The Chronicle

19 October 2011

Financially troubled Zifa are eagerly awaiting a football stakeholders indaba that is being convened by the Government which they believe could be the first major step towards getting the local fraternity to appreciate the challenges being faced by the domestic game.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart will convene the meeting early next month, which will bring together all the stakeholders with a view to finding lasting solutions to all the problems afflicting local football.

Coltart has acknowledged the need for Government to step in and support Zifa in their revival mission with the minister also noting that the local game was struggling from lack of sustainable funding.

There has been a slow pace of financial injection from the corporate world for football, which has left a number of individuals to make personal sacrifices to keep local clubs going.

A number of clubs have either folded or are battling to survive in a tough operating environment that has left them literally operating on a hand-to-mouth basis and even left some of the club directors with huge debts.

“The focus of the indaba is to look at financing of football, seeing what we can do as a Government and the private sector to ensure that football is on a viable and sound footing,” Coltart said

The minister also reckoned that “football needs to be depoliticised so that we leave it to people who are better placed to run the game and have the passion to run the sport.”

Coltart also said he discussed with Zifa and the Sport and Recreation Commission that the game needs a fresh impetus.

But as the date for the indaba draws nearer, Zifa have embraced the Government’s initiative with the association’s president Cuthbert Dube revealing that they were eagerly awaiting an opportunity to come face to face with the relevant stakeholders in the game.

“We have agreed as Zifa to be part of the minister’s indaba and we would like to thank Minister Coltart for his initiative because we believe this presents a platform where the critical issues can be discussed.

“All the teams in the country just need to be assisted, it is not just about the Warriors, I think it is at that indaba the nation will appreciate the challenges that Zifa has been facing,” Dube said.

The Zifa president has since assuming office in March last year been preaching a gospel of transparency within the game’s structures.

Dube believes that for local football to earn the respect of the Government, the corporate world, the media, players, coaches and the fans, its administrative wing would have to show transparency in the manner that the game is run at all levels.

Dube also noted that part of Zifa’s bid to improve their administration of the game was being pegged back by a flawed constitution what has a lot of conflicting clauses which could literally make the game ungovernable.

“We have since asked the Zifa board to propose the names of a few members who can make up the constitutional review committee that should work on amending our constitution.

“The constitution should be the Bible and some of the problems we are having in Zifa are a result of a skewed constitution and that committee will work round the clock to amend the constitution so that we do away with the flaws in it.

“There will be no Zifa board member on that committee because we want it to be a transparent process,” Dube said.

Dube also said his board had taken a keen interest in the final countdown to the championship races in the Premier Soccer League and the Division One leagues.

The Herald 

By Felex Share

19 October 2011

Some teachers’ unions yesterday walked out of a meeting to discuss the incentives they are being paid by parents.

The meeting was nearly aborted, but some delegates continued with deliberations and agreed that the incentives will be scrapped when Government awards teachers a “reasonable salary increment” in the 2012 National Budget.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti presents the budget in Parliament next month.

The parties agreed that Government should introduce an education allowance that will standardise incentives if it fails to award salary increases above the Poverty Datum Line.

The PDL currently stands at US$502.

The meeting was attended by Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officials, provincial education directors from across Zimbabwe, representatives of the National Association of School Heads, the National Association of Primary Heads, School Development Associations and representatives from mission schools.

According to sources, divisions erupted during the meeting with heated arguments between the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe.

PTUZ wanted incentives scrapped, while TUZ wanted them to stay.

PTUZ secretary-general Mr Raymond Majongwe walked out of the meeting while TUZ chief executive Mr Manuel Nyawo only returned to the meeting after an intervention by Government officials.

Mr Majongwe said there was “nothing new” about tempers flaring during meetings.

“Tempers flare everywhere even in Parliament. The reason for the walkout was because some of our colleagues particularly TUZ wanted to talk about things which were not on the agenda and we couldn’t tolerate that,” he said.

“Moreover, I wanted to attend Tongai Moyo’s funeral and I am already in Kwekwe as I speak”

He said there was however, need for the unions to pressure Government for decent salary increments.

“We cannot continue burdening the parents who are failing to make ends meet. There are more than 207 court cases because of the incentives and how can you continue with such a divisive policy?” he said.

Mr Nyawo acknowledged the disturbances, but called for “a gradual exit” on the issue.

He said the 2012 National Budget would determine the way forward.

“We hope the budget will bring something for the teachers. Failure to do that means there should be an education allowance, which will also cover the auxiliary staff, including DEOs (district education officers).”

Mr Nyawo however, said they would turn to parents if Government fails to award reasonable increments.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said incentives can only be compensated in monetary terms from Government.

“It is going to be a gradual process. We have realised that incentives are a tolerable evil whose lifespan hinges on Government efforts in addressing our plight,” he said.

He also confirmed the walkout.

“There was a heated debate, but you cannot solve chaos by creating another chaos.”

The incentives issue has created divisions between parents and school heads.

Last month, parents and pupils assaulted the headmaster at Victoria High School over incentives.

No comment could be obtained from Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart as his mobile phone was not reachable.

The minister recently convened a meeting after union leaders blamed him for crafting a policy that brought “mayhem” to the education sector.

The Zimbabwean

By Leona Mwavera

VOA

By Chris Ganda and Tatenda Gumbo

19 October 2011

Teachers in urban schools receive between $150 and $400 in incentives depending on their schools, plus a monthly salary of more than $300 from the government, but most rural teachers are not being paid incentives.

Zimbabwean teachers unions and the government have agreed to seek introduction of an education allowance to replace informal incentives parents now pay teachers.

The resolution to phase out incentives to be replaced with an official mechanism was the outcome of a meeting on Tuesday between Education Minister David Coltart, provincial education directors, school development associations and teachers unions.

The Progressive Teachers Union, which has described the incentives as divisive, wants them scrapped. But the Teachers Union of Zimbabwe wants them to be continued.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association Chief Executive Officer Sifiso Ndlovu said that despite such differences the meeting was productive.

Ndlovu said teachers and the ministry resolved to re-introduce a rural allowance and an education levy that will fund the substitute for incentives.

Sources said union leaders blamed Coltart for maintaining the incentive policy that had produced inequality and dissatisfaction among teachers in rural areas who say they do not receive such payments, while many parents say they cannot afford the payments.

Teachers in urban schools receive between $150 and $400 in incentives depending on their schools, plus a monthly salary of more than $300 from the government.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry says private colleges must comply with government regulations or risk being shut down. The ministry says private colleges need to work with others in the educational field to make sure they are operating at a high level.

News reports say the government this year closed 124 private colleges and independent training institutions and de-registered 31 others after finding them sub-standard.

Technical and vocational colleges have become more popular with young Zimbabweans, but the ministry voices concern about the promotion of non-formal education.

It says some colleges have exploited families and students without delivering value.

Director Maxwell Rafomoyo of the Education Coalition of Zimbabwe said the sprouting of such institutions reflects the decline of the country’s formal education sector. He said the institutions must work with the ministry as they are a necessary alternative for youth.

NewZimbabwe.com

19 October 2011

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he was horrified by 2005 proposals discussed between Zanu PF and MDC MPs to push through constitutional amendments requiring presidential candidates to have university degrees.

The modestly-educated MDC leader fears that the plan was designed to exclude him from running for President.

In a new book, ‘At the Deep End’, Tsvangirai points an accusing finger at Welshman Ncube, who was the party’s secretary general at the time.

He writes: “In June 2005, … as Zanu PF factions jostled for turf and supremacy, they kept reaching out to Ncube, our weak provinces and some of our members of parliament.

“Other events inside Zanu PF, emanating from parliament, concerned me. For instance, when Joice Mujuru became vice-president, the Women’s University conferred a degree on her in some dubious discipline, claiming she had done a course on a part-time basis and qualified. There was a clear reason for this.

“Soon enough, I was informed of attempts to push through a constitutional amendment requiring any future presidential aspirant to haveearned an academic university degree, not merely to be in possession of an honorary one. At the time of Mujuru’s controversial selection, Mugabe had hinted that for her political advancement the sky was now the limit.”

Tsvangirai says the “proposed university degree requirement… was clearly designed to disqualify me from standing in future elections”.

He adds: “To my horror, I was told that the proposal originated from the MDC. I called in [Gibson] Sibanda to enquire about the development and what it meant. He was non-committal, advising me to check with David Coltart, our secretary for legal affairs, but he too was evasive, telling me that details of the Bill were on a compact disk somewhere.”

The degree requirement was later taken out before the Amendment reached parliament, but Tsvangirai says it was one of a chain of events leading up to a split in the party in October 2005.

Coltart has explained how the degree proposal came about.

He said: “A first draft of proposed constitutional amendments was produced by independent lawyers to reflect the views expressed by the people of Zimbabwe during the Constitutional Commission’s work. They were tasked with redrafting the Constitutional Commission constitution so that it reflected what the people wanted, as disclosed to commissioners during their ‘outreach’ programme in 2000.

The people’s views were detailed in the Commission’s report but many of them were ignored in the draft constitution which the Commission ultimately produced. One of the most widespread and strongly-held views was that there should not be an executive President: the executive arm of government should be under the control of a Prime Minister, while the President should have only ceremonial duties — smiling at people, patting children on the head, greeting foreign dignitaries, and so on.

At the same time, and rather inconsistently, the people felt that the President should have a university degree (see volume 1 of the Commission’s report, page 561). So when these lawyers redrafted the Commission’s constitution, they gave the President minimal powers, just enough to ensure the continuation of government from one administration to the next. They also put in the provision requiring the President to have a university degree.

They recognised that it was not entirely logical to impose academic qualifications on a person whose only real function was to be nice to people, but the qualifications were not completely incompatible with the post and putting them in would not make the constitution unworkable — and anyway it was what the people said they wanted. Hence that provision was put in.

Sheila Jarvis, a board member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, was already working with others on Constitutional proposals in the lead up to Constitutional Amendment 17. Arnold Tsunga, the Director of ZLHR, and Sheila will confirm that they produced a very detailed package based on the original “What the people want” document – produced in the course of the Constitutional Commission’s work but ignored by it.

ZLHR produced this package for Parliamentarians based on that document. The lawyers’ work in redrafting was therefore not their own – it was based on the “What the people want document” and as far as I understand was part of the ZLHR initiative to stir debate on the issue and to seek some common ground between the NCA draft and the Constitutional Commission’s rejected draft.

To that extent, the constitutional proposal document produced was not an MDC document per se but something that broadly agreed with the MDC’s general constitutional principles but, more to the point, was part of a wider initiative by civil society and lawyers interested in the Constitutional debate to provoke debate.

When I received the first draft from the civic society lawyers, it was on a computer disk. I gave electronic copies to Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube for them to have a look at a week before Amendment 17 was due to be debated. We agreed that in principle, it would be a good idea for us to table the amendments to stimulate debate, knowing that there was no chance of Zanu PF ever accepting the amendments. The same has been done since 2000 – we have consistently tabled amendments to legislation.

When I read the computer version of the document I saw it had the clause referred to above, namely the requirement that the President have a university degree. As that conformed to neither the MDC policy nor my own personal views, I took that clause OUT. The paper version of the amendments tabled in Parliament and handed to each MP clearly has that clause taken OUT by me on MY OWN INITIATIVE.

Furthermore, and in any event, the original offending clause, as clearly demonstrated above, referred to a NON EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT, not an executive President. So it would never have affected Morgan Tsvangirai. Ironically had it not been taken out the person it would most likely have affected within the MDC would have been Vice President Gibson Sibanda! But in any event it was taken out by me as it clearly did not represent MDC policy.”

Daily News

By Godfrey Mtimba 

18 October 2011

Masvingo - Finance Minister Tendai Biti has told the financially-troubled Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) that government will not fund the game before the local football governing body put its house in order first.

Biti’s statement is in sharp contrast to Sports Minister David Coltart’s recent pledge to bail out the association in future following Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify for next year’s African Nations Cup qualifiers in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Responding to an appeal from Zifa’s eastern region chairman, Wellington Muchemwa, who appealed for government assistance for the cash-strapped association, Biti responded with an attack on Zifa, accusing it of “ruining” the country’s most popular sport and running it like a “tuck-shop.”

“As for you guys from Zifa, I tell you to put your house in order first if you need assistance from my ministry,” retorted Biti.

“Football associations around the world make a lot of money if they are run properly and professionally, but here you are running it like a “tuck-shop”, thereby contributing to the demise of the good sport.”

Biti said Zifa must reform first for government to start funding its activities.

The image of football in Zimbabwe has been seriously tarnished by such scandals as the Asiagate match-fixing scam in which Zimbabwe national team players and officials were bribed by an Asian betting syndicate to affect the outcome of matches on several trips to the Far East between 2007 and 2009.

However, a new Zifa board chaired by Cuthbert Dube, which came into office last year, has been making concerted efforts to spruce up the local game’s image by launching a full investigation into the fixing allegations, with the blessing of world governing body Fifa.

Muchemwa, however, further pleaded.

“Minister, I have been sent by my boss Mr (Cuthbert) Dube to appeal for your assistance for our institution so that we ease some of the problems currently dogging us,” he said.

“We have a lot of talent in the country but the country’s football is not growing because of lack of sponsorship,” he said.

Still Biti was not convinced.

“That’s a lame excuse. Football everywhere has the potential of getting sponsorship from the corporate world if it is run professionally and properly by honest individuals,” he said.

“What is needed is to put your house in order and then the corporate world and government can chip in.

People will not be interested in investing in football when it is run by people who cannot be trusted, or who lack order,” Biti said, sparking off shouts of “Asiagate” from the floor.

Remarks made at the International Parliamentary Union Conference at Bern, Switzerland 17 October in the capacity of joint President of the PNND

By Senator Coltart

Nuclear weapons are a hold-over from the Cold War political and security environments, and have no rationale in today’s world. The key threats to national security, including the possibility of terrorist attacks, cannot be addressed or prevented by nuclear weapons. To address conflicts between States we need to use international law and international mechanisms like the United Nations – not the threat or use of force. To address the risks from terrorism, we need greater collaboration between nations to ensure adequate policing and prevention of cross-border support for terrorist organisations, not the threat to destroy other nations with nuclear weapons.

We also need to address the conditions which give rise to terrorism; the increasing gap between rich and poor, the suppression of human rights and democratic processes, the lack of progress in achieving basic standards of living guaranteed in human rights treaties and promised in the Millennium Development Goals.

Nuclear weapons, their threat to human life and the environment, and the resources devoted to them, prevent rather than help meet the security needs of States and their citizens. The $100 billion spent annually on nuclear weapons is nearly 75% of the funding required to meet UN Millennium Development Goals. The production and testing of nuclear weapons generates radioactive pollution that is dangerous to human health and the environment for generations. Any actual use would create catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would be uncontrollable in time and space. Parliamentarians have a responsibility to current and future generations to act for nuclear abolition. Parliamentarians working in collaboration regionally and globally have a capacity to make a real difference in achieving a nuclear weapons free world.

Newsday

By Henry Mhara

17 October 2011

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart was on Sunday elected co-president of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) at the Kursaal Convention Centre in Bern, Switzerland.

PNND is a global network of over 700 parliamentarians from more than 75 countries working to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Membership is open to current members of legislatures and parliaments at state, federal, national and regional levels.

In accepting his new role, Coltart said the huge sums of money spent in the fight for nuclear weapon disarmament could be used for the development of society.

“Aside from the huge threat they pose to humanity, approximately $100 billion is spent a year on nuclear weapons, imagine if that was rather spent on education, I believe that the world would in fact become a much safer place if the world’s funding priorities changed,” said Coltart.

While acknowledging the huge task ahead of him in convincing countries like the United States, Russia and China, leaders in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, Coltart said it was still achievable.

“This may seem an impossible dream but we must work towards a nuclear weapon-free world. It is a very tough goal, but there are good people including many from those nations who want to see an end to nuclear weapons,” he added.

In the three-day assembly which ends on Tuesday, the legislators will discuss ways to leverage their roles in the collaborative work to build the framework for a nuclear weapon-free world.

VOA

Gibbs Dube

17 October 2011

PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teacher representatives have demanded that the government urgently address the situation, as some of rehired teachers have abandoned their classrooms.

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said Monday that the country’s Public Service Commission owes more than two years of salaries to more than 1,000 teachers who rejoined the public service in 2009 when the new unity government declared an amnesty for those who had left the profession for various reasons.

PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teacher representatives have demanded that the government urgently address the situation, as some of rehired teachers have abandoned their classrooms and left the country because of non-payment of salaries.

Zhou said politics appeared to be a factor in the issue as many unpaid teachers are members of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

He said the 8,000 teachers who responded to the amnesty were also victimized because the Public Service Commission only gave them 12-month contracts, not permanent posts.

VOA Studio 7 was unable to reach Education Minister David Coltart or Public Service Minister Lucia Mativenga immediately for comment.

Zhou said Public Service Commission staff must be held accountable.

“It is surprising that the government is victimizing these professionals at a time when it is looking for teachers in order to revive the education sector,” he said.

Political analyst George Mkhwanazi said he believes some Public Service Commission staff with ties to ZANU-PF are discriminating against the rehired teachers.

• Attended Coldplay concert in Joahnnesburg's Soccer City – absolutely blown away – brilliant! Wonderful that Chris Martin has Zim connection #
• Feeling very sad about Zimbabwe's loss to Cape Verde – but the problem actually happened last year at home when we drew due to local chaos #
• Congratulations to Zimbabwean David Pocock for securing the Wallabies' semi final place in Rugby World Cup http://t.co/eSElG2g2 #
• 'My Blackberry is not working" But my iPhone sure is ! Thanks Steve Jobs
  http://t.co/pvzjVV7S #
• Zimbabwean Wallaby David Pocock deals with 'cheat' tag http://t.co/RUziQef6 #
• Off to Europe to attend PNND, UNESCO, SACMEQ and Peace and Sport Conferences #
• Just elected Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament in Bern Switzerland – a tough goal but right #
• A vision of a nuclear weapon free world may seem impossible but we must continue to dream of that – they remain biggest threat to humanity #