Zimbabwean

Written by Sizani Weza

Thursday, 24 February 2011

Harare – The exhibition, ‘Giving a Voice to the Voiceless,’ featuring images by international award winning photojournalist Ed Kashi opened on Tuesday, February 22, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. (Pictured: Ambassador Ray with Minister Coltart) The exhibition, which runs until March 23, features striking images captured by Ed Kashi over a 30 year career doing assignments for magazines such as National Geographic all over world. Among the images is a Nigerian woman forced to bake her tapioca with the heat of a oil pipeline gas fire, a Vietnamese girl suffering from Agent Orange disabilities, and a Kurdish woman returning home to Kirkuk after 20 years of displacement.  The exhibit as a whole spans four continents including Africa, the Middle East, North America and Asia.

Guests at the launch of the exhibition, which is jointly-sponsored by the United States Embassy Public Affairs Section and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, included diplomats, artists, and government and local government officials. Speakers hailed the role of photojournalism and concurred that whether uncovering human rights violations, confirming the devastating impact of war and conflict, or revealing corruption and environmental pollution, the camera provides a voice for the voiceless.

“While this exhibition presents us with a sampling of work from Mr. Kashi’s prolific career, it also stands as a tribute to the noble field of photojournalism; a tribute to those men and women who use their cameras to tell some of the world’s most compelling stories—to give a voice to the voiceless,” said Charles Ray, U.S. Ambassador.

“For the photojournalist, telling these stories oftentimes comes with great risk….And for all that risk, the photojournalist is given an incredible responsibility as they witness and experience the most personal, intimate and vulnerable moments of an individual’s life—moments that show indignity and incivility— photojournalist do their part to not only give these people a voice, but also to return to them their dignity and civility,” said the U.S. Ambassador.

Education, Culture, Sport and Art Minister David Coltart noted the important role images and film play in documenting the accurate history of any one country. “This exhibition is so important, because it sets a standard for us as a nation regarding what takes place elsewhere, and, importantly, it shows us that this can be a positive thing. It’s something we should not be frightened of,” said Minister Coltart.  Coltart said it was a tragedy that many of the significant events in Zimbabwe’s history have not been recorded on film or video.

With the exhibition, Giving Voice to the Voiceless, Kashi demonstrates the immense power of the reflective lens in bringing light to the problems of this world and to the power of the human spirit in overcoming those problems. In a statement to mark the exhibition, Kashi said illustrating the optimistic human spirit – its strength, energy, courage, determination, humor, compassion, beauty, and hope – generates development.

“As many good people, governments, and organizations diligently work to promote solutions to combat our troubling global concerns, the role of photojournalists is to support and encourage these efforts, as well as to uncover and bear witness to the problems. It is essential for the public to know what those in power are doing and what is happening to the less fortunate; to be made aware of how we are all connected in our societies and, ultimately, on this earth. Visual storytelling plays a unique role in affording this transparency,” said the award winning photojournalist.

Daily News

By Chengetayi Zvauya, Staff Writer

Thursday, 24 February 2011

HARARE – Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart, has put in motion plans to protect teachers from political harassment during elections.

Coltart told Parliament on Wednesday that he was working on a document that will be presented to Cabinet, outlining the new measures that include bans on political gatherings in schools.

“There are measures we are going to put in place to protect the teachers and I shall inform Parliament once I have finished tabling the matter in Cabinet, said Coltart. “I am in touch with the teachers unions constantly on matters concerning their members who are harassed.”

The feisty minister said the violence of 2008 did not spare the teachers who were easily targeted by suspected Zanu PF supporters in the run up to the run off.

“I know that in 2008 elections we had problems.  It was very difficult as there was a lot of political intimidation to the teachers, but now there are a few cases, but we don’t want any single case of political victimisation,’’ said Coltart.

He said he had established a close working relationship with the three unions representing teachers and was on course to help mitigate the problems haunting the profession.

Coltart was responding to a  question from Chinhoyi MP Stewart Garadhi, who enquired what measures government had put in place to protect teachers against harassment and violations.

Zanu PF supporters in the volatile rural areas have been accused of turning some schools into bases to conduct their party business.

Their critics say they target teachers in their “indoctrinations” because they are seen as sympathetic to  the MDC faction led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

During the 2008 elections thousands of teachers fled from their teaching posts in the rural areas after being harassed and victimised by Zanu PF supporters.

Daily News

By Enock Muchinjo, Deputy Sports Editor

23 February 2011

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister David Coltart joined cricket fans in reacting warmly to the team’s battling performance in its World Cup opening match on Monday, despite the 91-run defeat to defending champions Australia.

Zimbabwe bowled and fielded remarkably well in the Indian city of Ahmedabad to restrict the Aussies to a gettable 262-6 in 50 overs.

The Zimbabwean spinners, led by 34-year-old left-armer Ray Price, restrained the feared Australian batsmen by constantly hitting accurate lengths and lines.

In pursuit, Zimbabwe was however outdone by the champions’ pace barrage as the frontline trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson helped reduce the African side to 171 in 46.2 overs.

Coltart, a keen cricket follower, led the praises with a Facebook message on leg-spinner Graeme Cremer’s page.

The 24-year-old Cremer took 1-41 in 10 overs before top-scoring with 38 at number nine.

“Graeme, superb all-round performance today,” wrote Coltart.

“Congratulations! Now you need to help lift the spirits of the other lads who struggled more than you did. That was a very credible performance today. You have little time in the middle with teams of that so you all acquitted yourselves superbly. We are immensely proud of you all.”

Cremer’s friend, Levi Pearce, also posted on his Wall: “I can’t find a word to describe you; inspiring, dogged, almost arrogant in the way you took it to Aus at the end with the bat.”

Alister Zowe, Zimbabwe women’s team coach, added his comment: “In a match like that you walk away with your head high. They did well. Oh, they can only get better.”

Most comments on the match were posted on Cricinfo, the world’s leading cricket website.

“Zim bowled very well and should be commended for that, the spinners spot on, Australia showed their shyness when playing against spin the innings,” observed Titch Maphosa, adding: “If (Chris) Mpofu and (Chigumbura) had not given away so many (runs) they would have kept them under 250. Zimbabwe’s batting is good.

They are however not used to playing genuine pace. The 135kmh+ they usually play at home against medium pacers expose their weakness. Today they played well and showed the Aussies too much respect. A little respect was okay, but not as much as Zim gave.”

Voma, another Cricinfo reader, reckoned the Australians would fail to beat tougher opposition if their subdued performance against Zimbabwe a sign of things to come.

He said: “Hmm interesting how the Zimbabwe bowlers restricted the Australian batsmen. Against better opponents, I think Aussies would be staring down the barrel of defeat.”

Guardian

By Andy Bull

Sunday 20 February 2011

Much has changed in the troubled African country since their last World Cup appearance

“Cricket is Zimbabwe in microcosm. But we have had more success in rebuilding our cricket than we have in other areas.” David Coltart should know. For the past two years he has been Zimbabwe’s minister for education, sport, arts and culture. He has been at the heart of the rebuilding process that has seen Zimbabwean cricket, like the country itself, tentatively brought back from the brink of ruin.

In Harare on 11 March 2007 a civilian was shot dead by the police during what was supposed to be a peaceful protest rally and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, of which Coltart was a founding member, was arrested then tortured in his cell. The same day Zimbabwe took part in the opening ceremony of the last World Cup. They were missing many of their white players, who had quit the team in protest at the way the sport was being run. They endured a dismal tournament. The previous year they had suspended themselves from Test cricket, and, for the first time in more than a century, the Logan Cup – Zimbabwe’s first-class domestic competition – was cancelled.

Four years on, and Tsvangirai and Coltart both serve in Zimbabwe’s coalition government. Many of those white players have returned from exile. The team play their first match of the 2011 World Cup on Monday, against Australia. Heath Streak, whose father was imprisoned in 2002 because he had refused to hand over his family farm, is now the bowling coach. Grant Flower, who left in 2004 saying “never again”, is the batting coach. They work alongside the very men with whom they once argued so bitterly. “Cricket,” says Coltart, “has already played an important role in reconciling not just racial groups within the country, but also people with different political opinions.”

Coltart is the man who began this healing process. He understands better than anyone the links between Zimbabwean sport, politics and society. “Sport has a huge role to play in reconciling the nation to itself,” he says. “You cannot separate cricket from wider political events. When Morgan Tsvangirai and all of us in the MDC entered into this transitional government we knew it was an imperfect arrangement. We had to go into cabinet with someone I personally have opposed for my entire professional career. But we did it in the interests of the country, because we realised the country faced total collapse. It has been very difficult, but the point is we have done it for the benefit of the people. And the same applies to cricket. Yes there are people who were certainly associated with [Robert] Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in the past. And yes, it was necessary to work with them if we were going to take the nation, and cricket, forward.”

It took Flower six months to make up his mind to return. “But I kept asking myself, ‘do you want to help Zimbabwe recover?'” he says, “‘Or do you just stay bitter?'” Streak agrees. “Of course there was scepticism at first but now this is all about keeping cricket alive in Zimbabwe.”

“Whether we like it or not Zanu-PF is a political party in this country,” says Coltart. “It still enjoys the support of probably 20-30% of the population and we can’t ignore that.”

He has plenty of reason not to like it. He has seen first hand the crimes that have been committed and survived an assassination attempt himself in 2003, when he and two of his children were pursued by armed men in a car chase through Bulawayo.

A committed Christian and a human rights lawyer, he believes that peaceful reconciliation can be brought about through dialogue. “In the same way Peter Chingoka [the president of Zimbabwe Cricket] has been part of Zimbabwean cricket for three decades. He is well known in cricketing circles and is certainly well-liked by some cricket-playing nations. To that extent we can’t just ignore his presence. So the reconciliation that has taken place between the likes of Heath Streak and Grant Flower and Peter Chingoka does provide a model for the country at large.”

Of course Chingoka was never guilty of the kinds of crimes that have been committed in the name of Zanu-PF but he was widely accused of embezzling enormous amounts of money that should have been channelled into cricket. While Coltart suspected as much himself he has examined the accounts of Zimbabwe Cricket’s finances and is convinced that those accusations were untrue. The ICC has reached the same conclusion.

Now Coltart is desperate for more support from the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia. At present it is not forthcoming. Scotland were due to tour Zimbabwe last winter and were keen to do so but were advised to pull out by the British government. Several county teams have also been told to withdraw from planned tours, as was an MCC fact-finding mission. Nick Compton, the Somerset batsman, spent the winter playing for the Mashonaland Eagles, one of the five new franchises set up by Zimbabwe Cricket. Like many of the people who have visited Zimbabwe recently, his opinion is clear.

“I think it’s pathetic,” Compton says. “I can’t understand it. I think it is a bureaucratic decision. I couldn’t think of a better place for a county side to go on a tour, or for English pros to go and further their game. But of course there is the spectre of Mugabe and that is what it stems from.”

“I supported the boycott against South Africa because white South African sport was so closely linked to the apartheid regime it was indistinguishable,” Coltart says. “Whereas you cannot say that about sportsmen and women in Zimbabwe.” He suggests that Zimbabwe have made a better job of integrating their cricket than has been done in South Africa. “Right up to the 1999 World Cup, two decades after independence, our team was predominantly white. Whilst the last 10 years have been very painful for us we can now say that cricket is a national sport. And so that has been the one benefit of these years of trauma.” Compton found that while there was still baggage and resentment among some of the older players, the younger generation of cricketers were learning that “the whole priority has to be about cricket. White, black, green, or purple, it doesn’t matter”.

Political violence and unrest is increasing in Zimbabwe. Coltart believes this is because hardliners within Zanu-PF are trying to stop the transition towards democracy. “Zimbabwe is in a similar point in its history to where South Africa was in the early 1990s,” he said. He draws a comparison with the assassination in 1993 of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party. There was also widespread rioting in KwaZulu-Natal and plots to derail the negotiations to end apartheid. “My point is that the West didn’t give up on that process despite the atrocities that took place in South Africa.”

He does not think that England and Australia should blindly switch from censuring Zimbabwe to supporting it but believes cricket tours would “boost those who have been calling for this non-violent transition to democracy,” as well as advancing reconciliation between those countries and Zimbabwe. “It is important that those people in Zimbabwe who are committed to seeing this transition through are encouraged and supported, through sports tours, through contact, through encouraging all the moderates in society. That’s what we ask of the West now.”

http://onehd.com.au/

19 February 2011

Zimbabwe wicketkeeper tiny Tatenda Taibu says the World Cup minnows aren’t afraid of anyone, especially Australia.

And despite the prospect of having Shaun Tait send down 155 km/h thunderbolts at their batsmen on Monday, the Zimbabweans can justifiably point out they’ve face bigger threats to life and limb.

“What we’ve decided to do is not target of be afraid of any teams, just give the best we can on any day,” Taibu told reporters in Ahmedabad as his side prepared for their opening match against Ricky Ponting’s defending world champions.

Ranked No.11 in one-day internationals and excluded from Test cricket since 2005 because of political turmoil under President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe cricket has suffered enormous upheaval.

Things are certainly starting to look up, at least on the surface.

Taibu was named Test captain in 2004 following the resignation of Heath Streak. A year later, the wicketkeeper/batsman had quit Zimbabwe following a dispute between the players and the board.

Having received threats which he perceived to be from people linked with the board, he made noises in 2006 about trying to qualify to play for South Africa.

By 2007 he was back playing for Zimbabwe.

“If we’re really looking for (the improvement) of Zimbabwe cricket we have to all be in agreement,” Taibu says.

“I compare it to life in a family. You always have disagreements but if you can come back and sit at the table and discuss the way forward it’s the way to go.”

The imposing figure of Streak, whose father was imprisoned by Mugabe’s men in 2002 when he refused to surrender the family farm, has returned as bowling coach.

Grant Flower, whose career was cut short by internal politics, is back as batting coach.

Alistair Campbell, another former Zimbabwe skipper whose career ended prematurely, is chairman of selectors and recruited Streak back into the team structure.

Campbell had been approached in 2009 by unity government sports minister David Coltart. Campbell wanted a guarantee he’d be free to pick his teams on merit, not skin colour.

“I had to get the old guard back because there was no manpower left to coach the new generation,” Campbell said in The Australian newspaper on Saturday.

“So I had to make sure that they were coming back to the real deal.'”

Streak said he was initially sceptical, but ultimately it was about “keeping cricket alive in Zimbabwe”.

Flower wanted to know what was the role of Mugabe, the Zimbabwe cricket board patron.

He was told Mugabe had no involvement.

“I was OK by that. When I first asked my brother Andy (the England coach) about it, he told me to think about it and take my time, but the more he thought, the more he gave me his blessing,” Flower said.

Taibu, all 165cm of him, is confident Zimbabwe can have an impact in the World Cup and in Test cricket again.

He’s a livewire in the field and a crowd favourite.

“It’s something that you can’t really control, but wherever I go I seem to find favour with the crowds,” he says.

“I try to be bubbly and give the best that I can, but besides that I try to forget about myself and focus on encouraging the others guys whether we’re playing badly or playing well. “Because of that, I’ve always been seen as the Jack Russell type (after the retired England wicketkeeper), so to speak.

“I’ve always played well against the tougher opponents. The two (ODI) hundreds I’ve got were against South Africa, so I like tough opponents and quick bowling.

“I enjoy playing against Australia because they’re tough opponents and they won’t give you anything for free.

“It’s been hard staying away from Test cricket but we’re scheduled to start again this year so we’re really looking forward to that.

“I think we’re ready. If the first-class competition keeps developing the way it is the transition back into Test cricket won’t be as hard as we think it will be.”

Taibu, 27, says the players had a team meeting to establish a few rules regarding their World Cup campaign.

“We had a chat, just the players away from the coaching staff, and we asked ourselves ‘How bad do we really want it?’,” he said. “We’ve got some rules we said we’re going to abide by so that when we go back, be it that we haven’t qualified for the second round or that we’ve gone all the way to the semi-finals, we want to get back on the plane and know that we’ve left nothing to chance.”

Taibu says the influences of Streak, Flower and Campbell are significant.

“Where we faltered before is that we have guys that have really done well in international cricket and have gone away,” he said. “But to have the same guys coming back it helps a lot because they know the system back in Zimbabwe, know the players and have played plenty of international cricket.

“That information will really have an impact on the guys that are coming through.”

The Australian

February 19, 2011

By Owen Slot

IN one of the least likely comebacks in sport, the Zimbabwe squad at this World Cup will be led on the subcontinent by a coaching and management team who recently fell so foul of their country’s politics that it had seemed they were gone for good.

Take Heath Streak, for instance, whose playing career was cut short in its prime when he was sacked as captain by administrators wielding racial policies and whose father was imprisoned by Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) regime in 2002, when he refused to surrender the family farm.

Streak is in India with the Zimbabwe team as bowling coach.

Or Grant Flower, whose career was terminated in 2004 in the same argument as Streak’s and who once said: “Never again.” He is the batting coach.

And Alistair Campbell, another former captain, who so regularly fell foul of the politics that his career was over at the age of 30. He is the chairman of selectors. They have been encouraged back largely by David Coltart, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) politician who was once prosecuted and detained, and who survived an assassination attempt. Coltart is now the Education, Culture and Sport Minister.

And on the board of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), Campbell is joined by Doc Mukuhlani, another MDC supporter, whose farm was regularly attacked — he eventually lost it — whose mother was badly beaten, and whose father was taken away for two weeks by pro-Mugabe war veterans.

“It can’t go on for ever,” Mukuhlani said. “Some day it will change. But cricket is bigger than any of us.”

The force of cricket, it would seem, is so great that Mukuhlani can sit on that ZC board with others who are recipients of the kind of farms he surrendered. And so great that Ozias Bvute and Peter Chingoka, whose policies killed off Streak’s old team and caused Zimbabwe to be dispatched to cricket’s international wilderness, are still the ZC’s chief executive and president respectively and still in charge of the payroll they once so controversially withheld from the players. Oh yes, and the ZC patron is still Mugabe.

How can so many make such a concerted about-turn?

“You develop a certain thick skin,” is how Gary Brent put it. Brent is another of Streak’s rebel team; he worked as a coach at Rugby School in Warwickshire before being persuaded to return to coach back home. “You’ve got to make a decision,” Flower said. “Do you help the recovery or do you stay bitter?”

You also have to transplant yourself to the mindset of Africa, where you are used to sustaining blows and making a comeback. Not that anything here is remotely clear cut.

Of those two black-armband rebels from the 2003 World Cup, Andy Flower, now the England team director, and Henry Olonga, Flower is in favour of giving Zimbabwe a second chance. Olonga, meanwhile, lives in London and has still not been back.

“I believe nothing has changed,” Olonga said. “I’ll never trust the system as far as I can spit.”

As it has for many years, cricket seems to reflect the whole country. It required a “huge compromise”, Coltart explained, for him to go into the unity government.

“We’re in bed with people we’ve been opposed to, in my case for three decades.” Campbell would say exactly the same of ZC.

It was Campbell whom Coltart identified as the man to lead the way back for cricket. Campbell was approached in the summer of 2009 and required persuading. He needed guarantees: that he would be able to select his teams on merit, that colour of skin was irrelevant.

“I had to get the old guard back because there was no manpower left to coach the new generation,” Campbell said. “So I had to make sure that they were coming back to the real deal.”

Campbell became the chief recruiting officer. He targeted Streak, met him at a game in Bulawayo where Streak was doing commentary work and persuaded him to talk to the selectors.

“Initially there was some scepticism,” Streak said. “But I’ve got over that. It’s all about keeping cricket alive in Zimbabwe.”

And then Grant Flower. “It took me six months to think about it,” Flower said. “It wasn’t an easy decision. I did ask, ‘What’s (Mugabe’s) involvement?’ and was told he did nothing. I was OK by that. When I first asked my brother Andy about it, he told me to think about it and take my time, but the more he thought, the more he gave me his blessing.”

Everyone knows there is a compromise here.

“Life in Africa is very turbulent,” Grant Flower said. “I’ll always keep my options open.”

But likewise, the returnees say that their reassurances from ZC have all been met.

“I only see Chingoka once every three months,” Campbell said. “And it’s easy working with him; once you agree to bury the hatchet, you move on.”

The moving-on has been embraced by the international cricket world, too. Zimbabwe last played a Test match in 2005; its Test status had been suspended until last June when the ICC sent senior executives to Harare, where they were persuaded that ZC had satisfied all the requirements for it to be reintroduced into the Test arena. Its comeback Test will therefore be against Bangladesh in July; New Zealand and Pakistan will follow.

The moving-on has been embraced by Andy Flower, too. Last July, Flower addressed the MCC world cricket committee with a presentation that, a statement explained, “covered the full range of moral, ethical, political and cricketing considerations”, and the result of which was MCC’s decision to send a fact-finding trip to Zimbabwe to gauge the suitability of touring there again.

MCC’s position, however, changed mighty fast after the government turned round and said: “No you won’t.”

It is, in fact, England alone which will not now re-engage with Zimbabwe. Campbell travelled to England last September to attempt to broker an informal softening of relations. He brought Bvute with him “just to demystify the bloke”.

But when they went to Cardiff, on the day England were playing a Twenty20 match against Pakistan, David Collier, the ECB chief executive, refused to see them.

“We didn’t want to create a stir,” Campbell said. “I’d have thought, just out of common courtesy, he’d have met us to find out how things were going. It was the perfect opportunity to explain where we’re at, but he didn’t want to listen. He wouldn’t tolerate it.”

There is, of course, a world of difference between civil politics and cricket politics. If Collier wanted to know about the cricket, he could just ask the Zimbabwe head coach, Alan Butcher, the former England batsman, or any of the English cricketers who earned a winter salary there.

But this is not black or white, it is about what shade of grey you will live with.

Attempts have been made to persuade Olonga to come back, but he will not yet consider it.

“People like to say, ‘It’s all fine and a bed of roses now,’ but there is so much to be questioned,” he said. “If you look for trouble, you find it; if you want to ignore it, you can.”

Which is an interesting take: if you go back to Zimbabwe, how much are you ignoring the truth, and to what extent are you trying to improve it?

Newsday

By Silas Nkala

19 February 2011

Education, Arts, Sport and Culture minister David Coltart has expressed concern over alleged corrupt activities by school development committees (SDC) and school heads and said culprits should be prosecuted.

Coltart’s remarks came in the wake of recent corruption reports at Milton High School in Bulawayo where the SDC had been accused of corruption.

Chairman of the committee Kizito Musekwa recently admitted at the school annual general meeting he channelled money from the SDC coffers to his own business, Paper Tek Enterprises, and supplied the school with photocopied books which he inavoiced to the tune of $7 449.

Parents demanded that the money be refunded before February 26 and have since relieved Musekwa of his duties.

Coghlan Primary School had also been plagued by reports of corruption with parents accusing the school development association (SDA) of misappropriating money meant for teachers’ incentives.

Parents said they were cooperating in the payment of incentives but accused the SDA chairman Sibangani Nkomo of misappropriating the funds and using them to conduct his own business.

Nkomo refuted the allegations.

Several schools across the country are reportedly facing similar corrupt activities, a development which has created mistrust among the parents, SDCs and school heads.

Coltart on Friday said the rot in schools had become a cause for concern for the ministry and challenged parents to report any cases of corrupt activities to Education offices.

“Those who are found guilty must be prosecuted.

“If parents establish any incidents of corruption, they must not hesitate to report to the ministry and the ministry must take the matter to police, ” said Coltart.

Zimbabwean

By Fungi Kwaramba

Friday, 18 February 2011

HARARE – From the outside all looks well at Dombodzvuku Primary school. The classrooms have a new coat of paint thanks to the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM). But for Dombodzvuku, and most other schools in the country, the money could only make do some cosmetic changes. Inside the classrooms there is no furniture and the floors are potholed.

Minister of Education Sports and Culture, David Coltart, who has been desperately trying to improve the sector almost destroyed by Zanu (PF)’s economic mismanagement, is afraid that eventually schools will collapse completely if steps are not taken to improve the infrastructure.

“For the past decade education has been terribly underfunded and we have seen infrastructure collapse. There are no exceptions. If you go to any government school you will see the same situation,” said Coltart.

While the government of Zimbabwe is doing its best to improve the education sector, the money is still not enough. For example, students at schools such as Zhakata primary school in Murehwa do not even have basic toilets.

No toilets

“We are appealing to well wishers to assist us in building ablution blocks, as our students are resorting to the bush toilet. They are young and susceptible to diseases,” said Zhakata Primary school head.

For Coltart, time is short and there is urgent need for the government to move with speed in maintaining the existing infrastructure, otherwise all will be lost to the vagaries of the weather.

“If we don’t make education a priority quickly and allocate resources to do the maintenance we are going to see a progressive deterioration in the schools,” said Coltart.

Potholed classes with no furniture at Dombodzuku Secondary School and no toilets at Zhakata Primary school are only a microcosm of the larger picture.

“Most classes still have roofs and windows, but if we don’t maintain them we will see  an increasing number of classrooms open to the elements, where students can’t learn,” said Coltart.

Drop in ocean

All schools in the country need rehabilitation and, while the government has taken a few steps towards improving the sector, much more needs to be done in order to turn back the hands of time and once again put the country’s education at the apex it once occupied.

In the 2011 budget, Finance Minister Tendai Biti allocated the highest amount to the education sector, but still the money, according to Coltart, is just a drop in the ocean.

Biti allocated $23million towards rehabilitation of 6,556 schools, the majority of them under local authorities. Pupil grants were raised from $13.8 million to $15,5 million to lessen the burden on School Development Associations

The effects of Biti’s allocation are there to see – but more time and money is needed to restore the country education sector to the glory days when it used to get 15 percent of the country’s budget between 1980 and 1990.

That was reversed by the Zanu (PF) regime and from being the country with the highest literacy rate in Africa, the sector has plummeted into the doldrums.

De-motivated

Coltart and many school teachers fear that the current generation of youngsters could be lost to education completely, as there are too few teachers and books at secondary schools. In addition, teachers are de-motivated by the unending salary talks with the government.

School teachers in rural areas want the government to provide incentives, but at the moment the government does not have money. The decline in the infrastructure has also affected teachers.

With enrolments increasing yearly due to population growth, more teachers are required. However they do not have houses to live in while at work and many are forced to share.

“We share the same room the three of us – we do not have privacy. We are living like children at a boarding school,” said a teacher at Mhembere Primary school in Murehwa.

Rural teachers say that the situation is even worse for them as their schools have not been electrified and in some cases there is no clean water.  Teachers are forced to drink water from wells.

“I am looking for another school in an urban setting where I can have electricity and  incentives from parents. Here, parents are too poor to pay us money and there are no colleges where we can do part-time tutorials,” said a teacher.

In some areas, such as Chemhondoro, there is both a shortage of toilets and classrooms, forcing lessons to be conducted under trees.

“I have received an appeal from Chemhondoro Primary school for another classroom block.  I will make sure that some of the money from the Constitutional Development levy goes towards the building of classrooms. However, the money is not enough as all schools in my constituency are in need of classrooms,” said MP for the area, Ward Nezi.

“Schools are in a sorry state and there is need for repair but unfortunately there is no money to reach out to every school in the constituency. The government should channel more money towards the education sector,” said Nezi.