 and also the March 2008 election.”

Too influential

According to the report, intimidation and being forced to attend political meetings were the most common forms of violation, but there was also a high incidence of assault, torture, extortion, being barred from voting, and forced displacement of teachers.

The report that calls on the coalition government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to ban political parties from carrying out their activities at schools says teachers were targeted because they were: “either seen as opposition supporters, too influential in the community, or not actively supporting ZANU PF.”

With Zimbabwe expected to hold fresh elections either later this year or in 2013, the report warns of possible mass resignations from schools especially in rural areas unless the governments enacts “laws that restrict and criminalise the use or occupation of schools for political activities”.

According to the report, when respondents were asked what they would do if violence recurred, “a large percentage (50 percent) responded by saying they would flee the area and move to urban schools.”

ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo could not be reached last night for comment on the matter. But Mugabe’s party has in the past denied reports linking it or its supporters to political violence as untrue and mere propaganda meant to tarnish the former liberation movement’s image.

Education Minister David Coltart was also not immediately available for comment on the matter. Coltart, from the smaller breakaway MDC faction led by Industry Minister Welshman Ncube , has in the past called on all political parties to stop using schools as venues for meetings or any other political activity.

Routine violence

Political violence and human rights abuses, especially during elections, have become routine in Zimbabwe since the 1999 emergence of Tsvangirai and his MDC as the most potent threat ever to Mugabe and ZANU PF’s decades-long hold on power.

Teachers, their spouses and families have borne the brunt of the violence and rights abuses.

For example, the PTUZ report details how teachers at Muzinda and Machiva schools in Zaka district in Masvingo province were during the run-up to the June 2008 presidential run-off election seriously beaten up as punishment for allegedly campaigning for Tsvangirai and his MDC who were then in opposition.

“On this tragic day, the 2^nd of June 2008, (the) teachers were accused of campaigning for the MDC. The attack resulted in one teacher, Taurai Gwenzi (not real name) being severely injured and hospitalised at St. Antony’s Mission Hospital,” said the report.

The report also narrates an incident when a female teacher from a school in the Midlands province town of Kwekwe was “flaunted before a gathering of over one thousand people” at a sports stadium and threatened with severe but unspecified punishment because her husband was an MDC supporter.

“The (ZANU PF) party officials went on to charge that the teacher should dig a small hole in the ground using her fingers and spit into it in a typical cultural gesture to show deep repentance for one’s sins,” the  report said.

New constitution

The report that among other key recommendations calls for the creation of school protection committees and for civil society and teachers unions to develop early warning systems to raise alarm when teachers come under attack says in several cases teachers were told how to vote during the presidential run-off election.

Zimbabwe witnessed some of its worst ever political violence during the run up to the June 2008 vote that was being held after Mugabe was defeated by Tsvangirai in an earlier vote the previous March. But Tsvangirai failed to achieve the margin required to take power and avoid a second round run-off vote.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off ballot citing state–sponsored attacks against his supporters and in the process, leaving Mugabe to win as sole candidate.

But the election was universally condemned, with African countries that had refrained from criticising Mugabe in the past also denouncing the violence-marred election – a situation that forced the veteran President to open negotiations to share power with Tsvangirai.

The coalition government is writing a new constitution for Zimbabwe after which fresh polls will be held.

Zimbabweans hope the new constitution will not only guarantee their rights and freedoms but would also act as a bulwark against political violence.

However analysts say new incidents of violence — including the murder last Tuesday of an MDC activist, Sharukai Mukwena, from Zaka — that have been reported in recent months are sign that the next polls could yet again be marred by violence even with a new constitution in place.

Recommendations:

Meanwhile, to curb violence against teachers the PTUZ, which is one of three unions representing teachers in Zimbabwe, recommended that:

1. The Government of Zimbabwe must immediately declare schools as zones of peace and as such enact laws that restrict and criminalise the use or occupation of schools for political activities, especially during the electoral period.

2. Civic society and teacher unions must develop monitoring systems to detect early warning systems of attacks on education and to report political disturbances in schools in compliance with UN Resolution No. 1612 with additional modifications relevant to the situation in Zimbabwe.

3. The Ministry of Education in conjunction with critical stakeholders like the police, parents and teacher unions must set up school protection committees so that social services rendered by schools are not interrupted during times of conflict like elections

4. The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) must actively investigate all reports involving political violence and intimidation against teachers, and at schools.

5. The government must uphold strictly provisions of paragraph 20 to the First Schedule of Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 (Public Service Regulations, 2000) and clauses 79, 80 and 81 of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendations concerning the Status of Teachers to negate the current insistence on teachers being compelled to support only one political party.

6. The Ministry of Education must introduce civic education in the primary and secondary school curriculum which promotes national cohesion, peace and tolerance;

7. The process of national healing, if ever it is ever going to take off meaningfully, should have a thematic area dealing with the education sector in order to restore the social bond between teachers and communities which has been weakened by recurrent election violence and politicisation of the public service.

8. Overall compliance with the spirit and letter of the GPA is strongly recommended in order to curb on institutionalised violence.