www.zimcricket.org

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Zimbabwe are in the fortunate position of having two bites of the cherry on Friday when they face the Black Caps of New Zealand in their second match of the ICC Cricket World Cup. Although the squad are treating the contest as a ‘must-win’ encounter, they could still qualify for the quarter finals even if the result goes against them.

“We always thought this match might be our best chance of causing an upset,” said selection convenor Alistair Campbell after practise at the Sardar Patel Stadium on Thursday. “But we still have matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan to come and victory in any one of them could help us reach the last eight.”

Once again the twin themes of excellent spin bowling and brittle batting dominated the build-up to the game with Black Caps captain, Daniel Vettori, readily admitting that his team expected to face as many as 40 out of 50 overs from the underdogs’ quartet of spinners.

“That is their strength and we expect them to stick to it,” Vettori said. “The Australians hit us with a trio of fast bowlers and now we’re going to face the opposite. But we’re well prepared and confident that we can cope,” Vettori said.

The New Zealand skipper was too polite to mention his own bowling and the likelihood that his well balanced attack could disrupt a fragile Zimbabwean top order. Perhaps it is such common knowledge that it didn’t need saying.

Opening batsman Brendan Taylor has been putting in extra work with batting coach Grant Flower ahead of the match and both men maintain a positive outlook.

“Confidence amongst the top six took a bit of a knock against Australia’s pace men but we’ve put that behind us now and the fact that we scored almost 300 in our next match has put us back on track,” Flower said. “That doesn’t mean that we’ll score 300 again, but we know what we need to do in order to be competitive.”

While Zimbabwe are full of confidence after their resounding 175-run victory against the lowly Canadians, Vettori’s men are battling to come to terms with both erratic and inconsistent form as well as the ongoing aftermath of the devastating earthquake last week in the South Island city of Christchurch.

“The thoughts of the players and many of those watching in Zimbabwe will be with those who are suffering and grieving in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy,” said Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart.

Zimbabwe are likely to name an unchanged team from the match against Canada. The match is a day game and begins at 9:30am local time (6:00am CAT).

Zimbabwe XI (likely): Brendan Taylor, Charles Coventry, Tatenda Taibu, Craig Ervine, Sean Williams, Elton Chigumbura (captain), Greg Lamb, Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer, Ray Price, Chris Mpofu.

http://ipsnews.net/

By Ignatius Banda

31 March 2011

Across Zimbabwe, economic and political crisis has forced students to do without books, classroom furniture, teachers – the basics of a conducive learning environment. These learners cannot go to libraries, so the libraries have gone to them.

In recent years, Zimbabwe’s rural schools have become notorious for their under-funding and dilapidation. For two decades, mobile libraries have formed a crucial part of encouraging a reading culture and promoting literacy in hard-to-reach places.

The donkey-drawn libraries have helped spur Zimbabwe’s literacy levels according to Sylvester Nkomo, a headmaster stationed in Inyati, about 60 kilometers north-west of Bulawayo.

“It is something I could not have thought of starting, but since I have been here – for the past ten years – these mobile libraries have created something schools would not have managed alone,” Nkomo told IPS.

“These libraries have tried to reverse what other people have in the past seen as a general lack of interest in books among rural students as many do not even go to school,” he said.

Making the most of minimal resources

The Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme (RLRDP), a community-based non-governmental organisation, sources books with assistance from overseas partners, says librarian Thobani Gasela.

“The government stopped supplying schools with books a long time ago and one has to imagine what the situation in rural schools would be in the absence of these mobile libraries,” Gasela added.

“Children have access to books right in the deepest rural areas and this has helped nurture a reading culture that is even difficult to encourage in urban schools, where children enjoy the advantage of reading under electric lights,” says the librarian.

Following independence in 1980, Zimbabwe achieved an exponential rise in literacy levels as the new government invested heavily in education. The country boasts the highest literacy levels in Africa, in 2010 reaching 92 percent, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

This was an increase from 85 percent in 2000, despite the education sector taking a battering from the country’s political and economic crisis.

Some of the credit is due to the donkey mobile libraries, which made their debut in 1990, and helped expand rural literacy and reach remote areas, cut off by bad roads and the unwillingness of qualified teachers to serve where basic amenities such as electricity and running water are lacking.

Tito Sibanda, a first-year student at Bulawayo’s National University of Science and Technology, has fond memories of the mobile libraries.

“For many of us who grew up in rural areas, these libraries offered the only opportunity to access books as we could not go to Bulawayo city libraries,” said Sibanda.

“I think they did help in that if you showed interest in reading, teachers encouraged you to broaden your reading. It was generally tough learning in a rural school but when you are at a stage like university people are not aware the rough road some of us have travelled.”

All-terrain literacy

Obadiah Moyo, the coordinator of the RLRDP, says donkey-drawn mobile carts and book delivery bicycles provide an extension outreach service in hard-to-reach areas.

“Children form the largest number of library users in the rural areas,” Moyo says.

The mobile libraries offer more than just books these days, with solar panels on the roof of each cart.

“The donkey-drawn carts are also connected to renewable solar energy facilities fitted with television and radio receiver sets which facilitate the playing of educational videotapes, audio tapes and compact disks operated from the mobile carts,” says Moyo.

According to the UK’s Book Aid International, a lack of access to educational resources that seek to promote literacy in developing countries like Zimbabwe could mean the countries miss their Millennium Development Goals around meeting universal primary education.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Education and Culture, David Coltart, has announced a commitment to rehabilitate the country’s rural school libraries; it remains a major challenge as Zimbabwe’s essential social services remains largely under-funded.

For thousands of children scattered around poor rural schools, the donkey-drawn mobile libraries are a lifeline for learning.

Zimbabwean

Written by Chief Reporter

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

HARARE – Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara (pictured) has accused MDC-N President, Welshman Ncube, of conniving with High court Judge Justice Nicholas Ndou to prevent him from “masquerading as the party’s president”. Mutambara lodged opposing papers in the Bulawayo High Court challenging the interdict. He said Ndou had worked in cahoots with Ncube in granting the order.

“I submit that the applicants pulled a fast one on the court for it to grant such an undesirable provisional order,” he said.  “I am not clear what seized them to suddenly file the application in Bulawayo relating to a matter which is pending in Harare,” Mutambara’s court papers say. “I hate to think that the applicants were forum shopping. I hope they were not.”

MDC president Welshman Ncube was granted interim relief by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou two weeks ago after lodging an urgent chamber application apparently seeking to forestall an impending Cabinet reshuffle planned by Mutambara in which he was reported to be planning to fire Ncube, his main rival who is also Industry and Commerce minister, and ministers Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga and David Coltart.

“Respondent is interdicted from ‘purporting’ to be the president of the Movement for Democratic Change,” Justice Ndou said in his ruling, which also prevents Mutambara from “exercising any function vested in the president of the MDC, or interfering with structures and organs of the party.”

Mutambara said in his opposing papers, lodged by his lawyers Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni, that the interim relief stopping him from masquerading as MDC president, ought not to have been granted in the first place because it interfered with the doctrine of separation of powers.

“An application where the purpose is to interfere with my work as Deputy Prime Minister, will involve the courts in the determination of intricate and complicated matters of the executive arm of government,” Mutambara’s notice of opposition says.

He has serious suspicions that Ncube is trying to hide behind the courts in dealing with a politically sensitive matter that he says Ncube has failed to deal with within the appropriate political domain.

Ncube had approached the court seeking to stop Mutambara from shuffling party ministers. He also wanted Mutambara to stop representing the party at the meeting of Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, at which President Jacob Zuma will present his report on the outstanding issues in the implementation of the GPA.

Justice Ndou did not grant that relief, but ruled that Mutambara was no longer MDC president because he had stepped down at congress and handed the baton to Ncube.

New Zimbabwe.com

1 March 2011

A GROUP of 45 human rights campaigners facing treason charges must stay in jail until their hearing next week to give prosecutors time to prepare the case against them, a magistrate ruled on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said they were not ready to present their case against the group arrested on February 19 for attending a lecture on North African anti-government protests. They are accused of plotting an Egyptian-style uprising in Zimbabwe.

The group, which includes the former Highfield MP Munyaradzi Gwisai and 11 women, says it was an academic lecture and denies wrongdoing. Treason carries a possible death sentence.

Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba says he needs more time to prepare before the March 7 hearing.

Defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama says the suspects are not guilty and should be released immediately. Lawyers say some suspects were tortured in police custody, and accuse prison authorities of defying an earlier court ruling for them to be seen by a doctor.

The activists were watching a video of the Tunisia and Egyptian protests when Zimbabwean police stormed the room, sent them to jail, and charged them for treason.

It was the latest sign that Zimbabwe’s octogenarian President Robert Mugabe – now in his 31st year of ruling the country – is taking no chances of having a North African-style revolt.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s two former opposition parties now in a coalition with Mugabe’s Zanu PF party have accused prosecutors of abusing the court system.

Education and Sports Minister David Coltart, also the secretary for legal affairs in the Welshman Ncube-led MDC, said on Tuesday: “We are deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of the 45, along with MDC-T MP Douglas Mwonzora. It’s a total abuse of due process and we condemn it.”

Mwonzora is detained in the eastern city of Mutare, facing accusations of engaging in political violence after addressing a party meeting there a fortnight ago.

His MDC party, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said in a statement: “The MDC condemns the current wave of arrests of pro-democracy activists from political parties and civil society, together with artists and playwrights, for merely exercising their basic freedoms of expression and association.

“The arrests seem to have been heightened by imaginary fears emanating from events in North Africa and the Middle East. Since trouble began in Tunisia, cascading into Egypt, Libya and other parts of the Arab world, we have seen a paranoid attempt by certain sections of the state apparatus to target the MDC and its allies in civil society with intimidatory and trumped up charges.”

The latest legal and political battles came as the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Susan Page, arrived in Zimbabwe on a four-day visit.

The United States embassy said during her visit, Page will be in Harare and also Bulawayo, meeting separately with senior government officials, representatives from the business community, and civil society leaders.

“Her visit to Zimbabwe reflects the importance the United States government places on engaging a broad array of Zimbabwean leaders to foster bilateral economic and diplomatic relations,” the US embassy said in a statement.

Express News Service India

http://expressbuzz.com

N Jagannath Das

1 March 2011

NAGPUR: Zimbabwe sports minister Senator David Coltart has criticized the International Cricket Council’s decision to reduce the teams from 14 to 10 and thereby disallowing the associate nations from playing in the 50-over World Cup in 2015. Zimbabwe’s participation is still doubtful as ICC have not yet decided on the tenth team for the edition. The nine Test countries have been guaranteed a direct entry while Zimbabwe, who no more have a Test status, may well have to play the qualifying matches.

The 53-year-old Coltart, who is here to watch the World Cup, is obviously concerned about ICC limiting the next World Cup to ten teams. “I think it is a negative move for the associate nations and also for Zimbabwe. We rely on World Cup revenues to boost our cricketing finances and also the morale of the players to keep them motivated and to have something to aim for. But by restricting the numbers, it is going to undermine cricket. It is a retrogressive action and I hope ICC will reconsider this issue,” said Coltart, who is on a maiden visit to India, in an exclusive interview to TNIE.

Coltart said he would take an opportunity to speak to ICC. “If you see what is happening in other sports, for example football, it is growing and more nations are coming into football. With this move, cricket will move backwards now,” he opined.

The ICC’s move, according to Coltart, has come at the wrong time when there is revival of the game in his country. “Do you know, cricket is the second most popular sport and it may become the most popular, as it is in India. One of the things that drives cricket to be popular is our participation in the World Cup,” he lamented, adding that it is the only World Cup where Zimbabwe participates as a nation. “We used to participate in the rugby World Cup but cricket is the only game where we get to play at the highest level.

“If Zimbabwe is denied it is going to undermine the game of cricket in the country. If you come to Zimbabwe today, in the poorest townships, you will find children playing cricket with passion. The youngsters dream they can one day compete with top teams of the world and this offers them a career path. If the World Cup is taken away, these career paths and ambitions will be severely undermined.”

Coltart is always amazed how India has embraced cricket. “It is almost like a religion here. We are not at that level. But I think cricket has become quite popular in our country. It used to be played almost exclusively by whites in the past. But it is a different story now. Blacks Zimbabweans have embraced cricket in a big way.”

A fan and friend of Andy Flower, Coltart admitted there was a tragedy in Zimbabwe cricket in the last ten years as they did not have senior cricketers to tutor and nurture the young talent. “But many of these cricketers have come back as coaches and are having an impact. I think you can see, for example, Utseya’s performance which has really picked up. He is now a world class player.”

“We are not at the level of cricket we were in 1999 when we beat India and South Africa. It will be a major upset if we beat one of the top countries. But we are definitely improving and we are much better side than 2007. We have good chance to reach the quarter-finals. This week is critical. We need to beat Kenya too. And then we must aim to beat Pakistan or New Zealand. If we can do that, then we have a good chance to go to the quarter-finals,” concludes a confident Coltart.

Financial Gazette

Monday, 28 February 2011

By Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

THE swearing in of ministers from both formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) two years ago was greeted with much expectation as Zimbabweans basked in the hope that new brooms sweep clean, a year after President Robert Mugabe had described his cabinet as the “worst in history.”

President Mugabe’s announcement was not the first as he had previously indicated that ZANU-PF ministers had let him down, hence the public’s raised anticipation when fresh brains were thrust into the deep end following nearly a decade of economic and political upheavals.

But as the country heads for fresh polls, that hope is fast fading with analysts saying even though the MDC formations’ entry into government stabilised the economy, the majority of their ministers have performed below par.

There were observations that even with the existence of funding constrains, there are measures that can carry the nation forward which could be implemented without the hindrance of financial resources.

This week, the president of the  Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Lovemore Matombo, said he had hoped that the MDC formations would collectively push government to tackle corruption, but that has not been the case, with reports of looting of state assets and resources going unpunished, besides inaction against some ministers fingered for graft.

Despite the former opposition’s efforts in stabilising the economy, Matombo lamented that it has not translated into meaningful growth to facilitate job creation to lift the majority of Zimbabweans out of unemployment.

“They have not performed to our expectations. One thing I have observed is that some of the new ministers don’t understand their responsibilities. They don’t seem to act in the best interest of the public. Look at the civil service audit issue, the minister is MDC,” said Matombo in reference to Public Service Minister, Eliphas Mukonoweshuro’s failure to make a statement on the outcome of the civil service audit that he launched in November 2009.

“Look at the Minister of Health (Henry Madzorera), he is MDC but now there is commercialisation of public health institutions like Parirenyatwa and Harare hospitals, but those who suffer are the voiceless. I am saying something that I saw personally; my relative was involved in an accident and they could not attend to him, relatives had to run around looking for money while he lay bleeding. That is an MDC minister and one would have thought he would have put certain measures (in place).”

Another analyst, Alex Magaisa said all ministers have been largely influenced by allegiances to their respective political parties, with lack of a uniform and coherent ideology and policy framework generally being the inclusive government’s Achilles Heel.

He, however, singled-out two members of the executive, Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Education Minister David Coltart for having strived to make a visible impact on the lives of Zimbabweans.

“Nevertheless, perhaps because of the strategic importance of his ministry, Tendai Biti has been the most visible and from what I have observed he has acquitted himself well given the fact that his lack of experience in matters of economic and financial management was cited as a weakness when he took up the job in 2009,” said Magaisa.

“David Coltart has quietly but effectively handled the key education ministry which is beginning to deliver some results. The education sector is critical in national development because an uneducated generation is a recipe for disaster so Coltart’s work in resuscitating that area must be commended. Those two ministers have stood out for me and have shown impressive ability to navigate the stormy waters whilst delivering discernible results that affect ordinary people’s lives.”

Magaisa said there is, however, room for improvement.

The secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond Majongwe, also praised Coltart saying besides the targets he has set for himself, the minister has also brought a new dispensation in the ministry characterised by communication, consultations, engagement and dialogue with stakeholders, a development that he said was absent at the education ministry during the era of Aeneas Chigwedere and his predecessors.

Majongwe also expressed di-sappointment, with the way Mukonoweshuro has taken long to make a pronouncement on the Public Service audit saying even if he has any problems, he should come clean and not relegate the nation to guessing.

On Energy Minister, Elton Mangoma, whose ministry oversees the energy sector — fuel, electricity being critical, Majongwe said: “we need people who are hands on — outreaching.”

An analyst based at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom, Brilliant Mhlanga, said the major drawback on the performance of ministers is their continued to bickering on positions and their constant arguments on semantics of whether there are sanctions or not.

Mhlanga described most ministers as clueless adding that they “continue tricking and tripping each other in the corridors of power without serving Zimbabweans.”

“Further, what we know is that they all seem to be celebrating the fact that Zimbabweans have been reduced to a level of thinking about the here and now; the politics of the stomach, where everyone celebrates the fact that supermarkets are no longer empty as if they are giving them enough money through salaries to buy the available commodities of it,” said the University of Westminster lecturer.

“Remember, we have Ministers like Gorden Moyo, who even went to the extent of addressing a meeting in London and telling the British that there are no sanctions when the British had even confirmed thro-ugh their foreign office that there are sanctions in Zimbabwe.

“So how do you even recognise such a minister as serving and performing exceptionally well when it is even clear that you have an ideologically bankrupt man who is merely singing for his supper?”

VOA

By Patience Rusere

Washington  28 February 2011

Union president Takavafira Zhou said that due to a rise in violence against teachers by ZANU-PF youth militia and war veterans, teachers are fed up and have decided to take action

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe has resolved to boycott classes at any school where teachers are harassed or beaten up.

PTUZ President Takavafira Zhou said that due to a rise in violence against teachers by youth militia and war veterans associated with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, teachers have decided enough is enough and are resolved to take action.

Zhou said his organization will be communicating the decision to Education Minister David coltart shortly. Coltart, who has previously declared the nation’s schools off-limits to political activities of the kind deployed by the PTUZ, could not be reached for comment.

Zhou told VOA Studio 7 reporter Patience Rusere that schools countrywide have become operating bases for ZANU-PF youth militia. The youth militia were closely associated with the often deadly political violence that flared during the 2008 elections.

Herald

28 February 2011

GOVERNMENT prescribed school fees of US$10 per term for primary schools is US$63 less than the cost of educating a pupil, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said there was need to support the education sector to ensure that the high standards that were set since independence were maintained.

“It costs US$73 per term to educate a primary school pupil but we are charging US$10 in urban areas while in rural areas it is free and this means there is need for a Government subsidy of US$63,” he said.

Minister Coltart said this in Parliament on Wednesday during a question and answer session.

Mberengwa East MP, Cde Makhosini Hlongwane (Zanu-PF), had asked the minister what the Government was doing to avert school dropouts particularly in rural areas owing to high school fees.

Minister Coltart said there was need to continue to finance education.

“The inclusive government has tried to allocate money to the education sector but in real terms it has not been sufficient. We have a higher number of parents who cannot afford and we have insufficient funding and these forces are converging,” said Minister Coltart.

He said the only option that Government had was the use of BEAM, a facility that enables disadvantaged pupils to attend school at Government’s expense.

Responding to another question, Minister Coltart said while the Government might not like the payment of teachers’ incentives, they had no option since it was the only way to ensure that tutors remained in class.