Guardian.co.uk

3rd August 2011

By Andy Bull

While the world’s attention is focused on what is happening at the top of the Test rankings, there are about to be some intriguing developments at the bottom. Zimbabwe start their first Test in six years on Thursday, against Bangladesh in Harare. At any other time their return from self-imposed exile would be unlikely to pass with so little comment from the cricket community, but the series between India and England leaves little room for anything else.

Zimbabwe may prefer it that way. On the eve of the match their most experienced player, the wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu, launched a stinging attack on the country’s governing body, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), undermining the perception that it has done much to reorganise and rehabilitate the sport in recent years.

“I don’t think much has changed really, the administration is still struggling to run cricket in the country well,” Taibu said. “For example, the guys haven’t been paid their match fees from August last year up to now. At the moment I am sitting here without a contract, no one has got a contract. Those are all things that the administration is struggling to deal with.”

The chairman of selectors, Alistair Campbell, who has been at the centre of Zimbabwean Cricket since he was appointed in 2009, said he would not drop Taibu, but described the comments as a “slap in the face” and promised that he would “have it out” with the player. According to a report by Tristan Holme on Cricket365, Campbell and Taibu did exactly that, on the outfield at the Harare Sports Club and in front of players and public.

Taibu’s criticisms of the administrators got stronger still.

“When you walk around and you see a house that’s painted well you will think that house is really standing strong but if it does not have a strong foundation, it will fall down one day or another,” he said. “Zimbabwe Cricket has just painted a house that’s about to fall.”

He was quick to point out that the blame did not lie with those involved with the team on a day-to-day basis.

“I can’t fault the coaching staff, they’ve worked really hard and I can’t fault the guys. They come in day in and day out but they are not getting much support from the administration, unfortunately.”

Taibu’s words seemed to be aimed at the managing director, Ozias Bvute, and the chairman, Peter Chingoka, who have been in place since before Zimbabwe withdrew from Tests, on the grounds that they were not competitive enough.

Zimbabwe Cricket has been praised for introducing a franchise system at domestic level, a move which has rejuvenated the sport. The improvements made in the last two years under the guidance of the minister for education, culture and sport, David Coltart (an MDC Minister) have been significant. But as Coltart said this year, the real challenge for ZC is to find the resources to “maintain the franchises and develop a rigorous player development programme”.

Eyebrows were raised when ZC reportedly paid Brian Lara US$30,000 (£18, 260) to make guest appearances in the domestic Twenty20 competition a few months ago. And Coltart added that while high-profile coaches – Allan Donald, Duncan Fletcher and Jason Gillespie have done stints in the country – were helping the players, such recruitment should not come at the cost of the basics.

And when, as Taibu says, the national team do not have contracts two days before the start of their first Test in six years and have not been paid their match fees for the past 12 months, it would seem that some of the essentials have been mishandled. The money which was so forthcoming when the likes of Lara were brought over seems to have dried up. The Zimbabwean players are still waiting to be paid their match fees from the World Cup.

“It’s no secret that the guys haven’t been paid their money,” Campbell told Cricket365. He said the reason the players were not on permanent retainers was because the new contracts would not start until September. “Maybe Zimbabwe Cricket should have organised contracts a bit better, but it is nothing to make a big deal out of. It’s not ideal that the players haven’t been paid their match fees but there’s a cashflow in this global economic crisis which has left a lot of other boards in debt. They will be paid, but it will be easier once we get more international cricket here.”

Pakistan are due to play a one-off Test and some limited-overs fixtures in Zimbabwe this season, and New Zealand are scheduled to tour, having been persuaded out of their initial doubts by Coltart. Zimbabwe prepared for this match by playing two four-day games against Australia A – they lost both, which will do little to assuage the worries of those who say their return will only lead to more unequal Test matches.

Bangladesh, however, have not played a Test in 14 months, and they lost their warm-up against a Zimbabwean XI on a grassy pitch that was similar to the one expected to be used in the Test.

For the next five days, as Campbell said, “everyone will be watching how we are going to perform”. Zimbabwe’s players should be fine in that regard. There is some genuine talent in the team. But the same goes for the administrators, and they have fouled up before the match has even started.

Zimbabwean

2 August 2011

By John Chimunhu

Zanu (PF) militants forced workers at the targeted Mimosa Platinum Mine here to buy the unpopular party’s membership cards at extortionate prices, The Zimbabwean has learnt.

Mimosa Mine is the the target for Zanu (PF) sharks, who are also demanding to be given service and supply contracts.

According to security guards at the Oreti mining compound which houses contract workers for the mine, the militants, armed with spears, axes and other home-made weapons, accused the workers of rejecting President Robert Mugabe’s party and voting for the MDC-T in the last elections.

They claimed it was an offence to vote for anyone other than the discredited dictator accused of ruining Zimbabwe through violence, graft and bad policies.

“We were rounded up in the evening and told to buy the cards or be killed,” said Mavurawa Chitsvare, a security guard contracted to the mine by Midlands Security.

Chitsvare said the militants were led by a local Zanu (PF) chairman identified as Mapako from the neighbouring Mafala village.

“They sealed off all the roads to the compound and ordered everyone to a meeting to buy cards. The cards cost one dollar but we were forced to pay three dollars as ‘punishment’ for not supporting the party,” Chitsvare said.

Zvishavane has become an MDC-T stronghold because of the presence of mine employees who have refused to toe Mugabe’s line.

Mimosa mine has become the target for Zanu (PF) sharks, who are also demanding to be given service and supply contracts. The officials have threatened to blacklist the mine in similar fashion to what they have done to Zimplats, which has become the target of verbal attacks by Mugabe and his cohorts.

The local Zanu (PF) MP, Obert Matshalaga, demanded and was awarded a contract to supply cleaning services to the mine. Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has also been active in the area. Last year, he surprised many when he decided to officiate at the handover of a school built by the mine.

Mine management had decided to invite Education Minister David Coltart to open the school but were advised that the function would be disrupted by militant Zanu youths in the area. Sources said the officials were told that an MDC minister was not welcome in the area.

The bankrupt Zanu (PF) has taken to forcing villagers around Zimbabwe to buy party cards in an attempt to bolster its coffers.

VOA

2 August 2011

By Gibbs Dube

Union sources said Revenue Authority officials are visiting schools and demanding that teachers account for all of the so-called incentive payments they have received from school associations since 2009

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is demanding that teachers who received supplemental pay from school development associations report such income and pay taxes on it, infuriating teachers unions and Education Minister David Coltart.

Union sources said Revenue Authority officials are visiting schools and demanding that teachers account for all of the so-called incentive payments they have received from school associations since 2009.

They said Revenue Authority officials have indicated they are reviewing teachers monthly earnings for the past two years and will send them bills for additional taxes.

Union representatives said they have asked the Ministry of Education to intervene and are also engaging the Revenue Authority in a bid to halt the exercise.

It was not clear how the authority proposes to tax teachers who were paid in kind – for instance buckets of maize, goats and other kinds of food and livestock.

Education Minister Coltart said the Revenue Authority was ill-advised in its initiative as incentives are considered nontaxable gifts derived from school associations. “If it thinks that this is a long-term source of income, they are mistaken,” Coltart said.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe General Secretary Raymond Majongwe said the attempt to tax teacher incentives is nonsensical.

Scorning the Revenue Authority initiative, Majongwe said tax collectors “must go to teachers who were given a bucket of potatoes and say give us five sweet potatoes and those who received chicken and also demand a few chicks because they must be seen to be dealing with this thing in a uniform manner.”

The government recently boosted civil service salaries with the lowest paid workers now earning US$253 a month, well below the poverty level of US$502 for a family of five.

Herald

Chemist Mafuba

1 August 2011

ANGELINE KAMBA has had to speak six languages to a man in the street to prove that she knows her mother tongue. The chair of the Harare International Festival of the Arts revealed this during the Book Fair workshop on society and development.

“When I went to park at my usual bay in Borrowdale,” said Kamba, “I asked the man of the place to check pressure in the tyres of my car.

“A man who happened to have heard me said to the attendant that I had spoken to him in English when I could have done so in the mother tongue.

“I felt blood rushing to my head and spoke to this other man in six languages – in one breathe – to prove that I know my mother tongue very well.

“That man ended up looking very foolish in front of the crowd that had gathered to find out why I was speaking to him like that.”

The need to promote local languages was the main focus of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair that ended in Harare at the weekend.

A book rights activist described how audiences in the United States asked her several times to expand on the aspects of the culture of the people of Zimbabwe.

“They had read about that in the books of Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembwa,” said the activist. “I had to do my homework in order to have confidence in what I was telling these people.”

Public orator Milton Kamwendo was concerned about people of Zimbabwe who pretended to know the Queen’s language better than English people themselves.

“I wish somebody who knows how the Literature Bureau used to operate can come forward and start another publishing house like that one,” he said.

“There is a dire need in Zimbabwe to have some sort of a national translation agency so that all books in the mother tongue can be available to all people of this country.

“I’m distressed to see that people in Mashonaland hardly know the works of Sigogo – the writer that we grew up reading in Matabeleland. He was a man among men.”

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Lazarus Dokora, opened the Book Fair, whose theme was books for the development of Africa.

He was aware that different associations on languages were working on ways of coming up with relevant publications for reading.

“I am sure that different associations are working on this aspect,” said Dokora. “They may be inhibited by lack of finance.

“It is, therefore, necessary that we engage our all-weather friends and other agencies to assist with funding.

“The projects that language associations may be embarking on will provide reading materials in those languages.

“It is incumbent upon language associations, book publishers and writers to work hard to provide reading materials in these languages.”

Dokora said the Curriculum Development Unit was working hard in the areas of Nambya, Tonga, Shangaan and others to make them user friendly in schools.

The students who were at the Book Fair wanted to know more about this aspect. They asked the author of Mapenzi, Ignatius Mabasa, whether people were buying books that were written in the mother tongue for reading as a hobby.

“A good book will be able to stand on its on in spite of the language in which it is written,” said Mabasa.

“I’m at home when I’m writing in the mother tongue. You write your best when you’re using the language in which you’ll be at home.

“You can’t write smoothly when you struggle to find the word expressing precisely that which you want to say. Many of us want to use English when we’re speaking on certain occasions.

“But we use our mother tongue most of the time, such as when we want our change from the conductor in the commuter omnibus.”

Mabasa said that for most of the people who were living in Mashonaland, Shona was their mother tongue which they could not wish away.

“If you want to be original when you’re writing,” he said, “you should write in the language that you know best.”

Mabasa received a standing ovation when he read excerpts from the upcoming book which has taken him seven years to write.

He revealed that Mapenzi had been translated into English and was being translated into German.

Zimcopy executive director Greenfield Chilongo said that there was need for people of Zimbabwe to appreciate their mother tongue.

“Langauge is part of our culture which we can’t run away from,” said Chilongo. “When we speak English, we’re forced to use phrases of Shona to finish what we want to say.

“When we went overseas, they wouldn’t understand our English because we were translating it from our thought process in Shona. We constructed our English from the ideas that we were thinking in Shona.

“Our thought process will always be in the mother tongue. It is important to preserve our mother tongue so that our culture will grow. Our culture dies when we don’t use our mother tongue regularly.”

Last week Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart unveiled Government efforts to bring in school languages that had been neglected.

He told Parliament that by 2013 students would be able to write exams in their local languages that were not on stream.

The Government had tasked the Great University of Zimbabwe to train teachers for all indigenous languages. They would be taught in schools up to Form Two.

So far 80 089 textbooks had been printed in Shangaan, 56 900 in Tonga, 34 000 in Nambya and 35 000 in Venda.

Kalanga textbooks were being printed and 3 200 Braille books had been distributed to 60 special schools.

Dokora said development of Zimbabwe would depend on the kind of literature on local and foreign research that would be available.

The book policy of the Government was aimed at bringing reading material to all people.

“A policy should not simply allow a blanket import platform,” he said. “The interests of local production and local writers and the chain of livelihoods in this business will be taken into account.”

Dokora said that tuition grants in Government schools and per capita grants in non-government schools were meant to support purchases of reading materials.

“Our printers are expected to compete with printers who have capitalised as a matter of new capital infusions.

“You may not get donors for recapitalisation process. But they should find business partnerships that foster this development.

“The book policy should address these after consulting with relevant ministries and Treasury. These issues should be thrashed to come up with a policy that is easy to implement. “It is my hope that follow-ups should not wait for another International Book Fair to take place next year.”

The key speaker for the indaba was Professor Helge Ronning. He is with the department of media and communication at the University of Oslo.

“Reading literature and books is essential for development,” said Ronning. “It has to do with understanding of society.

“Reading is both an individual and a social activity. The knowledge from books enables people who are living together to respect each other.

“The people who have a reading culture are better placed to tolerate each other’s points of view. Without books there would be no development that would be worth talking about.” He said that conditions that were needed to drive development would depend on how a given society would have come about.

For instance, the struggle that Zimbabwe had to wage so as to attain independence would chart the way the country would go.

It was the right of people to strive to improve their standard of living, he said. The ease with which people were able to get books for reading would have a lot to do with their ability to read and write and count.

Dokora said Zimbabwe ranked high in the world among countries that had a 92 percent literacy rate. He attributed this in part to the availability of books and other factors such as the culture of learning.

“This achievement should either be maintained or improved on,” said Dokora.

He noted that the people of Zimbabwe were reading newspapers and listening to radio and watching television with passion. This was not apparent in the way they read books.

He said the Zimbabwe International Book Fair had reached the status of Africa’s premier literacy event. The stakeholders were succeeding step by step to restore the culture of reading among local people.

“It is noteworthy,” said the Deputy Minister, “that the number of foreign exhibitors at the Book Fair has more than doubled this year.

“It is expected that this rate of increase will be sustained next year and in subsequent years.”

He noted that there had been a substantial increase in donor support for the Book Fair. This was a reflection of renewed confidence that was being shown in the management of the Book Fair.

“We must be mindful that we need to develop local stakeholder interest in the Book Fair,” he said. “It is the imperative of our being ourselves.”

The book of the week is the Lonely Tiger, which Tatiana Sharpe from Harare wrote in 2005 when she was seven. She wrote the book for children who are between four and seven years so that she would give all the money from the sales to the poor.

Strand Multiprint published the book on ISBN 0-7974-3012-1. Tatiana painted her own pictures that are in the Lonely Tiger.

The author, through Tiger who is dying to have many friends, addresses the universal issue of the fear of the unknown.You know that you were born with a shadow, but if your friend asks you to describe it, you can’t do this because you don’t know its colour.

That is what happens to you when you fear what you don’t know. You may think that, though you have been reading your books, you will fail the test when it comes. If your friends ask you what you are afraid of, you can only tell them what you think.

The book says: “Would you like to be my friend?” asked Tiger. And it goes on to say: “Everyone needs a friend. The Lonely Tiger is looking for a friend. Who will be his friend?

“Will it be the pig, the snake or the skunk? Read and feel the magic in The Lonely Tiger.”

Tatiana signed the copies that she gave away to students who attended the young writers’ workshop during the Book Fair.

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.