DFID Blogs

http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2011/08/southern-winters-and-lunar-eclipses/

By Ian Attfield

1 August 2011

Contrary to popular belief, Africa can get really cold at night! I’m currently spending my first winter proper in the Southern Hemisphere, with dry sunny days and crisp nights under the Southern Cross – and temperatures plummeting to zero in Harare.

When I told people I was joining the Zimbabwean Minister of Education, Sports, Arts & Culture: Senator David Coltart for a day touring schools in Gweru, they all warned me to wrap up as Gweru in the Midlands is reputedly the coldest part of Zimbabwe. They were right. We spent the evening at Antelope Park huddled around a brazier, while young lions – the park runs a release-back-to-nature programme: ALERT  – roared all night, perhaps  due to the freezing temperature!

The next morning we proceeded to Muwinga Primary School. After a brief tour, there followed a large open-air meeting in front of all of the students, who sat patiently in bright blue knitwear, oblivious to the dignitaries’ speeches on progress, reform, sector plans and prevailing macro-economic constraints.  After performances by the children, the Minister bravely fielded questions from the school staff – the subject of overdue salary increases  often being raised.

I share the Minister’s optimism that after another two years we will hopefully see a lot more progress in restoring Zimbabwe’s historically excellent education system. Travelling back home that evening, the African skies revealed another surprise, a full ‘central’ lunar eclipse, the first since 2000, with the next not due until 2018. The moon was slowly ‘eaten away’, leaving a shady brown-orange disk that I just managed to photograph freehand, without too much camera-shake.

In the space of the past, present and future lunar eclipses over Africa, my own children will have passed from infancy to adulthood. Hopefully the 2018 night sky will look down upon a fully recovered Zimbabwe!

We continued to Chaplin Secondary, the oldest school in the town, that lived up to its motto: ‘Pro Honore’ (‘Do it with honour’), with an excellent performance in the historic school hall by the students’ choir. However, the head mistress was articulate in describing the problems she faced to the Minister. Hard times made it a real struggle to maintain the large, ageing school estate in the face of widespread defaults on fees/levies by nearly three-quarters of the parents. Almost all the school revenues from the minority of parents who are able to pay goes into a semi-formal system of teacher incentives that top up salaries. In rural areas, parents can’t afford such payments, so teachers end up with much lower rates of take-home pay - not surprisingly leading to absenteeism and low morale.

Again, the Minister didn’t try to duck questions on this difficult situation and was articulate in reminding us all of the progress made in the last 24 months. Schools have re-opened,textbooks  in both primary and now secondary schools are being delivered, and a plan to continue the recovery is being devised – one that hopefully a number of donors such as DFID and theEuropean Commission will be able to support.

• Go Kirsty Coventry at the World Swimming Championships – Zimbabwe is rooting for you. We are grateful to have such a wonderful icon #
• Rev. John Stott, Major Evangelical Figure, Dies at 90 – http://t.co/6GVlBOp?src=tp #
• “Pride is the greatest temptation of Christian leaders – dangers of being feted, don’t enjoy it, don’t think one should enjoy it.”John Stott #
• Fascinating discussion on political correctness at Centre for Independent Studies Consilium at Coolum – we can't even be PC in Zimbabwe ! #
• Just finished speaking on a joint platform with leader of the opposition in Australia Tony Abbott on religion and politics #
• Sorry that Kirsty Coventry didn't do as well as she I know would've liked – but she is building up – go Kirsty! #

Newsday

By Bridgette Bugalo

30 July 2011

Education minister David Coltart has accused the West of encouraging and appeasing dictators in Africa.

Coltart, who is MDC MP for Khumalo in Bulawayo, made the startling remarks while delivering the annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom at New South Wales Parliamentary Building in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday.

The MDC secretary for legal affairs said Western nations were more inclined to applauding dictatorship than helping Africa to curb it.

“Many of the wars fought by the West have occurred because of the appeasement and sometimes encouragement of dictatorial regimes. In Zimbabwe, the West looked the other way when Zanu PF committed genocide in Matabeleland and even rewarded (President) Robert Mugabe with a knighthood in 1994 — this was mainly because they were more focused on keeping Mugabe out of the Soviet sphere of influence.

“In all these cases, the ultimate cost to both the West and the innocent citizens of those nations ruled by violent men has been enormous,” he said.

Coltart said the world was being dominated by the West, which had control over policies that affected the entire world and it was up to them to decide the fate of poor countries.

“Western nations need to reduce their defence budgets, they need to trust more that the consistent pursuit of principle provides greater security than bombs, they need to rechannel the money saved from defence spending into reducing inequalities between nations,” he said.

Coltart also blasted the reluctance by the West to embrace and support Zimbabwe’s inclusive government.

“In 2008 in Zimbabwe, we chose a flawed political settlement precisely to avoid Zimbabwe being plunged into a civil war. Sadly, some Western countries have not supported that process and in doing so are undermining our chances of making this non-violent process work,” he said.

Coltart said he was “appalled” by the billions of dollars spent in fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bailing out the AIG company in the United States and the billions of dollars spent rescuing profligate Greece compared to the money spent on African education.

“The West has a moral duty to be better stewards of the enormous wealth it has, but a gulf between rich and poor remains.

“Some of these inequities are perpetuated by Western-dominated trade policies and by Western pursuit of self-interest,” he said.

However, Coltart said the West was not entirely to blame as Zimbabwe had its fair share of blame for the “near-total destruction of our economy”.

Newsday

By Richard Chidza

30 July 2011

Once revered as the best on the continent with graduates coming out of our institutions sought-after commodities the world over, Zimbabwe’s education sector has gone off the rails and something has gone awfully wrong.

From schools demanding that financially weary parents pay through the nose for school fees, extra lesson fees, interview fees, and colleges sprouting like mushrooms all over the place, to the constant threat of strike action from teachers every school term, whither Zimbabwe education?

Senator David Coltart’s ministry is known as the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, but are there still elements of culture and sport in our system today or it is increasingly academic with deteriorating standards in the academic section, what with institutions springing up everywhere?

Where are the culture festivals and sports competitions? Our failure as a country to excel in sports competitions — is it —not in any way linked to this besides the argument that the government has failed to nurture young talent?

How is the government supposed to develop the talent when they are not in charge of the nurseries they attend on a daily basis?

These are critical questions whose answers are probably apparent to not only the government, but also the generality of the population.

The proliferation of private schools has been necessitated by the perceived lack of quality in government-run schools.

There have been reports of some institutions having been presumed unregistered by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education which we believe is only the tip of the iceberg.

Probably a good number of the so-called private colleges that are offering learning from elementary level to university degree remain unregistered, but who benefits and who loses out? It’s the parents, guardians and the students.

Most likely we are going to end up with the most technically and academically mediocre generation that we have ever had in this country and it all boils down to poor governance and the logjam that presently characterises our politics in particular and our country in general.

Remember the good old days when we had Physical Education or PE lessons at school? Many so-called private schools/colleges do not offer this most essential aspect of education.

Where do they offer it from when they are housed right in the central business district? They just do not have the space. Where are they supposed to conduct all practicals when they operate from along one of the busiest roads in the city?

Most of them conduct lessons up to noon after which you have pupils loitering in the city centre engaging in a variety of unprofitable activities.

These colleges/schools operate in high-rise buildings in the middle of the city and one is tempted to think we are following in the footsteps of most Western countries in creating an obese generation.

The past decade or so has been particularly challenging for this country, from economic stagnation, social and technological brain drain to political upheavals that threaten to spill into the next century.

The youths of this generation have had the most important part of their lives disrupted by leadership wrangles which they are not part of but which will have a huge bearing on who they become when they grow up.

Where do school authorities get the moral authority to ask parents who are looking for Form 1 places for their children to pay $20 per child then invite 200 applications when in the end they are going to admit only 50 or 100 applicants?

There have been reports of parents going to the extent of offering to build classrooms for schools in order to get places for their children in next year’s Grade 1 classes.Where is the responsible minister in all this? Has the Education ministry abandoned its oversight role on private schools?

I think not, and parents and guardians have to budget anything from twenty dollars to a hundred dollars because they are not sure their children will make it and at which school, so the only logical thing is for them to gamble with at least three or four interview sessions and the school heads and administrators smile all the way home.

Recently a school in Mashonaland West denied pupils who wanted to sit for the Cambridge examinations to use the school as a centre when these same pupils had been part of the school for the past six years.

Because they now feel they are being downgraded according to local standards, they deny the poor kids their right to choose which examination to sit for, a practice that have been part of certain schools for years since the government cut off its relationship with the British University.

This writer happened to be in the area of Manicaland a few weeks ago and saw hundreds, if not thousands, of parents and children who had slept at a school in order to write the entrance test for the Form 1 intake.

The school head said they were only going to accommodate two classes, but then why invite so many applicants? His answer: “There was nothing the school could do if people wanted to try their luck.” Methinks it’s pure money-spinning and would doubt the school authorities or boards know the exact amounts involved.

It is reliably understood it is a trend all over the country and these schools are making a killing, through tuck-shop sales and interview fees. “It’s happening everywhere,” says the headmaster.

I was shocked to see the teachers were manning the school tuck shop and they were selling everything from hot chips to drinks and tea, a sure sign they had anticipated the huge turnout contrary to the head’s assertions that these people had not come by application.

The Education ministry is therefore called upon to have a relook at the curriculum, the policy on private schools/colleges registration and the services they are supposed to offer. What are the requirements for one to operate a school/college? Is it a few buildings or blocks and a toilet and bang! you have a school.

Richard Chidza is a Journalism and Mass Communications student

Zimbabwean

By Vusimusi Bhebhe

30 July 2011

The West should take some of the blame for propping up Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe whose human rights excesses they conveniently ignored since the 1980s, Education Minister David Coltart said last week.

In an address to the Annual Acton Lecture on Religion and Freedom in Sydney, Australia, last Tuesday, Coltart said former colonial master Britain and other Western nations bankrolled the Mugabe regime without regard to the atrocities it committed in Matabeleland and Midlands soon after independence in 1980.

Many of the wars fought by the West since the 2nd World War have occurred because of the appeasement and sometimes encouragement of dictatorial regimes.

Since the 2nd World War many corrupt and violent regimes have prospered because of either Western support or indifference. Saddam Hussein was supported by the US in its fight against the Iranians as were the Taliban in their battle against the Russians.

Cosying up to Gaddafi

He said the same situation recently repeated itself in Libya where Britain has, until last year, been “cosying up” to long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi in order to secure access to Libyan oil.

Western support bolstered and strengthened Gaddafi who has been accused of ruthlessly crashing a protest against his 42-year reign.

“In Zimbabwe the West looked the other way when Zanu (PF) committed a genocide in Matabeleland and even rewarded Robert Mugabe with a knighthood in 1994 – this was mainly because they were more focused on keeping Mugabe out of the Soviet sphere of influence,” Coltart said.

In the early 1980s, Mugabe, then Prime Minister, unleashed the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade into the volatile Matabeleland regions, wiping an estimated 20 000 civilians, including innocent women and children.

Several ministers and top army officials in Mugabe’s side of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government were directly involved in the atrocities, popularly known as the Gukurahundi massacres, and are believed to be hanging on to power to prolong their freedom.

Learn the lesson

Coltart noted that experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Zimbabwe should serve as lessons for the West that propping up profligate and corrupt governments has long-term repercussions.

“I have no doubt that if the West changes it will be less likely to be dragged into the intractable messes it now finds itself in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya,” he said.

Relations between Zimbabwe and the West have soured over the past decade after a cornered Mugabe turned against white farmers from whom he grabbed commercial farmland without compensation. Faced with a formidable political opposition, he also intensified the repression of fellow black Zimbabweans whom he accused of being Western puppets for voting against him and his Zanu (PF) party.

Herald

29 July 2011

GOVERNMENT is considering whether or not incentives for teachers should be scrapped owing to salary increments awarded this month.

Secretary for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Dr Stephen Mahere said they will first engage teachers unions before scrapping the incentives.

However, Deputy Education Minister Lazarus Dokora says it is too early to scrap them.

Dr Mahere on Tuesday said the Government resolved to abolish incentives to avoid disparities they were causing between urban and rural schools.

A day later, Deputy Minister Dokora told Parliament it was too early to scrap the incentives.

He was responding to questions from MPs during the question-and-answer session in the House of Assembly.

Following the latest increases, teachers’ now earn US$320 from US$160 per month.

In rural areas, incentives vary between zero and US$20 while those for their counterparts in urban areas range between US$60 and US$120 or more per month.

Some teachers in peri-urban and other areas such as Epworth are not getting incentives despite having to foot rentals, transport costs and other expenses just like their urban-based counterparts.

“Following the recent increase of civil servants’ salaries, the Ministry had resolved to stop the paying of teachers’ incentives by parents. We seek to end the disparities and confusion that was brought by the issue.

“As the responsible ministry, we made a decision to stop the teachers’ incentives, once the teachers’ salaries improved. We have submitted our position to civil servants union groups and we are still to get feedback from them.

“We want to hear from them whether it is the right time to effect the directive. Once we get that feedback, we will then make an official announcement regarding the matter,” said Dr Mahere.

He said the ministry has always been against the idea of paying teachers’ incentives.

“What we are against as the ministry is a situation whereby teachers chase away pupils who fail to pay the incentives. This has brought serious problems to the innocent pupils. The issue of teachers’ incentives had generally caused serious disharmony and compromised the quality of education in our schools.

“We have made a decision to outlaw them, but only when we agree with the civil servants’ unions that the teachers’ salaries were now viable,” he said.

Dr Mahere said schools should, however, continue to find other forms of retaining qualified teachers.

“We appreciate the idea of schools trying to retain qualified teachers in their schools.

“The ministry encourages schools to introduce traditional incentives that include housing schemes and cars for their teachers instead of paying them cash as incentives,” he said.

Most rural-based teachers, who do not get incentives, were now pushing for places in urban schools.

Some school development associations’ executives have been arrested in the past after abusing the funds which are meant to retain teachers.

Incentives were introduced following an increase in the number of teachers and other civil servants who were quitting their jobs in search of greener pastures in neigbouring countries at the height of the country’s economic woes.

Education Minister David Coltart, is on record as saying scrapping the teachers’ incentives before civil servants salaries are improved would cause chaos.

The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association dismissed the ministry’s proposal, arguing that the recent salary review fell far below the poverty datum line pegged at around US$502.

Zimta chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said while the idea of incentives was not proper, it was not the right time do away with them.

Mr Ndlovu, however, said the association has always been against the paying of incentives to teachers as the facility divided their rural and urban based members.

He said the best way of doing away with incentives was for the Government to give teachers “reasonable and living” salaries.

http://rogerkerr.wordpress.com

July 29, 2011

By Roger Kerr

I’m at Consilium this week in Coolum as a guest of the Centre for Independent Studies and the recipient of their Alan McGregor Fellowship.  Consilium is the CIS’ annual ideas and think fest that brings together a great cross section of Australia’s leaders of business, politics, academia, and the wider community to deliberate on the major economic, social, cultural and regional issues facing Australia and New Zealand. It’s an impressive gathering with all 150 attendees microphoned and seated around a massive oval table.

The forum opened with a dinner last night where I and former Australian PM John Howard were presented with the two annual Alan McGregor Fellowships. The late Alan McGregor AO was a former CIS chairman who played a major role in the organisation’s development and success. The awards are given to honour individuals ‘who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the principles for which the CIS stands’ – free markets, a liberal society, and personal responsibility  I’ve enjoyed a close collaborative relationship with the CIS over more than 30 years and greatly appreciated the honour.

The awards ceremony was followed by ‘Life Under Challenging Regimes’,a conversation with Professor Ricardo Lopez Murphy, Argentine economist, and Senator David Coltart, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Zimbabwe, moderated by Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large of The Australian.  David Coltart is the only white elected MP in a cabinet of 39, and represents a constituency that is 98 percent black.  He spoke of a once highly successful country devastated by a succession of fascist governments, draconian political restrictions, genocide, economic ruin and inflation beyond the believable (a hundred trillion dollar note, that even after 21 zeros were taken off it, still did not buy a loaf of bread).  Yet in the last three years, he explained, while life in Zambabwe remains fraught with risk and social turmoil, the currency has been abandoned, exchange controls and tariffs are coming down, economic growth is picking up – to over 8% last year – and there is hope that Zimbabwe could yet regain its former status as the jewel of Africa.

Ricardo Lopez Murphy was an unsuccessful candidate for the Argentinian presidency on two occasions. He told a similar story of a man committed to achieving democracy and economic prosperity for his country.

The session was, in short, a tale of two people explaining why they love their countries and stick with them, and their grounds for hope that through the restoration of the rule of law and common sense economics, these two countries will rise again.

Financial Gazette

28 July 2011

By Dumisani Nkomo

MATABELELAND is the traditional seat of opposition politics in post-independent Zimbabwe and this has become increasingly evident in the past 11 years with the advent of the Movement for Dem-ocratic Change (MDC).

Pertinently as elections continue to beckon within the next 36 months or so, the battle for the heart, mind and soul of Matabe-leland has begun.

The electoral landscape and political architecture has somehow changed as there are now four political parties that are vying for the control of the region’s vote. While in 2008 the playing field featured ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC, the revived ZAPU has join-ed in the fray making for an appe-tising, gruelling and potentially confusing electoral contest in the south western part of the country.

The electoral and political plot has thickened with the emergence of the controversial Mthwakazi Liberation Front whose nature as a political party or movement is still the subject of debate, contestation, speculation, conjecture and debate.

I will attempt to analyse the chances of these five major players in the forthcoming elections in the context of the political turf and territory in Matabeleland and against the backdrop of various socio-economic, political and cultural factors.

These factors will also be considered in the broader context of the demographics of the electorate in Matabeleland and the broader politics of Zimbabwe. This article will specifically focus on the MDC-T while subsequent articles will focus on ZAPU and the MDC formation led by Professor Welshman Ncube.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)

The MDC-T is arguably the country’s most popular party and continues to pose the biggest threat to ZANU-PF. Its candidate Morgan Richard Tsvangirai became the first man in Zimbabwe to defeat President Robert Mugabe in an election. The party won all the House of Assembly seats on offer in Bulawayo in the 2008 elections and lost only one senate seat to MDC stalwart, David Coltart. The party also won a significant number of seats in Matabeleland North although ZANU-PF and the MDC also won several seats in the province. In Matabeleland South the party managed to grab a number of parliamentary seats but failed to unseat ZANU-PF from its traditional strongholds in Beitbri-dge, Insiza North and Gwanda South. It also failed to land any seats in the vast Bulilima and Mangwe constituencies, Insiza South and Umzingwane .It maintained a tight grip over the two constituencies in Matobo.

The party faces a number of challenges in the forthcoming elections and has to deal with various structural, strategic and ideological issues including but not limited to the following:

1. The party has failed to clearly locate itself in the Matabeleland marginalisation discourse which currently is the biggest issue in the region. Its detractors have accused it of being indifferent and at best pedestrian in issues relating to the marginalisation of Matabeleland whether real or imaged.

2. Linked to this is the party’s ambiguity and ambivalence about the emotive issue of Gukurahundi. This is not withstanding the gallant attempts by deputy spokesperson of the party, Tabitha Khumalo, who moved a motion in Parliament on the issue a couple of years ago and Nkulumane legislator, Thamsanqa Mahlangu’s efforts to debate the issue of the de-industrialisation of Bulawayo in Parliament. These efforts are largely unknown in the public domain. However, the party is perceived as lagging far behind the other political players excluding the “suicide prone” politicians in ZANU-PF in issues affecting the region.

3.The party’s leadership is at the level of the top six – such as president, vice president, secretary general,treasurer general, spokesperson and chairperson – is thought and perceived not to adequately reflect the country’s delicate ethnic political matrix with Thokozani Khuphe and Lovemore Moyo being the only key politicians from the region. The party’s argument that it has accommodated other competing ethnic interests from the country’s other provinces may be valid but will not be acceptable in Matabe-leland. To their credit albeit at the expense of democracy a number of other politicians from Matabeleland were then incorporated into the national executive .

There remains a fear however, that if the party wins the next elections it will not have adequate representation and leadership form Matabeleland and thus perpetuate the ZANU-PF legacy of economic “Apartheid” of Matabeleland .

The party also took a battering after the provincial elections in Bulawayo, which were marred by internal conflict, accusations of violence, witch-hunting and overt factionalism. Associations with violence and hooliganism, traditionally reserved and exclusive to ZANU-PF, will haunt the party for years to come. The MDC- T will need to improve the quality of candidates that it will field in the next elections if it entertains chan-ces of winning anything in Matabeleland.

Critically the party‘s greatest strength could potentially be its strongest weakness. The MDC-T major strength is its strategic positioning as the only party capable of defeating ZANU-PF in an election and even in the former ruling party’s strongholds in Mashonaland. This in itself holds tremendous appeal for the electorate who may not care who or what they vote for as long as it is not ZANU-PF. To this end the electorate may reject even the most able and capable candidates from MDC and ZAPU and opt for whoever the MDC- T candidate is because that vote may in the mind of the voter represent and symbolize the removal of ZANU-PF and its leader.

However, this very fact may lead to the demise of the party as a lot of people in Matabeleland are no longer looking at Mugabe and ZANU-PF but are also asking that all important question “What is in it for us as Matabeleland?” If the party entertains chances of making inroads against its opponents it has to:

1. Develop clear positions on the development or under-development of Matabeleland

2. Display visibility and aggression in issues such as Gukurahundi and how it should be addressed.

3. Improve the quality of its candidates

4. At a national level display ideological maturity and clarity by proving that they are not just about “Mugabe/ZANU-PF must go party” but they have the capacity to govern competently

5. Ensure that the local authorities under their control display the aforesaid qualities of good governance. Trends in Victoria Falls, Harare, Bulawayo, Chitungwiza, amongst other places are worrying as similarities with ZANU-PF, have been noted

6. Develop political maturity when dealing with ZAPU and MDC so as to consolidate gains and build on gains in the next elections

7. An alliance with any of the other two parties (ZAPU) and MDC is an attractive possibility but remains contentious because the only people who may lose out on positions are from Matabeleland as this is where the other two main parties are also strong

If the party fails to assert and position itself in issues affecting the region it may find itself being politically irrelevant in the next elections .The MDC-T is likely to do well in Bulawayo which has a highly cosmopolitan population but may struggle in some areas in Matabeleland North and South.

They face a stiff challenge from the rejuvenated MDC under Welshman Ncube which has positioned itself clearly on Matabeleland issues. They will also face stiff competition from Dumiso Dabengwa’s ZAPU. ZANU-PF may be a negligible factor in the next elections largely due to the irrelevance of the party’s Matabeleland leadership which continues with politically suicidal political pronouncements.

If the focal issue of elections remains as the removal of President Mugabe of ZANU-PF, the MDC-T will romp to victory in Matabeleland and crush its opponents regardless of their good intentions ,quality or ideology as these are not enough an election in Zimbabwe at the moment.

I will focus on the chances of other political parties in the next four articles.

Dumisani Nkomo can be contacted at dumisani.nkomo@gmail.com