Zimbabwean

By Paul Ndlovu

12 July 2011

With inflation spiralling out of control, formal employment and investing in education did not make sense for an ordinary Zimbabwean.

For many youths who had finished their A level education, the next stage for someone wishing to go further up the academic ladder was enrolment at a university or college.

But local college life was unbearable because of the hunger and poverty that students faced at a time when the government had frozen personal grants and loans for students.

In addition, anyone who finished their studies earlier were failing to get formal employment. The unemployment rate was estimated by the UNDP at a staggering 90 percent. Those who did manage to get jobs were hired as temporary teachers – earning peanuts.

Such a scenario made Hope Ndhlovu (19) lose hope in achieving his dream of getting a university education.

But this year his dream came true when he became one of the 31 underprivileged students to receive scholarships worth $70 million to study in the United States, courtesy of the US government.

Ndhlovu’s road has been rocky.

“I wrote my Ordinary level’s in 2008 and as an avid student I knew I had to do something to supplement what my father earned and to pay for my tuition fees as I really wanted to proceed with my education,” he said.

For Ndhlovu to see his dream come true he had to get a job. Not just any job – but a risky one that would give him a decent income to continue schooling at the same time helping his father as a breadwinner.

“I worked as a gold panner in West Nicholson – sleeping underground at Times, or sleeping in the bush waiting for my shift,” he said.

Gold panners make more money a week than some professionals earn per month. But it is risky – some die as rickety shafts collapse, while others are arrested or killed in turf wars.

“One is thrown into an environment where one sees the harsh realities of life. Everyone has heard about the lifestyle of gold panners and I was a child in that situation trying to raise funds for survival. It used to make me think about life seeing different faces from different places,” he said.

Ndhlovu narrated how he and other four young men would arrange to buy some food groceries and send them home to their families.

“Those days we were earning Zimbabwean dollars and the money would lose value every day,” he said.

However he managed to overcome the hurdles and do his A Levels at Mpopoma High after passing his O’ levels.

He did Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Further Mathematics for A level, and scored 20 points.

“I am going to be studying at Harvard University and I am so excited,” he said.

Ndhlovu and other students from diverse backgrounds left for the United States last week at a ceremony graced by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray.

Tsvangirai is his address said: “You must know that as your Prime Minister, I attended a humble primary school in rural Buhera and I did not have the great opportunity afforded to you today. So go and be good students, respect your hosts and work hard. Exhibit the true Zimbabwean spirit, that of hospitality and hard-work. Be vigilant.”

The US ambassador said the scholarship wass part of his country’s positive contribution to Zimbabwe.

“Education is crucial to the success of both our countries. As we share education resources for the benefit of our young citizens, we both grow stronger,” he said.

In his congratulatory message the minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, welcomed US support to education in Zimbabwe.

“This year’s scholarships awards …will enable still more students to pursue their goals and career paths through higher education – something that they might not otherwise have been able to do. Indeed, this generous support is particularly welcome at a time when families are facing increased financial pressures,” he wrote.

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.