Newsday

By Bridgette Bugalo

12 July 2011

The Bulawayo Provincial Education Director Dan Moyo on Friday said the turf removed from the Khumalo Hockey Stadium would be shared among several schools in the country’s second biggest city.

He however did not give the number of schools to benefit from the turf to be replaced with a new one.

In an interview with NewsDay on Friday, Moyo said the hockey stadium turf needed revamping in preparation for the Africa Olympic qualifiers pencilled in for September.

“Bulawayo schools will be benefiting from the rehabilitation of the hockey stadium because as soon as the old turf is removed, the turf will be allocated to various schools. The turf was last restored in 1994 to 1995 and it is imperative that it be sent to schools to ensure that learning sporting activities begins at a young age,” he said.

Moyo said the Africa Olympic qualifiers were an opportunity for development and would be a legacy for Zimbabwe.

The Minister for Education, Sports, Arts and Culture David Coltart said the new Khumalo Hockey Stadium turf would arrive on Friday and would facilitate the replacement of the old turf.

“The Hockey Association of Zimbabwe, Ministry of Education, the Bulawayo City Council, public works, schools and clubs are being supportive in this project,” he said.

Zimbabwean

By Paul Ndlovu

11 July 2011

Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said his ministry had made strides towards reviving education standards and ethics among educators across the country.

“We want to restore total sanity and curb lawlessness that has been the order of the day in many schools,” he said.

“To that effect education inspectors have been immediately deployed following the commissioning of their (inspectors) vehicles capacitating them to do their duties.”

Last week 59 Nissan hard bodies, valued at $1.3 million, were distributed to inspectors across the country.

Coltart said the vehicles would go along way in improving education standards because monitoring of schools had slowed with education officers unable to move around to schools.

“Education officers are just like police officers,” he said.

“They need to be on the ground all the time to monitor the conducts as well as problems affecting teachers and pupils. They also need to get first hand statistics on issues of attendance.”

He emphasised that monitoring would defuse growing tension in some cases between parents and school authorities.

Coltart said his ministry was securing 8 million textbooks for secondary schools.

“The textbook programme for secondary schools with UNICEF is progressing well. We are aiming at producing textbooks for Mathematics, English, History, Science, Geography and indigenous languages,” he said.

• “@Byo24News: | "Coltart fails to welcome Sepp Blatter http://t.co/0AHmNBZ” pathetic ZANU PF propaganda #
• Intrigued by NOTW furore; in the last 10 years Zimbabwe Govt agents have been hacking into our phones illegally – they wont lose their jobs #
• Watched Zimbabwe's Mighty Warriors women football team thrash Malawi 8-2 on Monday – they are a great team and hugely entertaining #
• Bulawayo to host Africa Hockey Congress on 9th September 2011 http://t.co/P5mpn6Q – another benefit of the revamped Khumalo Stadium. Ta TB #
• Congratulations to Zimbabwe Mighty warriors women football team for beating South Africa today and taking the COSAFA Cup. Now men your turn! #
• Charlene Wittstock, recently married to Prince Albert II of Monaco, was born on 25th January,1978 at Mater Dei Hospital Bulawayo, Zimbabwe #

Newsday

Sports Reporter

8 July 2011

The Hockey Association of Zimbabwe has announced that the ship with the containers holding the new carpet for the Khumalo Hockey Stadium (KHS) is due to dock in Durban, South Africa, on Monday.

Chairman of the Hockey Olympic Qualifiers local organising committee Gavin Stephens said in a statement yesterday that the carpet should be delivered to Bulawayo by July 16.

“This will keep the project on course for commissioning by the end of July. It is understood that the Ministry of Public Works is rushing to meet the deadline, with their work schedule lagging behind.”

In response to a call from the Matabeleland Hockey Board (MHB), approximately 60-70 people arrived at the Khumalo Hockey Stadium on Saturday, July 2 2011.

About 20 of these were labourers from Petra School, Burger & McBean and Precast Concrete Products.

The other 50 were made up of hockey players, parents of hockey players, and members of general public.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, arrived to lend his support, while both current and former national and provincial hockey players were also present.

There was a front-end loader which was loaned from Premier Engineering, free of charge, and an operator from Burger & McBean.

The MHB had sourced a donation of fuel and this machine was essential in the removal of the last few strips of the old turf, wrecked cars and an incredible amount of waste.

PPC Zimbabwe loaned a truck which moved the waste from the KHS to a registered dump, some 21 tonnes of rubbish left from Sports and Recreation Commission-sanctioned events at the KHS in the past five years!

The work that was done was to remove rubbish that had been stored in the corporate and broadcasting boxes of the KHS, and then clean the dirt from the rooms.

At the same time work was done mainly around the B field in terms of removing weeds and dirt from the drainage ducts and the pavement surrounding the fields.

On the A field people were involved in removing cut grass, removing grass from the pavement surrounding the pitch and cutting down of unwanted trees.

Zimbabwe Independent

Muckraker

8 July 2011

THERE has been much hoopla over Sepp Blatter’s visit this week. “Blatter magic hits Harare,” the Herald proclaimed. Zimbabwe was being singled out for a special favour, we were led to believe.

Of course the only country on the continent Blatter could fit in with perfectly is Zimbabwe. According to one blog he likes money, clings to power, runs a dodgy administration, and loves travel. We were also struck by the way he dealt with his enemies before they could deal with him!

Anyway, no sooner had we had an opportunity to say hello than he was off to South Africa for an IOC meeting, the real purpose of his trip. We were just a pit stop.

We all know that the state broadcaster needs to attack ministers from both MDC formations as they sing for their supper but they took it to preposterous levels on Monday.

This time they were attacking Education minister David Coltart. His Crime? Not being at the airport to welcome Fifa president Sepp Blatter .

What’s more they said this was because he was trying to organise a meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. There was of course no coverage from ZBC of Blatter’s meeting with the Prime Minister.

Never mind that Coltart practically spent the whole day with Blatter  going with him to meet Mugabe, Tsvangirai as well as attending the national women’s Cosafa match against Malawi with the Fifa boss.

This kind of rubbish has few takers  and is among the numerous indicators that professionalism at the national broadcaster has well and truly gone to the dogs.

And they wonder why viewers think their television licence fees are just $50 too much.

Another group of Mugabe praise-singers have come onto the scene. This time in the form of the Muzarabani Nehanda Choir. The Herald quotes group member Ainesu Kasambarave saying of the objective of the album: “Our aim as a group is to promote our area (Muzarabani). We also want to remind youths of the sacrifices that Mbuya Nehanda and other heroes and heroines who came after her made for the liberation of the country.”

“We also want to inculcate into people’s minds how our leaders like President Mugabe have led the country with vision, courage and determination.”

Vision and courage? Runaway inflation, rendering people homeless through Operation Murambatsvina and declaring that the bullet can replace the pen during the presidential runoff campaign after he lost to Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of elections in 2008 hardly sounds like vision and courage to us.

And you are hardly going to change people’s minds by jingles and bottom wriggling!

The Herald’s literary standards are definitely sinking. How about this for an introductory paragraph from an op/ed piece by a teacher, one Caine Humanikwa: “The West which I hear calls itself the international community is the worst notorious (sic) wealth hunter and the path on which it walks is strewn with trails of blood, cries, death, disasters, great suffering, pain, and poverty and uses brutal tactics to achieve its so-called permanent interests.”

Can you imagine a whole generation of Zimbabweans brought up on this semi-literate drivel? And were you aware that some Zimbabweans should not vacation at the country’s chief resorts?

“In these tough turbulent times,” the teacher continued, “the kith and kin have never stopped holidaying in Nyanga, Victoria Falls, Kariba, clubbing in hotels or abroad.

So “abroad” is off limits as well? Where does that leave?

Sitting in petrol queues apparently. That’s the place to be, according to the writer. But ironically the petrol queues were seen at the time as recruiting sergeants of the MDC.

The thing about Herald and Sunday Mail columnists is that they think they speak for an authentic Zimbabwean constituency when in fact that same constituency voted against these imposters as soon as it had the chance. So now they have to threaten and intimidate with half-baked racist rubbish which gets them nowhere in the end. The nation in 2000 and 2008 said it was not interested in their fulminations.

What is evident is the invention of bogeymen who are manipulated to scare voters. They are called “the enemy” but needless to say they don’t exist. The real enemy are the people pillaging the country as they cling to power. So long as they continue to spout the sort of ignorant and hate-filled vituperations we are currently witnessing in the state media there is little prospect of national recovery.

We were amused by Jonathan Moyo’s reference to donkeys (courtesy of Mahatma Ghandi) at the conclusion of his interview with Chris Maroleng. When it was pointed out to us that it was nothing new and he frequently made reference to donkeys, some wag was quick to say that was because he came from Tsholotsho.

What has happened to Tendai Biti? In London to address the Commonwealth Business Council, he said land reform was irreversible “no matter how ugly it was done”.

So those who were killed and had their properties stolen don’t matter?

He described the US as “intransigent and aloof” and said the land reform was successful when judging production output in crops such as tobacco.

What we have here is a senior MDC-T official prepared to overlook violence and pillaging of property in the name of inter-party solidarity. Is this the right thing to do? Is it principled or just expedient? What happened to the land reform commission? Has that been glossed over?

The members of the Commonwealth Business Council who Biti implored to come here and invest are unlikely to do so when senior members of the government ignore confiscation of property and lack of compensation. This by the way is Zimbabwe’s responsibility, not Britain’s. It was slipped into the 2000 draft constitution by Zanu PF and rejected by voters.

Biti sounded as if he was speaking for Zanu PF. He claimed the country’s judiciary measured up to any other around the world. “The judges and officials are well-read,” he claimed, “well-trained and respected globally.”

And what of the Sadc Tribunal Tendai, to which applicants had recourse if their own judicial systems failed to assist? That proved an inconvenience so it was abolished.

Strange justice there. Again, the MDC-T said nothing.

Biti castigated the Americans for not taking advantage of the opportunities Zimbabwe offered. Can the Americans be blamed for avoiding commitments to a country whose leading party — the MDC-T — is so shallow in its approach to governance?

We recall the visits of MDC-T officials to besieged farms to see the evidence for themselves and then returning to Harare with nothing to say as if some shady deal had been done. Again, what has happened to the land commission?

We were interested to note that Zimbabwe had been removed from the agenda of the Sadc organ on Defence, Politics and Security ministerial committee “because the political and security situation has normalised”.

We rolled around with laughter at that one. Normalised? Is that what they call it?

And who made this dubious claim? Secretary for Foreign Affairs Joey Bimha, we gather.

Zimbabwe will be left to the facilitator to deal with rather than the troika, he said.

Strange isn’t it that this news hasn’t been published elsewhere.

It was salutary to read the remarks of Thailand’s generals on the outcome of their election this week. Thailand’s outgoing Defence minister, himself a retired general, said the army accepted the election result.

“I have talked to military leaders. We will allow politicians to work it out,” he said. “The military will not get involved,” General Prawit Wongsuwon told AFP. “The people have spoken clearly so the military cannot do anything. We accept it.”

Wise words and a good example to others.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how all those columnists in the state media who are batting for Gaddafi omitted to tell us that China hosted Libyan rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril last month? Do we detect a crack in the solidarity ranks?

Finally we enjoyed ZBC’s commentary from the Sandton summit last month. Morgan Tsvangirai left the meeting with “an egg on his face”, we were told.

Scrambled or poached?

The Zimbabwe Guardian

http://talkzimbabwe.com/

By Tendai Moyo

8 July 2011

CALLS for immediate security sector reforms in Zimbabwe by America and its local regime change functionaries betray their unparalleled hypocrisy and fork-tongued nature.

While they are vociferously calling for our security structures to be neutered, their political and governance structures are replete with military and intelligence people who hold influential positions.

It is interesting to note that the USA, the voice behind Tsvangirai and other like-minded organisations, has a rich history of leaders who literally walked from their barracks to assume the presidency of this powerful country. George Washington, who is the first president of America, was a General of the Army with experiences from the American Revolutionary war and the French and Indian wars from 1754 until 1764.

Information at hand also indicates that of all the 44 presidents of the USA, only 12 of them did not belong to the barracks. The rest have fought wars, commanded armies and held key military positions. Outstanding among these are Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan who fought bitter wars to expand and strengthen the territorial integrity and sovereignty of America.

In 2000, General Colin Powel, another military man from the US, rose from the trenches of America’s military escapades in Iraq to contest in primary elections for the Democrats presidential candidate’s post. He was eventually trounced by George W. Bush Jr and ultimately settled for the influential governance post of Secretary for State.

In the US, military men are not only confined to national governance but are also incorporated in other affairs of the state that include, but are not limited to, diplomatic services. This is glaringly evident in Zimbabwe where it has consecutively deployed former military men to represent its interests. The current US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, is a retired Major of the US Army. Mr. Ray served in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1982. He replaced Ambassador James McGee who also served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968 to 1974.

Closer home in Botswana, the president is a military man, Lieutenant General Ian Khama, who exchanged military fatigue for presidential suits. He is deputized by a soldier, Lieutenant General Mompati Merafhe, who has previously served as Khama’s superior in the army. The Batswana government has numerous other top government officials who have hailed from the barracks.

Despite the omnipresence of such decorated military men in the Botswana government, it is hailed as Africa’s beacon of democracy.

Cases of military men who traded their military offices for political persuasions are innumerably abundant and not peculiar to the US or Botswana. Interestingly, the MDC-T, the most vocal proponent of security sector reforms, has also managed to grab this global trend by recruiting military men into its ranks.

It has a legion of serving and retired high ranking military men in its ranks that include retired Major Giles Mutsekwa, who is Minister of Housing and Social Amenities, Retired Colonel Martin Rupiya, Retired Senior Intelligence Officer Pearson Mbalekwa, Former Senior Assistant Commissioner Emmanuel Chibanda, who is the MDC-T Director of Security, Retired Senior Selous Scouts David Coltart, who is Minister of Education and Culture, and the beleaguered Roy Bennett, who is MDC-T’s fund raiser and Treasurer General.

There are numerous other junior ranking military people who constitute the membership of this supposedly military averse organization.

The lesson inherent in the afore-mentioned revelations is that military men are universally allowed to become political men.

It is this realisation that palpably jostled Professor Charles Pfukwa, in one of his editorials in The Patriot to question that; ‘How can one man ask another to break his spear when the former has a quiver full of arrows and fully strung bow?”

However all these revelations come on the backdrop of heightened campaigns by the Americans and their local and international quislings to push for security sector reforms in Zimbabwe arguing that the country’s political space has become too militarized.

In line with this imperial crusade, the Crisis in Zimbawe Coalition on 9 June 2011 published a report titled ‘The Military Factor in Zimbabwe’s Political and Electoral Affairs,’ which tries to portray the participation of Zimbabwe’s military men in governance and politics as an insipid phenomenon peculiar to the Southern African nation.

Ironically the crisis savvy organisation recently entangled itself in some security crisis in South Africa when it’s hired mob of largely European demonstrator’s triggered violent skirmishes on the sidelines of the Sandton Extraordinary SADC Summit in South Africa, which were ably managed by the South African security forces. We could be forgiven for believing that the crisis ridden organization would also lobby for the reformation of the South African security forces for dousing their ill-fated violent demonstrations.

What is also puzzling is that the MDC-T, whose members are a constant threat to the general security of the country, is spearheading the campaign to emasculate our security sector.

The party recently left a bloody trail of violence on the run up to its fractious national congress in Bulawayo. Also emerging from the womb of the violent congress is a militant youth assembly that immediately launched a violent campaigned they aptly dubbed the ‘eye for an eye campaign’ against ZANU-PF members.

The campaign was consummated when suspected MDC-T supporters callously murdered a police Inspector Petros Mutedza. Inspector Mutedza was lynched by political followers who were unquestionably buoyed by the instigative ‘eye for an eye’ campaign.

It is such security challenges that the MDC-T and its regime change bedfellows would like the security forces to turn a blind eye against.

One of the concerns raised in Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition’s report was that the military have come up with specifications for who can occupy the presidential seat. They indicated that the position should not be straitjacket.

It is clear from this assertion that these pro-western organisations are naively oblivious of the fact that even their American masters, in buttressing their national security against extraneous forces, have specifications that determine the characteristics of who should become president in their country. It is irrefutable that some of these specifications stipulate that no one with communist and/or Islam inclinations would ever be allowed to rule the US.

In this sense, the US security functionaries at the Pentagon are the guardians of the nation’s presidency and no one has any qualms about it. So what is this hullabaloo against the Zimbabwean security forces when they duly prescribe who should and who should not be the president of Zimbabwe under the prevailing security challenges besieging our country?

It is also interesting that while the MDC-T and its coterie of regime change acolytes are finding fault with the security structures in Zimbabwe, the Sadc Sandton summit had consigned the security issue to the political dustbin. The summit refused to entertain this unsubstantiated security scare.

This regional position was further entrenched when the organisation’s organ responsible for security, after a rigorous scrutiny of the country’s security situation, decided to remove the country from its agenda. This was a slap in the face of the shameless regime change apparatchiks.

Perplexingly, in the militarized country of Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba and while the imperial coalition is propagating its security lies, the General was booted out of the constitution making body, COPAC. How can this happen in a country where the general and his colleagues in the barracks have usurped civilian power?

Similarly, how could Morgan Tsvangirai, in such a de facto military state, be allowed to spew such abrasively provocative utterances against the omnipotent Generals without scurrying for cover at the Dutch Embassy?

Furthermore, how can his party continue to freely traverse the breadth and width of the country holding peace rallies in a country were war veterans, soldiers and youth militia have been deployed to orchestrate violence?

If the military men in the US and other countries are allowed to participate in the political affairs of their countries, why is our military men denied the same privilege?

The whole security sector reform crusade smacks of a spirited and disingenuous campaign to weaken our military establishments so as expedite the treacherous regime change project. Our detractors have identified the military as a stumbling block to their imperial designs hence their unremitting denigration of the institution.

The hypocrisy in these calls for security sector reforms is however unquestionable. We should therefore resist any temptations to concede more ground to these neo-colonial demands as they are insidiously designed to weaken our revolutionary resolve.

Newsday

By Silas Nkala

8 July 2011

The MDC-T has said it is closely monitoring the performance of all its Bulawayo MPs, senators and councillors to ensure sound service delivery.

MDC-T provincial spokesman Mandla Sibanda told NewsDay yesterday elected members of the party were obliged to visit their constituencies regularly to update the electorate on issues discussed in Parliament for them to keep abreast with issues concerning them.

The move comes in the wake of complaints by residents that most of the MPs and councillors who were being elected since independence, had failed to deliver hence the region remained underdeveloped.

The MDC-T controls all 12 House of Assembly seats in the city, six of the seven Senate seats and 26 of the 29 councillors constituting Bulawayo City Council.

The Welshman Ncube-led MDC formation has one senator (David Coltart) and three councillors.

As part of the monitoring exercise, the party’s Bulawayo provincial executive attended the Wednesday full council meeting to monitor how their elected members debated issues.

“In efforts to establish how effective our councillors are in the Bulawayo City Council operations, we attended the full council meeting to hear how they were contributing to the development of the city on behalf of the electorate,” said Sibanda.

“What is left is for them to go down with that kind of information to their electorate to update them. The councillors could openly talk on developmental issues to a wider extent and it was really good.”

He said it was important for the MDC-T to ensure its elected members delivered what they promised to the electorate during the campaign period.

Sibanda said the party would make public its findings under the leadership-monitoring exercise.

Herald

7 July 2011

By Petros Kausiyo

EDUCATION, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart wants Zifa and the Sport and Recreation Commission to convene an urgent football stakeholders indaba that will ensure the domestic game reaps rewards from Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s visit to the country.

Coltart had a chance to meet with Blatter during his whirlwind tour of Zimbabwe his visit to Zimbabwe and joined the Zifa board, Sports Commission leadership and other officials at the Harare International Airport on Tuesday to see off the Fifa boss and his entourage.

Blatter left Harare for Durban, South Africa where he will attend the 123rd session of the International Olympic Committee but not before indicating to the local football family that they needed to come up with initiatives after which Fifa would assist them financially and materially.

Coltart said it was imperative that government led the way in assisting Zifa’s revival mission and felt that Blatter’s maiden visit to Zimbabwe would “re-energise our football”.

The Minister insisted that Zimbabwe had the capacity and potential to be a regular feature at the African Cup of Nations and also felt the Warriors could also put up a strong fight and even qualify for the World Cup.

“I think it has been a very positive trip by the Fifa president. I hope it energises all of us to work harder so that Zimbabwe football reaches its true potential.

“I think we have under-performed given the talent that we have and we should not be battling to qualify for the African Cup of Nations or even the World Cup.

“We should also de-politicise football so that we leave people who are better placed to run the game and have the passion for it to run the sport,” Coltart said.

Coltart said he had impressed upon both Zifa and the Sports Commission the urgent need for the football indaba.

“I have had a discussion with Zifa and the SRC and agreed that we need to have a fresh impetus to the indaba in August.”

Coltart said the main thrust of the meeting would be to find tangible ways funding for football and also comes against the background of Blatter’s pledge to assist the association.

“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 on a viable and sound footing,” Coltart said.

Coltart said it was also important for the Zifa board to focus on other facets of the game after they completed their probe into allegations of match fixing that had rocked the domestic game.

Zifa’s investigating committee, headed by the association’s vice-president Ndumiso Gumede, compiled the Asiagate report which has been handed over to Fifa, Caf, Sports Commission and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

“I think the Zifa board has, in the last few months, been focusing on the match-fixing and efforts to clean up the game.

“I have not seen their report yet but the law must take its course without fear or favour. If there is criminal activity established and if there is prima facie evidence then the police will have to come in and deal with that.

“Some of the offences may not constitute a criminal act but if it infringes on Zifa and the Fifa statutes then Zifa should use their disciplinary code, our role as the Ministry is that of overseeing that due process is done,” Coltart said.

Fifa have since engaged Interpol to assist them fight the scourge of match fixing and illegal betting across the globe.

The World soccer governing body’s head of security Chris Eaton and investigations officer Terry Steans are also scheduled to travel to Harare for meetings with the Gumede committee, the Zimbabwe Republic

Police, the Sports Commission and other people viewed as key to completing the probe.

Eaton had been expected to arrive in Harare from South Korea last Sunday but is understood to have rescheduled his journey for later his month as his team had another mission in Mexico.

Coltart also said he had noted that Zifa needed assistance to beef up their secretariat and said the matter would also be tabled for discussion at the envisaged indaba.

“Under the ambit of the indaba if it comes up that Zifa needs help in terms of personnel we will see how can assist.

“But really I would want to invite some of my colleagues in Cabinet for that indaba so that we address issues of taxation, the costs of hiring stadia and other levies eating into football,” Coltart said.

Sports Commission board vice-chairman Edward Siwela said although Blatter’s visit was a big event for football, he believed it was also a blessing for the country’s sport.

“Our view is that this must be a blessing to Zimbabwe sport and to Zifa in particular when these big guys come. It is an endorsement of what we are doing in sport.

“We however need to ensure that we button up on our administration so that we exploit the opportunities that such a visit brings. We appreciate fully the significance of this tour and as SRC we have completed our strategic plan for the next six years on the challenges bedeviling the administration of sport,” Siwela said.

The Zimbabwean

6 July 2011

Africa has more football talent than the Brazilians. All that is left is for it to be developed and it needs a lot of patience, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said during his historic one day visit to Zimbabwe last week.

Blatter, who met with both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, on different occasions, was impressed with the way the world’s famous game is uniting people of different political, religious and social backgrounds across the globe.

“I’m happy that you have managed to organize this tournament and the response from the people here is just amazing. It shows how people of different backgrounds can be united by football just as was the case in South Africa during the World Cup. I met with the two political leaders and it they both spoke of football as such an amazing game,” said Blatter.

“We (FIFA) do not intend to impose European football in Africa, but we want to help you develop the game in the best way you understand it. I was pretty impressed by the way the girls displayed their ability to attack during play. They have great skills and we hope to see women teams from Africa making it all the way to the finals of the World Cup.”

Speaking on Zimbabwe’s issue of the Asiagate scandal, Blatter assured that once found guilty of participating in match-fixing players or any administrators involved will face “a life suspension from football.”

While Zimbabwe Football Association president Cuthbert Dube believes Blatter’s visit will open doors of trust for the corporate world to come on board in the development of football in Zimbabwe, the Minister of Education, Sports, Art and culture, David Coltart, took the visit as a blessing to the nation’s image.

“This visit goes way beyond football; Zimbabwe had become a negative brand in the world and since the formation of the unity government we have been trying to correct that. This visit is an endorsement we seek. We hope to see the Football for Hope Project coming in to extend education in Zimbabwe and my hope is that this visit can bring some hope in that regard,” said Coltart.