The Daily Telegraph

By Christian Nicolussi

31 March 2011

Don’t tour Zimbabwe…that’s the message from former Test star Stuart MacGill to Cricket Australia

THE cricketer who once famously abandoned a tour of Zimbabwe has slammed Cricket Australia for a planned trip to the troubled African nation later this year.

Stuart MacGill, who abandoned a 2004 tour of Zimbabwe on ethical grounds, said the volatile political climate under dictator Robert Mugabe had not changed and it was absurd an Australia A team, which features young players Tim Paine, Phillip Hughes and David Warner, were being put in this position.

Last week, Cricket Australia short-listed a squad of 24 players to tour Zimbabwe later this year.

Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said he was yet to hear of any complaints or concerns from the short list.

However, Federal Government website Smart Traveller this week warned Australians from touring Zimbabwe because of extreme danger.

“We advise you to re-consider your need to travel to Zimbabwe at this time due to politically-motivated violence in some rural areas, the high level of criminal activity, the absence of the rule of law, and the poor economic conditions which could lead to civil unrest, ” the government warned.

MacGill said nothing had changed since the Aussies last pulled out of a trip to Zimbabwe.

“Maybe there have been far-higher profile issues around the globe over the last couple of years, and certainly the past couple of weeks [civil unrest in Libya] but the fact remains that the money generated by the Zimbabwean Cricket Union contributes to the Mugabe regime, ” MacGill said.

“It’s a clear-cut case in my opinion, and I would immediately suggest that Australia A are simply a bartering tool so the main team doesn’t have to travel. The cynic in me feels Australia A are going because Cricket Australia thinks they will fly under the radar.”

Young said the tour of Zimbabwe had been public knowledge for a few months.

“We also had the Zimbabwe government minister for sport [David Coltart] come to Australia and New Zealand about a year ago and he made a high-profile appeal for the sporting links to be retained, ” Young said.

“He saw a real positive human-rights impact from doing that in terms of crickets development.”

MacGill said young players with a dream of featuring in the first XI would never let anything stand in their way.

“I was 35 when I made the decision not to tour and was prepared for any outcome [from Cricket Australia], but you couldn’t blame a 20-year-old for doing anything to play for his country, ” MacGill said.

“You can’t blame the players, but I definitely feel strongly about Cricket Australia putting them in this position.”

The Zimbabwean

Written by ZimOnline

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

President Robert Mugabe’s supporters have drafted hundreds of schoolchildren from Mashonaland West province to sign a petition demanding scrapping of Western sanctions against the veteran leader and his top allies.

Mugabe’s ZANU PF party hopes to collect at least two million signatures for the petition that shall be handed to ambassadors of Western countries that imposed the sanctions for onward transmission to their capitals.

High schoolteachers and children here yesterday told ZimOnline that ZANU PF activists have in recent weeks disrupted learning at several schools where they have visited ordering both teachers and senior pupils to sign the anti-sanctions petition.

“When the youths came at the school, we thought they wanted only the teachers to sign the petition but they later asked to address students in their classes,” said a senior teacher at Chikangwe High School in Karoi, about 204 kilometres north-west of Harare. “All children with identity cards were told to sign the petition,” said the teacher who declined to be named for fear of possible reprisal.

Education Minister David Coltart was not immediately available for comment on the matter. Authorities at Chikangwe and several other schools visited by ZimOnline refused to discuss the matter, referring our reporters to Mashonaland West provincial education officer Sylvester Mashayamombe. He refused to discuss the matter.

But the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) criticised ZANU PF for disrupting learning at schools and accused Mugabe’s party of turning some schools into centres for signing the petition. “We denounce the abuse of school facilities by ZANU PF where some senior education officers throughout the county are forcing teachers to sign the petition and also turning schools into petition signing centres,”|said PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou.

Mashonaland West ZANU PF chairman Robert Sikanyika said schoolchildren must sign the petition because they are also affected by sanctions. But he denied that party activists were disrupting lessons at schools to collect signatures from teachers and learners.

“There is nothing sinister to have students signing the petition as they are affected by the sanction imposed by the West. We want to surpass the two million target’’ said Sikanyika. The European Union, United States, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand, imposed targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his top officials about nine years ago as punishment for allegedly stealing elections, human rights violations and failure to uphold the rule of law.

Mugabe, who denies violating human rights or stealing elections, says the sanctions have had a wider impact beyond the targeted individuals to damage Zimbabwe’s once vibrant economy.

http://blog.usaid.gov/

By Cary Jimenez, Development Outreach and Communications Officer at USAID/Zimbabwe

30 March 2011

USAID/Zimbabwe commemorated World Water Day 2011 on March 23 with a special ceremony to draw attention to the efficiency and effectiveness of rainwater collection as a way to provide clean water to families and schools.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart  attended the event with USAID/Zimbabwe Mission Director Karen Freeman and other officials. On March 23, 2011, USAID held a World Water Day celebration in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe at the Tasimukira Primary School, where students benefit from a USAID program that harvests rain for a clean water supply.

Since 2009, USAID has supported the Peri-urban Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (PROOF) program to provide safe drinking water to over 26,000 Zimbabweans in urban and rural areas.  The program was initiated in response to the worst cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe’s recent history, which led to nearly 100,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths.  Poor water and sanitation systems, inadequate access to health care, and underlying risk factors such as malnutrition contributed to the severity of the epidemic.

Through this project implemented by International Relief and Development, USAID provides clean water to Zimbabweans until the water system is overhauled.  The initial phase of the program focused on the high-density suburbs of Harare and Chitungwiza.  In June 2010, it expanded into Mutare and Buhera in southeastern Zimbabwe.

To date, USAID has supported the installation of 805 rain water collection systems serving 2,653 households and eight schools with over 26,000 total beneficiaries.  All components of the rain water harvesting systems are manufactured in Zimbabwe, creating jobs and a nascent rain water collection industry in the free market.

Rain water collection systems consist of roof gutters and a water storage tank.  The equipment provides abundant clean water during the rainy season, when the highest incidents of waterborne diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, are seen. With regulated consumption and sufficient water storage capacity, these rainwater collection systems can provide clean drinking water all year round.

International World Water Day was first recognized by the United Nations in 1993.  It is held annually on March 22 to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and to advocate for the sustainable management of fresh water resources.  World Water Day 2011 emphasized the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, and conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.

Letter to Editor of Newsday

29 March 2011

By Senator David Coltart

Editor,

This is an appalling piece of journalism you are ultimately responsible for. For the record when I was phoned yesterday evening I told your reporter that the tender was awarded by Unicef, not Dr Peter Salama. I invited your reporter to speak to Dr Salama to get confirmation of this which clearly he did not do.

Furthermore I did not ever say I was out of the country when the tender was awarded. I said clearly, in fact twice, that the tender decision was made by Unicef out of the country, in fact in Copenhagen. I specifically told your reporter that the decision was made in Copenhagen and that neither myself nor the Ministry had any role in the award of the tender.

As for the headline you have chosen – “fingered in a shady tender award” – not only does that bear little relation to the body of the story but also it does not bear any relation to the facts. You have displayed the most appallingly bad standards of journalism by rushing into print without seeking to establish the facts. You have not even bothered to speak to Unicef, which manages the Education Transition Fund, and which knows all the details regarding this tender.

In closing it must be stated that I am assured by Unicef that the award was made purely on financial and educational, not political, grounds. You have not even mentioned that this tender has resulted in the delivery of 13 million textbooks to millions of Zimbabwean children and has got our textbook to pupil ratio down to 1:1 in 4 key subject areas – the best in Africa.

I hope in the interests of ethical journalism and the truth, you will publish this letter and give it equal prominence to the story you have published.

Sincerely,

Senator David Coltart

Minister of Education, Sport Arts and Culture

Newsday

By Pride Gonde

29 March 2011

A senior Zimbabwe Publishing House (ZPH) official has accused Education, Art, Sports and Culture minister David Coltart of abuse of office after he allegedly unilaterally awarded a printing tender to one company, Longman (Zimbabwe) Publishers.

But contacted for comment Monday night, Coltart said: “The tender was awarded by Dr Peter Salama, the Unicef representative in Zimbabwe, and what ZPH is saying is nonsense because it was made whilst I was outside the country” said Coltart.

Ginio Tafireyi, the chief executive officer for ZPH, told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education the move by the minister had created a monopoly in the publishing industry for the next five years.

“Most of the decisions are made by the minister and we feel the minister himself as a politician made a political decision on the Education Fund which was supposed to be for the whole nation,” said Tafireyi.

“The education transition fund has been a secret and we think a lot of Zimbabweans don’t know what is happening,” he said.

In 2009 government floated the tender for printing of primary and secondary school textbooks under the Education Fund.

Three leading printing companies, Longman (Zimbabwe), ZPH and College Press, submitted bids for the tender but Coltart allegedly manipulated the system and gave the tender to Longman (Zimbabwe) last December.

According to Tafireyi, the tender was open to international and local publishers. Tafireyi said the tender results were not communicated to all the applicants.

He said Longman (Zimbabwe) were clandestinely made to sign the contract and efforts by losing tenderers to get the tender results were in vain.

“Tendering is good for clarity competitiveness but there are situations where it is not good for the maintenance of quality and we think it can only be used when quality issues have been dealt with and products being tendered for have been measured.”

Tafireyi also told the ministry to review the current syllabus arguing some syllabi had become obsolete.

Newsday

By Tatenda Chitagu

28 March 2011

Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou has labelled Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart “a toothless bulldog” after his failure to stop Zanu PF from using schools as centres for its political activities.

This follows countrywide reports that Zanu PF had invaded schools and turned them into signing centres for its anti-sanctions petition while school heads were brought in as “polling officers”.

Coltart is on record denouncing use of schools for political activities.

Zhou on Sunday urged Coltart to stop making empty threats but to “walk the talk”.

“Coltart must show that he has teeth and enforce what he says, otherwise he has to shut up. He must protect the teachers from abuse and political interference by Zanu PF.

“We wonder if Coltart is the minister. Officials under him are going against what he says, and this serves to show that he cannot even stop the war veterans who are going around the schools. Schools should be for learning purposes, and not used as political grounds,” said Zhou.

In Masvingo, Zhou said some schools have been forcing teachers to sign the petition while at others, schoolchildren were being sent back home to collect their parents to sign the document.

He said other affected schools included Victoria, Dewure and Maungwa secondary schools.

Zhou other schools affected by the campaign were in Mberengwa, Bikita, Zaka, Gutu, Mwenezi and Chiredzi districts.

“At Gaururu Primary School in Mberengwa, pupils were turned away on Friday to collect their parents to sign. The head, Kudakwashe Hove, is in the Zanu PF structures. He disrupted learning during working hours for partisan reasons,” Zhou said.

“We have several times engaged Coltart, and he said he was going to look into the matter. But denouncing something is different from enforcing it. It is useless to say something without enforcing it,” Zhou said.

Repeated efforts to contact Coltart on Sunday were fruitless.

Sunday Mail

Sunday, 27 March 2011

By Goodwill Zunidza

A MAJOR football indaba is looming after the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, summoned the entire Zifa board for a meeting last week where he indicated his desire to have their never-ending problems brought to heel.

Coltart hosted the football chiefs in the boardroom of his ministry’s head offices in Harare, the first such meeting since the Cuthbert Dube-led board was voted into office at Prince Edward School on March 27 last year.

It is said the minister, who has since confirmed his face-to-face meeting with Zifa to The Sunday Mail, was talking tough and made it clear the problems that continued to dog football had to come to an end.

“It was really a private meeting,” Coltart said. “But I think the most important issue is that we agreed to convene a football indaba soon to be attended by all the stakeholders in football.”

He emphasised it had always been his wish to get first-hand information on how and why the football industry in Zimbabwe just could not take off.

“I requested to meet the new Zifa board soon after they came into office last year, but the meeting only took place last week,’’ said the minister, an avid sports follower who was in Asia recently to watch the Zimbabwe cricket team play at the ICC World Cup.

The dialogue between the ministry and the national football association on March 17 preceded a series of conventions in the football fraternity that began with the Premier Soccer League assembly in Kwekwe last weekend.

On Friday, the Zifa board also met in a stormy session in Harare that was followed by the association’s annual general meeting also in the capital yesterday.

No details could be obtained from yesterday’s council gathering but the board meeting held a day earlier discussed the spate of resignations that has rocked the Zifa secretariat. These include long-serving executive secretary Harriet Samkange, who had worked at 53 Livingstone Avenue under different managements for over a decade.

Samkange bade farewell to Zifa alongside senior accountant Samuel Munyaradzi.

No reasons were cited for their voluntary departure in the board briefing that also confirmed acting chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze as substantive CEO with effect from April 2 2011.

No official comment on the unfolding events in Zifa could be obtained from Dube, the association’s president who chaired both the board and council meetings.

“I am busy with Zifa meetings this week, call me next week,” said Dube.

While Minister Coltart listed his deputy Lazarus Dokora and principal secretary Paul Damasane as having attended the meeting, there were conflicting reports over who stood in for the football mother body.

In fact, board members revealed the meeting with the minister was inconclusive after several of their colleaugues did not turn up.

Mashingaidze had earlier written to board members advising only Harare-based members would attend the meeting due to logistical challenges in bringing over officials stationed outside the capital.

“In the end only the then acting chief executive officer, Twine Phiri (the PSL chairman), Nigel Munyati (board member, marketing), Solomon Mugavazi (Northern Region chairman) and Benedict Moyo, the board member competitions who made it from Kwekwe, were present in the meeting,’’ one Zifa insider said.

He said Coltart had then brought the meeting to a quick close, saying the 13-member board in its entirety should attend the meeting.

Earlier reports reaching The Sunday Mail that a three-member Zifa delegation that included Dube, Mashingaidze and women’s football chairperson Mavis Gumbo met Coltart separately could not be verified.

But Coltart’s initiative to table a wide-ranging indaba to iron out problems bedevilling the sport will no doubt be received eagerly by the football fraternity.

Newsday

Comment

March 26 2011

Recently, a senior education official in Mashonaland East was in the news for the wrong reasons.

Chikomba district education director Ngoni Simon Mujuru told school heads in his district that his ministry would deploy war veterans to teach history to pupils and to lecture on how they used to dodge bullets during the liberation struggle.

The assumption within the Zanu PF establishment which Mujuru is obviously party to is that youths support other political parties, in particular MDC-T, because they do not understand how independence was brought about.

They also think that youths and their parents do not understand the brutalities of the colonial masters. Their reasoning is that it is better to catch them young by politicising them.

Elsewhere in this issue, we carry a story in which the same Mujuru has declared that all schools in Chikomba would today be used as signing centres for the anti-sanctions petition and has directed that all headmasters are required to act as “polling officers”.

This is rank madness, in a democracy like ours. This act alone shows that Zanu PF, which has a penchant to shoot itself in the foot, is desperate for supporters.

Each Zanu PF apparatchik has to make his/her decision, which they think will aid the party garner more votes.

Former Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere literally destroyed our education system by experimenting with the general populace while the children of the elite went to upmarket schools elsewhere.

Chigwedere’s other project, Zimsec, has become unpopular with the country’s majority, resulting in them opting to have their children sit for both Zimsec and Cambridge examinations. That is a simple indicator the education system has deteriorated.

We wonder why an education officer should have free reign. We are aware that Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart recently gave a directive barring the use of schools for political activities.

We believe the anti-sanctions petition is simply a Zanu PF project. Therefore, no schools should be used, and no pupils should be force-marched to the centres. We call on Coltart to rein in Mujuru.

However, Mujuru is not alone in this destructive path. Everywhere where Zanu PF feels threatened, it is force-marching people to the anti-sanctions signing centres, and in some cases those refusing to append their signatures are arrested. This is not a police state.

We understand that Chikomba school heads are said to be angry with Mujuru’s order but still they have no choice but to follow the instruction to avoid repercussions.

So what benefit is there for the former ruling party?

This assumption that anyone who does not agree with Zanu PF is not patriotic is a big mistake. It could cost Zanu PF dearly come election time.

Coltart must condemn this behaviour. We are not convinced when he mildly says he was shocked by the decision to use schools as anti-sanctions petition signing centres. Coltart should immediately take charge. Mujuru must be accountable for his misdemeanours.

Why should Chikomba be notorious for invading schools and turning them into Zanu PF bases?

This madness should immediately stop for the good of the country.

Newsday

By Sports Editor

March 26 2011

Zifa convenes its watershed general assembly on Saturday since the current board chaired by Cuthbert Dube took office last year, with key administration issues and the Asiagate scandal likely to dominate the proceedings.

The meeting takes place after a board meeting which also took place yesterday and on the same day the Warriors face Mali in a crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifier tonight in Bamako.

While there is obvious acrimony within the board over lack of consultations, particularly over the appointment of Norman Mapeza as Warriors coach, Dube has defended himself saying he had to make a decision before the Mali game.

He said ahead of the today’s meeting: “It was never done unilaterally; consultations were made at presidium level. The technical committee set up last year could not accomplish its task as mandated and the presidium had to take over, for expediency’s sake. We had to have a coach in time for the Mali game.”

On the Asiagate investigations, Dube reiterated the Fifa call that fingered culprits would be brought to book.

“Our future depends on how we handle the scandal. We can’t be seen to be sweeping it under the carpet when Fifa, Caf and the general public views Zifa as a pack of corrupt officials who use football for personal gain.

“The Asiagate 1 and 2 reports shall be made available for public consumption soon and we shall not protect anyone who got dirty money. Board members, councillors and players must all come clean if they have to remain as members of the football family,” he said.

Some board members though feel the board is now a one-man band with the president making all the decisions, while some are crying foul over their exclusion from last week’s meeting with the Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture David Coltart.

The meeting is said to have been attended by Coltart, his deputy Lazarus Dokora, principal director responsible for sport Paul Damasane, Sports and Recreation Commission director-general Charles Nhemachena, director for Sports DevelopmentJoseph Muchechetere, Zifa board member (competitions) Benedict Moyo, Nigel Munyati and Solomon Mugavazi.

Focus will also be on the general standards of football, the marketing of the game and the rebranding of the national association to attract the corporate world.

Save for women football, whose revival is being driven by Mavis Gumbo, the rest of the teams, Under-23, the Chan squad and the senior national team, have failed to access funds for various assignments and have had to be bailed out by Dube from his personal pocket.

Newsday

By Moses Matenga

26 March 2011

A senior education official in Chikomba District, Mashonaland East province has declared all schools in the district would on Saturday be used as signing centres for the anti-sanctions petition and that all headmasters are required to act as “polling officers”.

This is despite a directive by Education, Sport, Art and Culture minister David Coltart barring the use of schools for political activities.

School heads in the district are said to be angry with the order and those that spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity yesterday said much as they were against the idea, they had no choice but to follow the instruction to save their skins.

Chikomba district education director Ngoni Simon Mujuru issued a circular to all school heads in Chikomba District advising them to be available for the launch of the project on Saturday.

On Friday, Mujuru confirmed writing to inform all the headmasters in his district about today’s event but said the directive had come from the District Administrator (DA).

“I wrote the letter to all headmasters but the DA is the one who can comment on that,” he said.

Part of the letter, printed on an official government letterhead, a copy of which is in NewsDay’s possession, reads: “All school heads will be polling officers. It is our patriotic duty to conduct the exercise and as such, no payment is expected.”

The letter notifies that the venue for the signing of the petition would be “all schools in the district”.

Repeated efforts to contact the DA were fruitless on Friday.

Schoolchildren are also expected to turn up for the signing of the petition.

The party anticipates collecting more than 2 million signatures for the petition.

Minister Coltart recently said he was opposed to the decision to use schools as anti-sanctions petition signing centres and said he would immediately consult Secretary for Education Stephen Mahere to find out whether he had sanctioned the decision.

“We do not support any political or party activity in schools. I am going to discuss the matter with my senior staff to find out what is the best way forward.

If it is a Zanu PF activity, then it is totally unacceptable. We have a clear and consistent policy against the holding of party and political activities in schools,” said Coltart.

Chikomba District is notorious for schools being invaded and turned into Zanu PF bases.

Only a fortnight ago, Mujuru told school heads during a meeting that there was need to bring in war veterans to teach history in schools and to lecture to pupils on how they used to dodge bullets during the liberation struggle.