The Independent UK

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent

Saturday, 12 March 2011

Zimbabwe’s fragile power-sharing government was on the brink of collapse yesterday with both sides claiming irreconcilable differences and foreign diplomats warning of a spike in political violence.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said the government is “dysfunctional” and called this week for a “divorce” from President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.

Although Mr Tsvangirai stressed yesterday that he had not yet quit the government, the outburst from the leader of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) came at the end of a week in which the party lost control of parliament and a cabinet minister and close ally of Mr Tsvangirai was arrested without explanation. The fresh crisis was accompanied by a statement of concern from Western diplomats at what they called the “increasing evidence in recent weeks of what appears to be politically motivated intimidation and violence”.

The upsurge in violence and the use of the police and courts to harass political opponents has led analysts to question whether Mr Mugabe is preparing to call a snap election in the troubled southern African nation. After two years of supposed power-sharing, there is widespread frustration in Zimbabwe at the ageing President’s continued control over all meaningful levers of power in the country. The US recently renewed targeted sanctions against some 100 individuals who make up the 87-year-old’s inner circle and still have authority over the security services, the judiciary and much of the economy.

This week, Mr Mugabe’s party succeeded in using the Supreme Court to remove MDC rival Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of Parliament. Allies of the Energy Minister Elton Mangoma, another MDC MP who was arrested on unspecified charges, said the police action was a reprisal by Mugabe allies angry at losing kickbacks from state-sponsored fuel purchases.

Education Minister David Coltart, formerly one of Mr Tsvangirai’s defence lawyers during his marathon treason trials, said he was “outraged” by the arrest of his colleague and blamed it on Mugabe hardliners determined to wreck the unity government.

Mr Tsvangirai, who has been criticised for agreeing to share power despite years of state-sponsored arrests, beatings and murders that he and his supporters endured, called on regional governments to agree a “clear road map” to a new election in Zimbabwe.

Under the power-sharing deal negotiated by neighbour South Africa, Zimbabwe was meant to have agreed a new constitution and enacted a raft of reforms to guarantee free and fair elections. But civil society groups say the consultation process for the constitution has been wrecked by violent intimidation by the same gangs of thugs that Mr Mugabe unleashed in the build-up to the last election in 2008.

After 31 years in power, the former schoolteacher has responded to the popular uprisings which toppled fellow despots in North Africa by clamping down harder on signs of dissent. Students were arrested in the capital Harare last month for gathering to watch events in Egypt on a television set. Rallies with gangs of state-sponsored Zanu-PF youth have been hastily organised and peaceful demonstrations intended to mark International Women’s Day were violently broken up. Previously protests by trade unionists were stopped by police despite having the required permits.

The coalition partners have also clashed over controversial plans to nationalise mines and acquire a majority stake in foreign companies with the MDC warning this would stop outside investment and derail economic recovery.

Newsday

11 March 2011

Following the success of Bulawayo-based Liyana Band in a documentary titled Music by Prudence that won an Oscar last year, the group has come up with a longer version of the award-winning film titled iThemba.

The latest documentary premiered at Prince Edward School this week through support from the US Embassy.

iThemba, which means “hope” in isiNdebele, has been shown in other countries and this is its first time to be screened in Zimbabwe.

The film follows the lives, dreams and hard work of Liyana, a band from the King George VI School for the Disabled in Bulawayo.

Liyana’s eight members have various handicaps, yet live independently and have won devoted audiences from rural Zimbabwe to Hollywood.

iThemba was shot during the 2008 presidential election when the country’s economy was undergoing a dramatic meltdown.

It unfolds against the backdrop of political tensions and the daily struggle to find a bank with cash on hand to buy food in stores with empty shelves, and to navigate streets pockmarked with wheelchair-mangling potholes.

Far from being another demoralising documentary about Africa, iThemba is an unexpected, funny and poignant narrative about eight compelling young people who refuse to succumb to the stigma of disability or the collapse of their country.

Their musical passion and fierce determination eventually took them on a dream tour to the United States.

Over 250 students, filmmakers, NGO leaders, senior government officials and disabled persons attended the colourful premier.

Speaking at the premier, US Ambassador Charles Ray said there was need to work towards overcoming negative stereotypes and misinformation usually associated with the disabled.

“Zimbabwe faces many of the same challenges in overcoming prejudice about disabilities that we faced and still face in America. The need to overcome negative stereotypes and misinformation is an ongoing struggle. But there is hope and action occurring here in Zimbabwe,” said Ambassador Ray.

According to recent research, more than one million Zimbabweans have some type of disability and the loss to Zimbabwe’s economy through their under-employment and unemployment is nearly $200 million dollars annually.

“These are large numbers. They show that helping people with disabilities through fair and equal treatment is good for all Zimbabweans,” said the US ambassador who also hailed the young musicians in Liyana, noting that “the vibrant, dynamic young musicians of Liyana inspire me by their passion and skill as musicians”.

“They inspire me as they have leapt over barriers, and broken down walls with their determination and passion.”

Commenting on the documentary, education minister David Coltart said the film made him feel “uplifted”.

“Liyana (band members) are not just great ambassadors for Zimbabwe. This film is very appropriately named, iThemba, it speaks of hope. This band and its members are preachers of hope not just for communities and individuals, but for our nation and other disabled people throughout the world,” said minister Coltart.

Co-director of the documentary Elinor Burkett, a former Fulbright professor who taught at the National University for Science and Technology in 2006, hailed the King George VI and Jairos Jiri schools which provide facilities for disabled students to explore their potential.

“You give young people the chance, and you never know how far they will go,” she said. Burkett co-directed the film with Jamaican Erroll Webber.

The Independent UK

By Rob Sharp and Daniel Howden

Friday, 11 March 2011

Every year, the Venice Biennale announces a raft of new countries due to exhibit at the event, the most famous artistic showcase in the world.

Previous years have seen the Vatican, the United Arab Emirates, and even Peckham, make their debuts. Today’s announcement of unlikely debutantes beats them all. It represents an unprecedented detente between two countries whose governments have seldom seen eye to eye.

Zimbabwe, in partnership with the British Council, along with artistic institutions in France and Monaco, is set to exhibit work by four Zimbabwean artists at the biennale from June. It is the first time a sub-Saharan nation has been exhibited, and a rare appearance for an African nation. It is a dramatic coup for the beleaguered nation, where those exhibiting work critical of Robert Mugabe’s regime face extended prison terms.

“We are going to be part of the biennale like any other country,” said the Zimbabwean National Gallery’s Raphael Chikukwa, who will curate the exhibition. “Previously the whole of Africa has been boxed together in a single pavilion. But why isn’t there a European pavilion? Individual European countries are represented. So we have the chance to finally showcase Zimbabwe as a sovereign nation.”

The pavilion will be headlined “Seeing Ourselves” and will occupy part of the Church of Santa Maria Della Pieta in central Venice.

Artists to be represented will be video artist Berry Bickle, sculptor Tapfuma Gutsa, photographer Calvin Dondo and painter Misheck Masamvu. They plan to explore issues such as Zimbabwean emigration, Zimbabwe’s role in the Second World War, and farming rights in Venice. None of their work is critical of the current Zimbabwean government.

Their treatment contrasts starkly with that of artists back home. In Zimbabwe, another artist, Owen Maseko, is facing 20 years in prison for exhibiting paintings critical of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, last year.

Maseko’s paintings examined government-led massacres in western Zimbabwe during the 1980s. It was closed by government officials after one day. Afterwards, Maseko was taken to prison in leg irons and held for four days, during which time he was interrogated in 12-hour stretches.

“There are many contradictions in today’s Zimbabwe and this is one of them,” Zimbabwe’s Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart told The Independent. “There is certainly not clear freedom of expression in Zimbabwe but as I understand that the artists going to Venice are genuine independent artists. We have to use every means we can of interacting with the international community.”

Maseko said he had no objection to the other artists going to Venice but warned that self censorship was holding back Zimbabweans who were living in fear after his arrest.

“Right now the political situation in Zimbabwe is unstable and that would be used artists’ work. But self censorship is an issue. My arrest put a lot of fear into our artists, they are scared.”

Maseko’s exhibition in Bulawayo is still closed and treated as a crime scene. If he should lose his court battle with authorities he said he faces up to 20 years in prison.

SW Radio Africa

By Lance Guma

10 March 2011

Over the years they have become infamous by beating up and harassing opposition supporters, torturing and often killing MDC supporters. Now war vets loyal to Mugabe’s regime say they want to take over schools and offer history lessons on the liberation struggle.

The MDC-T MP for Mazowe Central in Mashonaland Central, Shepherd Mushonga, took the matter to Parliament on Wednesday after receiving a letter of complaint from the headmaster at Kakora Secondary School. War vets had told the headmaster they would visit the school to teach history this week.

Mushonga quizzed Education Minister David Coltart on whether this was the new government policy, to allow war vets to offer lessons to students. In response Coltart said no.

“The political parties should not meddle in education. We should not expose school children to politics as it is against the Education Act. Schools should not be used for politics. I want the MP’s to support me in trying to stop what is now happening,’ Coltart said.

He also expressed concern at the number of teachers requesting transfers because of intimidation and threats from ZANU PF youths mainly in the rural areas. Teachers over the years have traditionally been targeted by Mugabe’s regime and accused of supporting the then opposition MDC.

Coltart is reported to be in the process of revising legislation to put legal measures in place to ban the use of schools for partisan political activity. But Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Secretary General Raymond Majongwe however told SW Radio Africa it was likely the legislation will be blocked by ZANU PF. “It’s only a matter of time before this GNU collapses,” he told us.

For all Coltart’s efforts in crafting legislation to stop ZANU PF mobs invading schools and politicizing the learning environment, Mugabe’s regime has shown it has no respect for any of the laws. It is anticipated the war vets will have their way and invade the schools all the same.

www.dailynews.co.zw

By Chengetai Zvauya, Staff Writer

Wednesday, 09 March 2011

HARARE – The Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, David Coltart has warned political parties not to meddle in the education sector.

The Minister told Parliament on Wednesday that the government will not allow war veterans to offer history lessons of the liberation struggle to students in  schools.

He was responding to a question from Shepherd Mushonga, the Member of Parliament for Mazowe in Mashonaland Central, who wanted to know if it was now government policy to allow war veterans to teach history lessons of the liberation struggle in schools.

The MP said he had a letter from the headmaster of Kakora Secondary School in his constituency from war veterans  who had  informed him they would visit the school this week to to teach history.

“I have a letter from Mazowe written by the headmaster of Kakora Secondary School confirming that the war veterans and  Zanu PF youths wanted to take over this school and I want to know whether it is government to allow those acts to happen,’’ asked Mushonga.

Coltart said the government did not allow unqualified and untrained people to associate themselves with the education sector.

“The political parties should not meddle in education. We should not expose school children to politics as it is against the Education Act. Schools should not be used for politics. I want the MP’s to support me in trying to stop what is now happening,’’ said Coltart.

The Minister said he was concerned by the high number of teacher transfers from schools after intimidation by political party youths, especially in rural areas.

Recently, Coltart took issue of reports that some school children had been forced to take part in a competition to draw the portrait of President Mugabe as part of events to mark the 21st February Movement celebrations, a Zanu PF  event that has been turned into a national one to mark Mugabe’s birthday.

During the 2008 elections scores of teachers fled rural schools after being beaten up and accused of supporting the Movement For Democratic Change.

The Zimbabwean

9 March 2011

Harare, March 9th 2011: Prince Edward School and the U.S. Embassy in Harare hosted the premier of internationally recognized Zimbabwe documentary, iThemba (Hope in isiNdebele) on Tuesday March 8.   The film follows the lives, dreams and hard work of Liyana, a band from the King George VI School for the disabled in Bulawayo.  Liyana’s eight members have various handicaps, yet live independently and have won devoted audiences from rural Zimbabwe to Hollywood.  Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart and Ambassador Charles A. Ray welcomed over 250 students, film makers, NGO leaders, senior government officials and disabled persons at the premiere.

“Zimbabwe faces many of the same challenges in overcoming prejudice about disabilities that we faced and still face in America.  The need to overcome negative stereotypes and misinformation is an on-going struggle.  But there is hope and action occurring here in Zimbabwe,” said Ambassador Ray.  The Americans with Disabilities act was passed by the U.S. Congress two decades ago.   It prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in the workplace.

According to recent media reports, more than 1 million Zimbabweans have some type of disability and the loss to Zimbabwe’s economy through their under-employment and unemployment is nearly $200 million dollars annually.

“These are large numbers. They show that helping people with disabilities through fair and equal treatment is good for all Zimbabweans,” said the U.S. Ambassador who also hailed the young musicians in Liyana, noting that “the vibrant, dynamic young musicians of Liyana inspire me by their passion and skill as musicians.  They inspire me as they have leapt over barriers, and broken down walls with their determination and passion.

Commenting on the documentary, Minister Coltart said the film made him feel “uplifted.”

“Liyana (band members) are not just great ambassadors for Zimbabwe.  This film is very appropriately named, iThemba- it speaks of hope.  This band and its members are purveyors of hope not just for communities and individuals, but for our nation and other disabled people throughout the world,” said Minister Coltart.

The film, iThemba, was shot during the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election and the country’s economic meltdown. It unfolds against the backdrop of political tensions and the daily struggle to find a bank with cash on hand, to buy food in stores with empty shelves, and to navigate streets pocked with wheelchair-mangling potholes.

Far from being another demoralizing documentary about Africa, iThemba is an unexpected, funny and poignant narrative about eight compelling young people who refuse to succumb to the stigma of disability or the collapse of their country.  Their musical passion and fierce determination eventually took them on a dream tour to the United States of America.

The documentary film was first premiered in Africa in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at the FESPACO film festival in early March 2011.

Co-director Elinor Burkett, a former Fulbright Professor who taught at the National University for Science and Technology in 2006, hailed the King George VI and Jairos Jiri schools which provide facilities for disabled students to explore their potential.

“You give young people the chance, and you never know how far they will go,” she said.  Burkett co-directed the film with Jamaican Erroll Webber.

Burkett was also the producer of a related documentary, Music for Prudence, which won the 2010 Oscar for Best Short Subject Documentary.  iThemba is a longer version of that film featuring the stories of all the band members.

Herald

By Christopher Takunda Mugaga

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

A few weeks ago the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council released last year’s Advanced level and Ordinary level exams results that were characterised by unprecedented pass rates.

Subsequently there have been reports of some ‘O’ level students who were in last year’s class failing to secure ‘A’ level places.

The question hanging in most people’s minds is whether the high pass rate is an indication that the exams are getting easier with each passing year or it is the new generation of students who are getting more intelligent and hardworking.

It is the economic agenda of every nation from Madrid to Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand to Iran to build an educated nation, which is capable of sustaining development.

To see a great nation in the future, one has to look at its education standards today.

The recent speech on the state of the Union Address by American president Barack Obama impresses on how a nation is threatened when its education system is in shambles.

He was counting costs on how shunning of science subjects by US students was costing their economy. He mentioned plans to out-educate their competitors with their major threat China reported to be churning out more than 300 000 engineers every year. The Asian giant is now the towering producer of shoes and textile to the world with the US specialising in high tech products with a high value per unit.

The fail rate in most American schools is unfathomable with computer games and facebook taking a toll on the new generation.

Even George Bush who was considered a warmonger had a face to see education standards in his country improving.

His wife, Barbra was on the forefront of the “No child left behind” campaign that the former US first couple initially introduced in their home state of Texas, ironically the former first lady was a librarian at professional level.

Most of the great leaders were known to be academics, this means any leader worth mentioning cannot set an economic agenda for his or her country without considering the skills levels of his nationals. As Zimbabwe is at cross roads in terms of economic recovery, we need intellectuals more than politicians. The question is what makes intellectuals? Is it the academic transcript or it is what one can do with the acquired skills.

Can a medical doctor be evaluated by a distinction on their degree from the Medical school or by reviving life in a ward in a hospital somewhere? Can a man of God be respected by his exploits at Amfik Bible College or it is the souls he is turning to Christ that he is judge by?

With more than 10 000 students failing to secure ‘A’ level places at our schools and a stampede for University application forms, what had really changed from the education system we used to have a decade ago.

Students seem to be more playful now than ten years ago, the spread of internet technology has seen most of the school going pupils so emotionally attached to facebook, twitter, skype and other music videos but their pass rate seems to have positively responded to their technology preferences.

A general survey will point out that for every five teenagers who are in an internet cafe, only one would be academic focused with the other four chatting with their friends.

Students are no longer worried about ‘O’ level results, they seem to be guaranteed that they will secure the ‘A’ level places without hustles since passing ‘O’ level now seems like a given.

It used to be so prestigious to come out with five subjects at ‘O’ level a few years back, especially if the subjects included English and Mathematics. To qualify for a university place was like a fantasy. This was the very era when attaining an educational qualification in Zimbabwe was a ticket to any corner of the world. At one point, the whole Namibian High Court bench was said to have attained its credentials at our very own University of Zimbabwe.

With the sporadic emergence of the unstandardised back door colleges, mannerisms and etiquette seems to be vanishing in our students.

Most of their teachers are unregistered but are the same mentors who are churning out future leaders. If the situation continues unabated, we will be another Nigeria where uncelebrated corner shops masquerading as universities are in the business of awarding degree qualifications for just attaining passes in twelve modules.

That is the very reason why a Nigerian degree is quite unpopular anywhere in the world.

I strongly believe Ministers David Coltart and Dr Stan Mudenge need to really monitor the education standards in the country.

The pass rate for this year might be a sign of a need to revisit our standards, this does not mean deserving students are not supposed to excel.

A general overview of the question papers surely depicts a case of predictable questions where “red spots” or “green books” as they are referred to in some quarters are enough to make one attain a distinction.

Surely one cannot compare an Exam paper set in 1988 with the one that was set for last year.

The examination body has to be seriously recapitalised to allow for the genius to excel and the average to do well.

The ripple effects of an undefined examination system are so far reaching and disastrous, it will build half-baked teachers, nurses, lawyers and other professionals.

Who wants to be treated by a half-baked medical doctor, to be defended by an incomplete attorney or for a nation to be advised by an ill-advised economist? It is worrying when students from university fail to operate a computer. The growing number of both state and private universities in this small country are still failing to absorb the ever increasing number of high school graduates not considering those who are crossing the Limpopo through the presidential scholarship scheme. They are times we seem to blame our politics for the slow pace of our economic recovery without looking at some of our business leaders that are supposed to be behind the whole effort.

We have a lot of “jokers” who are managing these reputable organisations without a well-defined background.

The crisis is also worsened by the loss of appeal for our post graduate degree programs notably the Master in Business Administration.

It used to be a qualification for the experienced and those in management but now it is now a program for the job seekers.

All this emanates from a shaky foundation where the secondary education might have moulded an inadequate future leader.

There are an average of around 9 000 schools in Zimbabwe and there is serious need for private sector investment in the face of an incapacitated Government budget.

The irony of today’s academic results is schools which used to be famed for scoring a century in cricket and rugby are the ones which are churning out 15 pointers at ‘A’ level and a string of distinctions at ‘O’ level.

What has really changed at such schools, if the truth be told, teachers at those schools might be playing truancy more frequently now as compared to the era when the economy was stable where there was no pressure for the same tutors to involve themselves in private lessons.

It is our hope that our education ministry look into the lifeblood of success to any nation, which is education as we strive to maintain pole position in terms of literacy levels at continental level.

Herald

7 March 2011

From Robson Sharuko in Ahmedabad, India

ZIMBABWE will have to do it the hard way, by beating either one or both of their bogey opponents in a tense four-day period in Sri Lanka, to breathe life into a 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup campaign choked by the heavy 10-wicket defeat at the hands of New Zealand here on Friday.

Alan Butcher and his men were left clutching on their straws, in their bid to remain alive in this tournament, after losing two of their first three matches, at the halfway mark of their World Cup group campaign.

Zimbabwe were expected to make a match of their contest against New Zealand, which brought the fifth and fourth ranked sides together, and there was even expectation among some analysts that Butcher and his men could win it.

But that didn’t happen and the Zimbabweans were on the back foot, from the moment opener Charles Coventry chased a non-existent single facing his second ball and was run out and, from there on, it went downhill.

New Zealand didn’t only win that game but won it so comprehensively that they wreaked havoc in Zimbabwe’s net run rate and that has left the Zimbabweans needing to do something magical in the Sri Lankan leg of their World Cup tour.

World champions Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were favoured to go through, with questions only on who would win the group, and so far it’s going according to those predictions.

Pakistan, showing signs of revival under coach Waqar Younis, top the group after winning all their three matches, including a key win over Sri Lanka, with six points.

Sri Lanka have five points from four matches, with two left to play, after winning two, losing one and seeing their big tie against Australia abandoned after a heavy downpour lashed the R, Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday.

The home team were 146-3, having recovered from a shaky start, in 32.5 overs, when the heavens opened and no play was possible after that leaving the two teams to share the points.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara was unbeaten on 73 and Thilan Samaraweera was on 34, when play was abandoned.

Australia are in third place, with five points, but have played a game less than Sri Lanka, winning two of their three games, while New Zealand are on four points from three matches.

Zimbabwe have two points from three matches and have a mountain to climb if they are to grab one of the four tickets into the Super Eight.

All hope is not lost even though the good money is on the Zimbabweans coming short, in a World Cup that has been cheered by some strange results so far.

What the Zimbabweans need to do, which they haven’t done very well of late, is to believe in their abilities and have the mental strength to understand that this is only a game and, if they play their best game, they can win.

Their first assignment is against Sri Lanka, in their backyard in Pallekelle, on Thursday before they take on Pakistan four days later.

Zimbabwe’s record against Sri Lanka is not good and in 43 ODIs between the two countries, the Asians have won 33 and have a success rate of 76.44 percent against the Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe’s record against Pakistan in ODIs makes sorry reading with the Asians winning 36 of the 40 matches the two nations have played against each other, the Zimbabweans winning two, one game was tied and there was a no-result in the other.

The Pakistanis have a 90 percent success rate against the Zimbabweans in ODIs.

Zimbabwe arrived in Colombo on Saturday to prepare for the Sri Lanka leg of their campaign and they know they will have to bury the demons of their last game for them not only to survive, but also to compete with honour against both Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Alistair Campbell, the Zimbabwe Cricket Convenor of Selectors, who is also commentating for ESPN at this World Cup, was asked whether the defeat against New Zealand signaled the beginning of the end for his side.

Campbell said there was still a chance for the Zimbabweans but they will have to play far better, especially in their batting, than they did against the Black Caps.

He was brutally honest that Zimbabwe had a magnificent chance, to make their mark, against the Black Caps but they blew it with a shocking batting display.

“Once we capitulated in our batting, we had no chance,” said Campbell. “There is still a chance but not with the way we played.”

One of the key decisions to be made will be on who opens with Brendan Taylor.

Coventry has struggled throughout this World Cup and whether he will be given another chance now that the campaign has reached the business end, remains to be seen, but looks very unlikely.

Skipper Elton Chigumbura, who also needs to fire with his bat, was clear that as long as they don’t get the basics right, including having a good start, then they are likely to keep having problems.

Tatenda Taibu anchored the innings in the big win over Canada while Craig Ervine also played brilliantly with his half century in that match.

But, once again, they came in to do some repair work, after Taylor had gone first ball, and while you can get away with it against teams like Canada, the established sides like Sri Lanka and Pakistan will always punish you.

However, even after their demoralising loss against the Black Caps, it’s hard for anyone to suggest that it’s game over for Zimbabwe, even now when it’s hard to find where their match-winning performance will come from.

This World Cup has shown a tendency of being unpredictable and, while Australia and India have played according to expectations, the rest of the established sides have given everyone hope that, on a good day, they can be knocked over.

Take, for instance, Canada’s performance against Pakistan when they bowled the Asians cheaply and even looked on course for a victory, having passed 100 for the loss of just three wickets, before they lost their way.

It’s the type of inspired show that this Zimbabwean team needs because, while there is no question about their talent, there are a host of questions about their temperament.

Former skipper Prosper Utseya has displayed the maturity that is needed at this stage, whether with his batting or his bowling, and others need to take a cue from him.

There is certainly no problem with the attack, even tough it remains lightweight in its seam department, and you get a feeling that if the batsmen can get it right, then Ray Price and company can help this Zimbabwe team to compete.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart, who spent a week with the team at this World Cup before returning home on Saturday, said the side was getting better and, while the defeat against New Zealand had hurt, it should inspire the boys to rediscover their touch.

“I think we are getting better as a team,” said Coltart.

The challenge is about getting the results that count at such tournaments like the World Cup and Zimbabwe know that they will have do turn it around, to stand a chance against Sri Lanka on Thursday, and stay alive.

New Zealand Herald

http://www.nzherald.co.nz

By Paul Lewis, Herald on Sunday’s Sport Editor

Sunday March 6, 2011

Zimbabwe’s re-emergence as a cricket nation throws up an interesting conundrum – cricket is either leading the way for change there or it’s just a PR stunt by a murderous regime dedicated to maintaining its own presence.

The question is important for New Zealand as not only did we play them in the World Cup this week but the Black Caps are supposed to be travelling to Robert Mugabe’s implacable dictatorship to play a test series.

Zimbabwe is ending its self-imposed exile from test cricket after the game there imploded under the corruption and the political shadows cast over it.

They are due to play Bangladesh in May; New Zealand and Pakistan are supposed to follow.

On the one hand, Zimbabwe – who were beaten by the Black Caps at the cricket World Cup yesterday – have players of colour back in their team and managing the country’s cricket. ‘Players of colour’ means white, of course.

On the other hand, Robert Mugabe’s vicious hold on the country persists.

Soldiers were on the streets this week in a show of force designed to forestall any citizen uprisings such as those that have transformed the political and social shape of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

Zimbabwe security forces arrested and imprisoned a group of 46 people who were watching a video – a video, for Pete’s sake – of the civil unrest in North Africa. Zimbabwean citizens have had previous encounters with the military and police. Many of them face a charge of treason, which can carry the death penalty.

Zimbabweans know from personal experience that systemic brutality is never far under the surface; making an uprising in Zimbabwe perhaps more unlikely than in North Africa. Zimbabwe was supposed to host the Million Citizen March on Wednesday (NZT) to bring the same sort of civil uprising to Mugabe’s odious rule. It didn’t happen.

But it’s OK – there are white folks back in the cricket team. To be fair, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Sport, David Coltart, has done a great job in re-structuring and revitalising cricket there, ending old accusations of racism and dubious administration.

In April 2004, Heath Streak was sacked as captain and, when 15 white players lost their jobs for backing Streak, the ICC investigated the Zimbabwe Cricket Union on the grounds of racism.

Two players – Andy Flower (now coaching England) and Henry Olonga – had fled the country and remain in exile after criticising Mugabe’s rule. The ICC found no wrongdoing in their racism inquiry – the cynical would suggest they were never going to – but, with so many stars of the game missing from their team, Zimbabwe removed themselves from the test arena.

However, they have done better in the limited over forms. Former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie arrived in Zimbabwe along with South Africa paceman Allan Donald (now with the Black Caps as bowling coach) to help re-build domestic cricket last year. Streak is back, coaching the bowlers; Grant Flower the batsmen. Throughout Zimbabwe’s test exile, the team have continued to play one-day international and Twenty20 cricket, with English coach Alan Butcher leading them to victories over India, Sri Lanka and West Indies and a series win over Ireland (who beat England at the World Cup this week).

It all sounds highly promising and the ICC have made warm and gushy noises. But, while cricket is happily re-building itself, not much else in Zimbabwe is. The grandly named “national unity” coalition government which saw Coltart named sports minister is an uneasy alliance between the opposition MDC party and Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. There are now reports that Mugabe – the patron of Zimbabwe cricket – is trying to collapse the coalition to force a snap election, designed to pitch the 87-year-old (said now to have prostate cancer, which he denies) back into sole power.

Zimbabwe still has millions below the poverty line. Conspiracy theorists are positing that Mugabe would have liked an uprising, as it would have given him the chance to undo the coalition.

That could be one reason why it didn’t happen. So, too, could the fact that the rallying call for the citizen march came from disgruntled Zimbabwean activists blogging on computers from England.

Such things need a groundswell on the ground – as happened in Tunisia when 26-year-old street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight; sparking the riots there. Beaten up by the police for selling fruit in the street, Bouazizi’s fatal protest at being victimised for being poor and oppressed started the wave of uprisings against African dictators.

Yet Zimbabwe is in an even more desperate economic situation than Tunisia or Egypt.

The first two have grown their economies over the past decade – Tunisia by 5 per cent, with 13 per cent unemployment and life expectancy 74 and 78 for men and women respectively. Egypt’s economy grew 7 per cent, unemployment is at 9 per cent and life expectancy 75 and 70 years.

In Zimbabwe, the economy has been estimated to have dipped by 30 per cent in the past decade; joblessness affects more than 90 per cent and life expectancy is 44 years.

The government are shrilly investigating the loss of US$300m that is not accounted for in government coffers. Some say it is being drained away as a ‘war chest’.

Mugabe has reportedly sent crack soldiers to Libya to assist fellow despot Muammar Gaddafi and there is speculation that Zimbabwe could be Gaddafi’s bolt-hole.

It’s all decidedly suss and not really the ideal environment to which to send a cricket team. However, if we play them at the World Cup, we can hardly withdraw from a test tour there – and, to be fair, countries like Pakistan and others have human rights problems, too. Sport can have a healing effect … as long as it’s not being used to cover up something nasty.

Herald

5 March 2011

By “Nathaniel Manheru”

Cricket or millipede?

Welshman, Oh Welshman!

Much like the proverbial cricket, he continues to kick off his hind legs, forgetting he is not a millipede endowed with a million legs.

He forgets he still has to cross the vlei, to reach the next village.

Obviously, he is an angry customer to Zanu-PF.

The President should have dropped Mutambara as a principal, should have brought him in as a new principal, Ncube bitterly opines.

His actions and those of his traditionally suave and mature Priscilla, smack of bitter self-hurt.

Far more than all, Welshman was most strident against sanctions in the negotiations that gave rise to the GPA, that yielded its fraught anti-sanctions clause.

Far more than all, Priscilla raised needling questions to Europe and America, each time the Cabinet Committee engaged delegations of those power blocs.

Both stances gave MDC some stature, national in scope in my view.

Against both developments, the MDC boycott of the Wednesday petition sticks out as out of character.

It smacked of a perverse hope to revenge on the President and Zanu-PF on the non-inclusion of Welshman as a principal.

But they should have thought through their actions, should have picked on a better moment.

Sanctions do define the politics of this country, for now and for the foreseeable future.

Soko Mufakwose!

I thought Mutambara played it quite skillfully.

He did not attend the launch. No one begrudged him, if you ask me.

But before long, in fact a day later, he pronounced himself unequivocally in support of the removal of sanctions, well away from a function cast as having partisan trappings.

Had he gone to the launch, he would have given Ncube easy victory.

“Ahaa,” Welshman would have said, “you see your Zanu-PF man!”

He didn’t, which is why vaNcube vakaita mufakwose!

Much worse, at the late Lesabe’s funeral, Ncube gave away enough indications of where he is headed politically.

Why would any party worry to court a political minor who is about to be swallowed by another?

It is clear Dabengwa is the man to talk to.

Before long, Welshman will wiggle in Dabengwa’s belly, like the biblical Jonah who chose a different city to one preferred by the Almighty.

Farai Mutsaka and Peter Wonacott quote Ncube as not sure what to tell investors when they ask him if President Mugabe plans to seize their companies.

“I can’t give them any firm assurances.”

I hope he is not about to fail too as a Minister of Government.

Surely if these are investors from those countries in the West which have imposed sanctions, the answer is straightforward: he cannot assure them, naturally, the same way he himself cannot be assured by as to when sanctions will be lifted.

The men who authored Zidera

Welshman has two problems on this one matter.

Alongside Biti and Coltart, he was part of the team that authored sanctions.

As contradictions sharpen, he finds himself in a bind, a worse one for him since at some point, he appeared to have renounced those same sanctions.

Secondly, he believes, alongside many in the MDC formations, that investors only come from the West.

It is a belief against reason, experience and world trends.

Surely the two years he has been sitting in that grand office have shown him the colour of the investor who is bringing in money, or the obverse, the colour of the investor who will not come to Zimbabwe, who is taking away money from us?

His latest deal on Zisco is with Indians.

That suggests that the question that nags him is coming from the West, itself his party’s source market for political capital, literally.

But Welshman will not like this one: asked whether Welshman or Arthur has approached him for advice, Tsvangirai responded by a devastating analogy.

Noting that Arthur would come; that Welshman would never come, he added in respect of the latter: “Nyakudya zvitorobho nhasi wadzipwa neganda remhuru!”

Roughly translated it means the tough one who brags of chewing tough hide, today lies sprawled and gasping, choked by mere veal.

Tsvangirai things the haughty man has met his comeuppance and asks the world as to who divided the MDC in 2004/5.

And MDC’s drift towards Zapu simply consolidates Tsvangirai and Dell’s view of Welshman.

Divided advice

I said Tsvangirai has no advisors.

More correctly put, he has, only poor and disagreeing ones.

On boycotting the event, Biti took the lead, including selling the idea of a Press conference after the launch, at which Tsvangirai was made to mumble incoherences.

Senior media advisors were opposed to the approach which made the MDC-T leader look more foolish, more treacherous.

But the dilemma for Tsvangirai was real.

Coming would have meant fitting within a campaign frame of Zanu-PF.

Not coming, as he did, means he is not just the source of sanctions, but the reason for their continuation in the present and future.

He validated WikiLeaks and worse things we have always heard attributed to him.