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.

Telegraph

25 March 2011

By Roland Rudd

Two years of economic recovery and relative peace in Zimbabwe may be the calm before the storm, writes Roland Rudd.

Britain has recently invested heavily in flooding Zimbabwe’s schools with 13 million new books. Since David Coltart became the Education Minister for the faction of the Movement for Democratic Change led by the student leader Arthur Mutambara as part of the government of national unity, most of the country’s schools are open every day of the school year, compared to being chaotic and closed for over a hundred days in the previous one.

After years of chronic hyperinflation, the use of foreign currencies was legalised in January 2009 and the ruined Zimbabwe dollar fell almost entirely out of use. This masterstroke by Tendai Biti, the MDC Finance Minister, means that shops and supermarkets throughout Harare are now full. The economy grew for the first time in a decade last year by 4.5 per cent, and annular inflation fell from 3.3 per cent in January to 3 per cent in March.

For a country that had been on the brink of collapse in 2008, facing mass starvation, political suppression and brutality, this is part of a remarkable bounce back.

But the last two years of economic recovery and relative peace may be the calm before the storm. Political suppression and the climate of intimidation are back, as well as Robert Mugabe’s familiar rhetoric of bashing British and American “imperialists”.

Elton Mangoma, the MDC Energy Minister and an important ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was recently arrested on charges of abuse of office and released on bail. The number of MDC officials and MPs being targeted and followed by the feared Central Intelligence Organisation is again increasing. In the open air markets of Harare, people are only willing to voice opposition to Mugabe in hushed tones, and away from prying eyes. The climate of intimidation is back.

Elections in Zimbabwe are synonymous with violent beatings, intimidation and vote-rigging. Rumours abound that Mugabe is very ill with advanced prostate cancer and that he is keen to bring forward elections which were not due until 2013 to this year. He wants to secure enough votes for Zanu PF to rule without the MDC, and without agreeing to a new constitution that was promised in the 2008 political agreement.

Added to this, Mugabe’s government has had a huge windfall from diamonds in the south of the country, claiming to have stockpiled some 4.6m carats worth up to $1.7 billion. China has been steadily increasing its influence there, building a new military base to gather intelligence for Mugabe, and recently announcing about $700 million worth of lending.

Britain has an absolute moral duty to ensure that Zimbabwe is high on the international agenda. Recent tragedies in Japan and New Zealand, and the uprisings in North Africa have obviously focused the world’s attention away from southern Africa, but we must not allow Zimbabwe to be lost to another half decade of sclerotic and violent rule. Given our historical relationship with Zimbabwe, we have a special responsibility.

Practically, we need to do three things. First, we need to ensure that Jacob Zuma prevents Mugabe from cutting and running on the deal that South Africa helped negotiate in 2008 by holding premature elections. As South Africa’s president, he holds all the power in this situation.

Perhaps the most important element of that deal was the agreement to draft a new and fully democratic constitution before elections in 2013. This has not happened, and it now looks like Mugabe is trying to wriggle out of it. Zimbabwe’s powerful Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is also pushing Mugabe to hold early elections, fearing that the unity government’s success in stabilising the economy could be a boon for the MDC. This could well be the case, and would be good for the MDC if free and fair elections were held in 2013 under a new constitution.

Secondly, we need to end the sporting boycott. England missed an opportunity to support democrats in Zimbabwe when it cancelled a cricket tour in 2009. The MDC needs to be able to show that their presence in government is making a difference. Isolating Mugabe with sporting boycotts and sanctions makes it easier for him to argue that all of the world is against him, and blame his self-made troubles on Britain and the west.

Thirdly, we may have to be prepared to drop some economic sanctions, especially those that prevent companies investing. Jacob Zuma has said that the sanctions are not helping, and that the unity government is being “suffocated”. The opposition in Zimbabwe is divided on the issue. Some believe that the end of sanctions would lead to Mugabe flying straight to London and declaring victory over the UK. However, if the price of doing a deal with Zuma is to end some travel restrictions, then the price has got to be worth paying.

In turn, Mugabe is threatening to nationalise foreign companies based in Zimbabwe if sanctions are not dropped. Many domestic companies are in such an appalling state that they have not made money in ten years, and exist solely to pay the pensions and salaries of their employees. Foreign owned assets therefore present a tempting target. Sanctions will be the main plank of any future Mugabe election campaign, and the way they are currently set up is doing more harm than good.

Zimbabwe is on a knife edge and this is a crucial moment. Mugabe is trying to goad the MDC into pulling out of the coalition so he can call elections which he may win through sheer intimidation. Britain needs to keep Zimbabwe on the global political agenda, neutralise the sanctions issue as an electoral advantage for Mugabe, and do a deal with Zuma to stop Zanu PF from fighting dirty. Today’s generation of Zimbabwean children will not thank us if we allow Mugabe and Zanu PF to keep their stranglehold on Zimbabwe because we stubbornly insisted on maintaining a sanctions programme that did not move the country towards full democracy.

Roland Rudd is Senior Partner at Finsbury and Chairman of Business for New Europe.

Herald

24 March 2011

Herald Reporter

Government will soon print textbooks to ease shortages in secondary schools, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart has said.

Launching the Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Programme in Chitungwiza yesterday, Minister Coltart said a survey was being conducted to assess the different needs of schools across Zimbabwe.

“A survey on book shortages is being carried out and by the beginning of the second term we will start printing according to the number of books that are needed,” he said.

Minister Coltart said the ministry was looking at the six core subjects; Mathematics, Science, English, History and Geography.

“Printing of the required number of books will start as soon as the survey is complete and that is around the beginning of second term.

“We expect to start distribution in the late half of this year,” he said.

The peri-urban Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Programme has seen seven schools in Zimbabwe getting gutters and tanks to store up to 30 000 litres of water.

Tasimukira Primary School in Chitungwiza received seven such tanks, which the minister said came in handy in providing the school with an alternative source of water.

He said this would also help avert outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

The International Relief Development started the rainwater-harvesting programme in 2009 and has donated facilities worth US$4,5 million to date.

Nehanda Radio

By Besester Gomo

24 March 2011

Zimbabwe’s Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Senator David Coltart has confessed to being a Highlanders fan. Coltart said this while sharing a light moment with officials from bitter rivals Dynamos at his offices.

Dynamos officials led by the board chairman Richard Chiminya arranged the meeting to present a souvenir for their 50-year anniversary celebration countdown. They also wanted to deliver their proposal of working with schools around the country.

Coltart said: “I am a Highlanders supporter, I must confess. But I must admit that Dynamos is doing well and has been doing well in the past. You have really picked well. You are doing a great job for the country. Your performance last Sunday was great.

“Dynamos are a great brand. But what worries me is that you have not exploited it. The fact that the team is doing well on the pitch may well be a sign that you are now putting your house in order. “I’m glad you realise the importance of schools in football. The foundation of sport is schools and clubs.

“Schools and clubs should therefore work together. At the moment we are in the process of changing our curriculum to incorporate sport. Football, for example, should create a career path to those who play. But the tragedy has been that those who play football sometimes cannot make a living out of it.

“Often, we hear that at 30, a former footballer becomes destitute. It’s because they have not been given a career path within their sporting discipline. Our clubs are not very strong financially. But I believe that the first stage towards strengthening them is to create permanent homes for clubs.”

Telegraph

By Telegraph staff and agencies

22 March 2011

Pakistan’s World Cup win over Australia has restored the team’s battered image and boosted their credentials as champions-in-waiting, according to captain Shahid Afridi.

Pakistan beat Australia by four wickets to end the defending champions’ unbeaten 34-match streak in the World Cup stretching back to 1999.

It also meant Pakistan finished top of Group A and gave them a quarter-final clash against the West Indies in Dhaka on Wednesday while Australia tackle India in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

“We knew that beating Australia would be very important for us and this win has enhanced our image, sending a good signal to the cricket world that we can win despite our difficult situation,” Afridi said.

Pakistan entered the tournament on the back of a spot-fixing scandal which led to lengthy bans on former Test captain Salman Butt and pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.

“Despite all our problems Pakistan is blessed with talent and it’s because of this talent that we are a dangerous team and can win against anyone. We now hope to carry on the momentum,” Afridi said.

“They have qualified for the quarter-finals after some good play, so we have to do well in all three departments because it’s a knockout stage from here,” Afridi, the leading wicket-taker with 17 in six matches so far, added.

“Our focus is on the quarter-final, we have to win that to reach the semi-final, so we are not thinking that far. First we have to win a must-win match against a dangerous opponent.”

Bangladesh has promised to ramp up security to ‘state-level’ for the West Indies team in an attempt to ensure the quarter-final passes off trouble-free, a senior police officer said on Monday.

Bangladeshi officials are keen to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing March 4 incident, when an angry mob pelted the West Indies team bus with stones.

Dhaka police commissioner Benazir Ahmed told AFP the West Indies team would be provided with the “highest security” possible when they arrive later Monday and police would made sure there was no “crowd trouble”.

“The West Indies are our valued guests and we will ensure the highest state-level security to them. It’s a state-level commitment. We shall make sure that there is no crowd along the key parts of the road to the stadium,” he said. “They can be assured of foolproof security,” he added.

Zimbabwe will host a Test match against Pakistan in August, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Monday.

Zimbabwe, who have not played Test cricket since 2005 after suspending their status due to political problems in the country, are due to play a test match and two one-day internationals against Pakistan.

“We will be touring Zimbabwe in August to play the lone test and ODIs and we then host Sri Lanka for a future tours program series,” a PCB official said.

The Zimbabwe cricket union voluntarily suspended its Test status in 2006 when the country was engulfed in political turmoil, forcing many leading players to retire from international cricket.

Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart has defended the decision for the national team to return to Test cricket this year amid criticism over their performance at the World Cup.

Zimbabwe lost to Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to crash out of the World Cup in the group stage.

Coltart claimed the players’ abilities aren’t particularly conducive to doing well in one-day cricket, saying “in 2004 and 2005 when we stopped playing tests, we did not play a lot of four-day cricket. We now do.”