Financial Gazette

2 December 2010

A 15 million Euro tranche recently approved by the Germany government to finance the recovery of Zimbabwe’s education sector has been stuck in Berlin since October after a key Germany ally rejected the release of the money though the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The Financial Gazette yesterday saw a letter from the Germany government notifying Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, David Coltart of the approval.
The letter said the money would be channelled through Unicef and would be accessed by among other institutions, a new trust working with the coalition government to improve education in Zimbabwe, called Teach Zimbabwe.
Teach Zimbabwe has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Education Ministry to establish academies of excellence through scholarships for disadvantaged but talented students, and the rehabilitation of schools, among other programmes.
But The Financial Gazette understands that the release of the money has been delayed by infighting among key Unicef funders who are divided over Zimbabwe’s diplomatic relations with the European Union.
Coltart was not available for comment yesterday.
But sources in his ministry confirmed the development.
“The German government has allocated a certain amount through Unicef, part of that money would be given to Teach Zimbabwe for its Zimbabwe Talented but Disadvantaged Children Education Programme,” a source said.
“But there has been a push to block the release of the funds because donors are cracking, they are fighting over the Zimbabwean issue,” he added.
About 4 000 students were expected to benefit during the first phase of the programme next year when five to eight million Euros were expected to be channelled into 20 schools.
Teach Zimbabwe founder, Kojo Paris refused to answer questions from The Financial Gazette yesterday, saying the issues were best handled by the ministry.
Teach Zimbabwe will be officially launched in Harare today.

http://emsworld-sparklecity.blogspot.com

By Emily Batty

2 December 2010

Since Mugabe placed media restrictions in Zimbabwe, it has become almost impossible for Journalists to report there. Zimbabwe, is in total devastation, so reporting the truth is now needed more than ever. Correspondent, Emily Batty explores the dangers involved for Journalists and others, as well as the ethics of reporting undercover.

Picture a place where your neighbours are dying all around you. Each day your prime minister sits down to luxury meals but you struggle to feed your children and then go hungry yourself. Where the government is corrupt and the rest of the world is made blind by banning Journalists from around the globe. It’s not an imaginary place. This is Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe was once known as the ‘Gem of Africa’ but now it tells a very different story. Today it is a country crying out for help under Mugabe’s ‘Reign of terror.’ Some say it is the greatest humanitarian disaster the world has ever seen. Eighty percent of adults are unemployed, over half the population is facing starvation and the life expectancy has decreased to thirty five.

Here in the UK we turn on our televisions and see images of starving children in Africa, depicting the scenes of famine in Zimbabwe. We read an Article concerning the political corruption of Robert Mugabe from an inside source. It is this information that we as an audience take for granted. The lengths people go to produce these stories are unimaginable. Journalists are risking their lives every day to report the ‘truth’ so the rest of the world might open their eyes a little wider.

Musa Vendi is a Zimbabwean living illegally in South Africa. She is working as a maid to earn money for her two small children who are living with her mother in Zimbabwe. As she fled the country illegally she must travel back through a river when she visits her family as she is not allowed over the border. In a deeply emotional interview Musa said: ‘‘It is so difficult for me, when I cross the river I am very scared, there are crocodiles and peoples that are killing peoples on the other side but I must go or my children will have no food.’’

Severe restrictions have been placed upon press freedom within Zimbabwe in an effort by Mugabe to block the truth. Newspapers such as the ‘Daily News’ in Harare have been closed down since the ‘Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill’ was passed in 2001. This has made it illegal for a Journalist to report from Zimbabwe without a license (which is impossible to obtain unless you support the ZANU-PF.) Clause 16 of the act made it illegal to publish or say anything that could be seen as ‘undermining the authority or insulting’ the President. This law has meant Journalists are being forced to report ‘undercover’ in order to get stories from Zimbabwe.

When asked about Mugabe, Musa said: ‘‘he is a bad ruler, he kills many of the peoples, and if I was in my country now I would not speak to you because his men will hurt you, they do very bad things they do not want people to know the truth. They should know the truth.’’

This would therefore mean that Journalists are placing themselves and others in danger, breaking laws in order to report the ‘truth.’ Some may see this as brave or courageous, a Journalist’s duty. Others would say that this is highly hypocritical.

How can a Journalist report the ‘truth’ and their words be trusted when they are prepared to deceive people and put their lives in danger to do this?

Musa Vendi has made it very clear in her interview that if she was in Zimbabwe at the time she would never have spoken to a Journalist. She said: ‘‘I cannot tell the truth there because they find out and will hurt my family I would not do that.’’

So if Journalists in Zimbabwe are operating in disguise people like Musa could be deceived into giving information. If they were found doing this by one of Mugabe’s soldiers, they could face torture, imprisonment and even death.

Is this morally and ethically right, does exposing the truth have more worth than the loss of a single life and so, is world ignorance or world awareness more important?

One man with an answer to these questions and a strong opinion is David Coltart is a MDC (movement for democratic change) member of parliament and a human rights lawyer. He was first elected to represent the Bulawayo South constituency in June 2000, and was re-elected in March 2005 with a 76% majority. Coltart is seen as a major threat to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. Moven Maachi, Mugabe’s late defence minister once said in an interview ‘‘Coltart is the one behind everything…he is the one causing our problems.’’ (Quote from ‘Degrees in Violence)

Being such an influential figure in the movement against Mugabe’s regime, Coltart has some strong opinions especially over Journalism in Zimbabwe.

When asked whether he feels that the price of a single life had more value over the exposing of the truth he said: ‘Firstly if people do not report at all, people will continue to die in their thousands, only through vigorous reporting will the world be made aware, so even if you save one life by not reporting you will actually commit thousands to a certain death.’ He then went on to talk about the working practice of a Journalist and said: ‘Good Journalists such as David Blair who reported intensively in Zimbabwe are able to protect their sources and in doing so protect themselves and others from danger…Zimbabwe is in desperate times and reports are essential now.’

The future for Zimbabwe is an uncertain one but undercover reporting seems unavoidable. The Zimbabwe crisis is more than public interest. It has become public duty. The need for exposing the truth speaks for itself. Although there may be a price to pay for obtaining this information, world ignorance would be a much greater cost and there would be even greater repercussions

SW Radio Africa

1 December 2010

By Lance Guma

This is a transcript of part 2 of the interview between SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma and the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart. It features listener’s questions on leaked confidential US diplomatic reports, friction between Coltart and war vets over his Gukurahundi comments, his views on the victimization of Roy Bennett, the whereabouts of 13 million text books donated by UNICEF and how contracts for the supply of primary school textbooks were awarded.

Lance Guma: Good evening Zimbabwe and thank you for joining us on Part Two of the Question Time interview with the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Senator David Coltart. Senator, thank you for joining us once again.

David Coltart: Thanks Lance, good evening to you.

Guma: Now what a week for politicians around the world with the web site WikiLeaks leaking confidential US government diplomatic cables. We had former US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell – he had some pretty damning things to say about Zimbabwe’s leaders including Morgan Tsvangirai, Professor Arthur Mutambara, Professor Welshman Ncube who’s from your party Senator. Just to begin the programme what did you make of those disclosures at a personal level?

Coltart: Well at a personal level I think the bottom line is that none of us would want our private conversations or thoughts published to the entire world. That applies to individuals, it applies to governments, certainly applies to diplomats. All of us say in private things that we would never say about other people in public and that is why I think that we need to be mature about what Christopher Dell has reported on.

I know it’s easy for me to say this because from the leaks so far, my own name hasn’t been mentioned and perhaps (laughs) something may be revealed in weeks to come which will affect me more directly but for those who have been criticised we need to recognise that he’s been critical of everyone.

He’s very critical of Robert Mugabe, of Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and as we’ve seen from these leaks worldwide, they’ve been critical of Prince Andrew and that’s the nature of private communications. It happens the world over. I have no doubt that what our own embassies report back on, from London back to Zimbabwe is probably just as horrendous and we need to move on from this.

Guma: What do you make though of this web site leaking this information? Do you think it’s unethical, do you think it’s good for democracy like some are saying? Just your thoughts on that?
Coltart: Well it’s the classic debate between freedom of expression on the one hand and the need to protect the public and national security on the other hand. As you know I gave the Lozikeyi Lecture recently in Bulawayo when I looked at what the limits of freedom of expression are in a Zimbabwean context in relation to Gukurahundi.

And the same applies to these leaks –on the one hand yes it’s wonderful that we can see these private communications and judge America’s private thoughts against their public actions but on the other hand the real danger is that people are put at risk through this type of communication.

Often people go to embassies in private, knowing that their communications will be dealt with in confidence and it is those communications that often lead to the resolution of wars and other problems in the world and if people don’t have that confidence then we may arrive at a situation in the world where it’s a lot harder to resolve crises like that and that’s where we see the limits of freedom of expression.

What I think I would, if I’d been asked for advice on the matter is for the WikiLeaks people to exercise a bit more discretion. Where leaks are going to jeopardise innocent people, then I don’t believe that those leaks should be made. If the intention of this is to expose perhaps American hypocrisy then the leaks should be done in a way that achieves that goal without actually hurting innocent people.

Guma: Several weeks ago you were in the news when war vets demanded a meeting with you over your statements that Gukurahundi was akin to genocide. Now the comical Joseph Chinotimba is leading the charge and we are told gave you a seven-day ultimatum to apologise. The first question comes from Albert in Bulawayo who wants to know what happened and whether this matter has now been resolved?

Coltart: I think the matter has been resolved, in response to Albert. The war veterans demanded a meeting with me, I was happy to meet with them. I met with them in the prime minister’s office building two weeks ago. I had a one hour and a quarter meeting with a group of war veterans including Joseph Chinotimba.

We had a very frank mutual exchange of views and in my mind we reached a satisfactory conclusion to it. I did not apologise either to them or indeed publicly but I think as well I was able to explain to them that my address didn’t just focus on Gukurahundi in isolation but looked at the whole gamut of human rights abuses perpetrated in this country in the last hundred years.

I explained to them that I’ve never been a person to look at Gukurahundi in microcosm. I believe it’s a great tragedy that we never had a truth and reconciliation commission at the advent of independence. And I think once I’d been given an opportunity to explain that full context to them, I think it took some of the wind out of their sails and I think that the matter has now been resolved.

Guma: A few weeks ago Joseph Chinotimba was quoted in an interview that was done by the Newsday newspaper saying he wanted your job as Education minister and at every turn he took opportunities to attack you which brings us to the next question.

We saw for instance the war vets accusing you and Roy Bennett of being unrepentant, jeopardising the livelihoods of white commercial farmers that have remained on the farms.

Tinashe Madamombe in Harare says you and Roy Bennett are unique in being the two white Zimbabweans to be nominated in this coalition government – his question is what do you make of the treatment that Roy (Bennett) has received over the years and why, in your assessment, has he been targeted in this manner? I think he’s referring to the non-swearing in and the court case.

Coltart: Well I’m sure that much of it has to do with the different parties we represent. Roy is a member of a much larger political party than I am and to that extent constitutes I’m sure because of that a much greater threat than I do.

I don’t fully understand the extent of the venom directed against Roy because if you look at my record in the last 27 years, I’ve been just as outspoken as Roy has been over those 27 years and so it doesn’t seem to have much to do what we’ve said regarding ZANU PF. So in conclusion, I don’t fully understand why ZANU PF has reserved such venom for Roy.

I think to be frank, as individuals, Roy because of his fluency in Shona, because he comes from the north east of the country, is a far more powerful political individual than I am and I suppose to that extent I suppose on a personal level they probably perceive him as a much greater political threat than I could ever pose.

Guma: Well Gift Phiri in Harare wants to know why students in rural areas are doing better than those in urban areas and his second question is where are the 13 million textbooks donated by UNICEF in September?

Coltart: Well that question is in two parts; the discrepancy between rural and urban areas – he says that children are doing better in rural areas than urban areas – there are some statistics that support that view, there are other statistics that do not support that view.

For example if you look at the Grade Seven examination results, the pass rate in the two urban provinces of Harare and Bulawayo are much higher than the pass rate in the remaining eight predominantly rural provinces. I think the problem that we face in the education sector is that our data is highly problematic.

My own view is that actually there is an increasing gulf between rural and urban based schools, we have much higher percentages of qualified teachers in urban schools than we do in rural schools and so I would question this assumption that actually children are doing better in rural schools.

I fear that this statistic may have emerged from the O level results. Children in rural boarding schools tend to get better O level results than children at day schools in urban areas simply because they can focus better on the job in these rural boarding schools. They have a much greater opportunity of scoring better results but I don’t believe that is an accurate indicator regarding the difference between rural and urban education.

Let me just conclude by making this point – the education sector as a whole is in a crisis, both in the rural and urban areas. We’ve got a lot of work to do to stabilise it and to that extent I think to nit-pick between rural and urban results is unhelpful. The sector is in crisis overall and really needs to be assisted throughout the country. Would you just remind me of the second question?
Guma: Yes, his second question is where are the 13 million textbooks donated by UNICEF in September?
Coltart: Regarding the 13 million textbooks – all 13 million textbooks have now been printed and the majority of them are still being held at the distribution centre which is at the back warehouse on the Beatrice Road in Harare.

We had enormous logistical problems initially in distributing these books. We’ve never done a distribution of books on this scale in Zimbabwe ever before and what we’ve learnt is that the easy part of the exercise was actually getting the books printed.

That’s the negative side, the positive side is that having gone through these teething problems, UNICEF has now managed to speed up the process of distribution fairly dramatically in the last two to three weeks.

We were only distributing to some 80 schools per week, two weeks ago that had gone up to 500 schools per week and I understand that they’re aiming to distribute in the coming weeks to as many as 700 schools per week. We are behind schedule but our intention is to have distributed books to all 5500 primary schools before the commencement of the first term next year.

Guma: Now there’s a listener in Harare who wants to query why did the ministry grant a monopoly to only one publisher? I think in this case it’s Longmans, to supply primary school textbooks. They go on to say is this desirable for the long term sustainability of the book industry in Zimbabwe and I think the third thread to their question is what impact will this have on the local publishing industry in which publishers previously competed between each other to produce the best, most appropriate textbooks?

Coltart: I’m pleased that that question has been raised because it has been the subject of a lot of debates within the country. In answering all three facets of that question I need to give some background to your listeners.

When I took office, the education sector was in a state of extreme crisis and that was no more so than in the textbook/pupil ratios. In most schools at best, the textbook/pupil ratio was 15 to one. In many schools, especially in rural areas, the only textbook in an entire classroom would be the one that the teacher had and in many schools not even the teacher had a textbook for a particular subject so I came into a situation of extreme crisis and we had to move urgently on this.

What we did initially was to go to the three publishing houses – Longmans, College Press and Zimbabwe Publishing House ZPH and we explained the nature of the crisis – that it was a national crisis, that if we didn’t address this as a matter of extreme urgency and that primary school children in particular would become a lost generation to Zimbabwe.

We explained that because of limited resources we wanted the publishing houses to cut their profits to the bone, that we didn’t want windfall profits, we asked them to go away and to come back to us so that we could reach agreement with all three publishing houses to ensure that the existing market share was respected.

Unfortunately what happened was that a cartel was formed. They came back to us with figures that were quite frankly ridiculous that added a premium of some ten million US dollars to the price that we were expecting to pay for these textbooks.

Because of that we were then, and when I say we, this wasn’t just the Ministry of Education, the lead was taken by UNICEF. The money had been allocated to UNICEF to manage and to that extent we had to work with UNICEF but UNICEF and ourselves agreed that we could not contract with the publishing houses, that we would have to go to a commercial tender and that is what happened.

It went to commercial tender and that resulted in an award to the company tendering who gave the best price and that price happened to be put in by Longmans, by one of the publishing houses which came in with a price that literally saved the overall cost by a figure of ten million US dollars.

They came in well below, overall, the other two publishing houses and on a purely commercial basis UNICEF awarded the contract to one publishing house, namely Longmans.

From an educational perspective we were of course alarmed by that because as your listeners will know, teachers are used to using particular text books and from an educational perspective it certainly wasn’t beneficial to have textbooks from one publishing house sent to schools countrywide to many teachers who may never have used those textbooks before.

The problem that we faced though was that we had tried to get a reasonable spread but ultimately because of this cartel operating we had to go to a commercial tender to get the cheapest price.

Guma: OK.

Coltart: Turning to the other aspects of the publishing industry – having learnt the experience of the primary school, we’ve now, two things have arisen from this – firstly we’ve been able to demonstrate to the publishing houses what it costs to produce a textbook.

Primary school textbooks were being sold between two and three, sometimes as high as five US dollars per textbook. The final price that emerged from the tender was that textbooks can be produced for an average price of 70 US cents.

So we’ve demonstrated that to the publishing houses that that is the price that we will look at as a reasonable price to pay. So we hope that when we get to the secondary school process that the publishing houses will not look to make these windfall profits.

The second thing that we’ve done is that we have now had sufficient time which we didn’t have in the primary school process to conduct a survey. Bear in mind that we didn’t know with any accuracy which school used the textbooks of which publishing house when it came to the primary school exercise.

We’ve done that for the secondary school exercise and we will now be able to ensure because we’ve got a bit more time on our hands that we do actually get the secondary school exercise the particular textbooks from particular publishing houses to particular schools. In that way, we will deal with the educational issue but also we will ensure the long-term survival of all three of these publishing houses and hopefully others.

Guma: Our final question for you Minister comes from Vickie Nkomo who wants to know if there’s anything in place to support the individuals who don’t do well in their O levels? What programmes or other qualifications are being promoted to encourage them to educate themselves further regardless of doing well in their O levels?
Coltart: Once again an excellent question and this has been a huge gap in our education system in the last ten to 15 years. Many children have fallen out, let’s not just talk about children falling out at O level, the drop-out rate between primary schools and secondary schools is horrendous in this country and we need to devise a policy that is going to ensure that these children who are now out of school, who don’t have basic literacy and numeracy levels can receive some education out of school to bring those literacy and numeracy levels up.

And the fourth key strategic intervention plan in the overall strategic plan that was submitted to Cabinet on the 7 th of September and accepted by Cabinet, addresses this very issue.

We have allocated money in the budget this year to devise programmes so that we can identify as many of these children who are now out of school and to either develop a programme of night classes or other classes based on the old adult literacy classes so that we can attract some of these children back into a learning environment and deal with this problem.

The real danger that we face in Zimbabwe because of the chaos of the last ten years is that we are left with a lost generation of children who have very basic or non-existent literacy and numeracy levels who become very frustrated and then resort to crime. We saw what happened in South Africa when as the result of apartheid/Bantu education, there was a lost generation and it causes massive problems in society which we simply cannot allow to happen in Zimbabwe.

Guma: Well that’s the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart joining us on the second part of this Question Time interview. Senator thank you so much for your time.

Coltart: Thank you Lance, it’s always a pleasure being with you.

Feedback can be sent to lance@swradioafrica.com http://twitter.com/lanceguma orhttp://www.facebook.com/lance.guma

Zimbabwean

By Paul Ndlovu

30 November 2010

HARARE – The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture has intensified its textbook delivery by distributing the much-needed materials to 500 schools per week.

Senator David Coltart said that although the programme had experienced a few false starts, it was now back on track. “The textbook programme is proceeding well. It encountered some problems due to insufficient vehicles suitable to deliver to rural schools, but these have been dealt with and the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Education Fund) assure me that they are now delivering to 500 schools per week up from 80,” he said.
The minister said the programme should be complete before the first term starts next year. “They anticipate finishing the distribution to all primary schools prior to the commencement of the 1st term of 2011,” he said. Senator Coltart said the ministry and its donor partners were proceeding with the secondary schools textbooks project. “A decision was made last week to proceed with the Secondary textbook project. This will initially involve the purchase of textbooks in five subjects with delivery anticipated by mid-2011. There has been a delay in this exercise caused by insufficient funds which have, however, now been secured,” he said.
Through the Education Transition Fund (ETF) the ministry printed textbooks for primary schools in a move meant to improve the pupil text book ratio and restore basic education for all to Zimbabweans. With the help of international partners, through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Zimbabwe secured US$30 million for the production of primary school textbooks. The minister did not say how much had been secured for the secondary textbooks, but mentioned that the Scandinavian states had been very generous in their support of Zimbabwean education.

Newsday

By Khanyile Mlotshwa

30 November 2010

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart says government has resolved to publish textbooks for secondary schools through the Education Transition Fund (ETF).

Coltart told NewsDay the decision was made last week.

“As the distribution of textbooks to primary schools rounded up, a decision was made last week to proceed with printing books for secondary schools,” he said.

“This will initially involve the purchase of textbooks in five subjects with delivery anticipated by mid-2011.”
Coltart said money to fund the project had been acquired and he was optimistic the project would kick off in earnest.

“There has been a delay in this exercise caused by insufficient funds which have however now been secured,” he said.

Through the ETF the ministry printed textbooks for primary schools in a move meant to improve the pupil-to-textbook ratio and restore basic education for all to Zimbabweans.

With the help of international partners, through the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Zimbabwe secured $30 million for the production of primary school textbooks.

However, the minister did not reveal how much had been secured for the secondary education textbooks. Coltart said the ETF received a lot of financial support from Scandinavian countries who have been generous towards the country.

At the beginning of the year, Coltart said the funds would be used to print over 9 million primary school textbooks for the country’s 5 000 primary schools while secondary textbooks would be done later.

The primary school textbooks targeted core subjects which are Mathematics, English, Shona and Ndebele as well as Environmental Science.

Part of the fund was also set aside for braille textbooks for the visually-impaired students.

He said after printing the secondary school textbooks, the ministry will still focus on other subjects beyond the core subjects of Mathematics and English.

Newsday

By Sports Reporter

29th November 2010

Kuwadzana Member of Parliament Nelson Chamisa over the weekend said football leaders should focus on developing junior football.

Chamisa said football fosters unity among Zimbabweans.

“In government we have realised how important sport is and I assure you that I will to speak to Sports minister David Coltart to help in developing junior football in high-density suburbs. This is where talent is in abundance. We have future national teams here,” he said.

“This is just the beginning of great things to come and people should take soccer seriously because one can make a living out of it,” he said.

The tournament that was held in Kuwadzana saw winners pocketing $200 while losers went home $100 richer.

“We are tired of wiping tears after our beloved Warriors lose and therefore we have to plan for the future,” quipped Chamisa.

Newsday

By Conway Tutani

26 November 2010

Somebody had to say it, and Mutumwa Mawere did so this week.

Jonathan Moyo has bounded and rebounded from one stance to another in his much-travelled but relatively short political career as to defy label for what he really stands for.

He seems to constantly redefine and reinvent himself. He has made many friends but, some say, even more enemies along the way. He has fallen, risen, fallen, risen . . .

Let’s start by being generous by suggesting that his shifting and contradictory modus operandi is merely due to the fact that he is a master at the game of playing the Devil’s advocate.

In common parlance, a devil’s advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument.

In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil’s advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative discussion process.

The purpose of such process is typically to test the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure, and to use such information to either improve or abandon the original, opposing position.

Maybe Moyo does this in the spirit of infusing robust debate in society, but at times his arguments and tone seem merely semantic.

The basic purpose of writing is not to show how clever you are (like his doppelganger [his double] Nathaniel Manheru, whom he famously fell out with, does), but to inform, educate and entertain.

There comes a time to stop intellectualising and start implementing effective policies to turn around Zimbabwe politically and socio-economically.

Most of the issues we face today have solutions that are reducible to common sense.

Let’s then be less generous by suggesting that he is being used as a stalking horse.

The term is derived from a horse trained to conceal the hunter while stalking. Now it’s used in common parlance in reference to something used to cover one’s true purpose, a decoy; such as a sham candidate put forward to conceal the candidacy of another or divide the opposition, within or outside the party.

President Robert Mugabe accused Moyo of being the brains behind the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration of 2005 involving leading Zanu PF members, including Moyo himself, which Mugabe hinted was a boardroom plot to remove him.

As a result, Moyo and others who were at that meeting were axed from senior party and government posts but Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa tearfully apologised and was forgiven.

The purported candidate they were pushing for, a Zanu PF heavyweight leading one of the two powerful factions in the party and who is reported to have long-standing presidential ambitions, was not at that meeting so he did not take any flak. In this case, decoys like Moyo were the fall guys.

At about the same time, Moyo had many confrontations with John Nkomo going to the extent of suing the latter for defamation. Harsh words were exchanged.

Observers were surprised by these ugly public spats in which a junior member was standing up to his senior in the party.

But then when Nkomo beat the man purportedly behind Moyo, the man who did not turn up at Tsholotsho, for the Zanu PF chairmanship, the stalking horse syndrome became clearer.

This also calls into question Jabulani Sibanda’s current conduct. Where does he derive his power and, crucially, impunity and immunity from?

He travels the length and breadth of the country preaching his gospel of violence in threatening language with the police merely bystanders.

Others who have indulged in such excesses are serving long terms in prison.

Yes, I have digressed but only to make the point that Sibanda could also be serving as a stalking horse. Is he using a borrowed voice?

It’s easy, very easy, to decode his intentions from his words and actions. He is very much an insider, like Moyo.

Now Moyo has emerged as the defender of everything the ruling class stands for having flirted with the then opposition MDC after standing as an independent candidate in 2008 in the aftermath of his fallout with Mugabe.

But then business mogul Mutumwa Mawere has fleshed out another dimension of Moyo. And I would settle for this above all else.

Earlier this week, Mutumwa Mawere, referring to Moyo, who has taken sides with Justice minister Chinamasa in Mawere’s ongoing battle to regain control of mining conglomerate SMM Holdings which was annexed by the state and has been run down by the government-appointed administrator, had this to say about Moyo:

“ . . . it is evident that Moyo cannot distinguish between personal and national issues because his DNA is more often powered by the belief that in every dispute there must be a political point to score.”

Such conduct should trouble every democrat in the land, everyone who is a democrat at heart.

Let’s make decisions on the grounds of merit, not politics alone.

This was after Moyo tried to tie the dire plight of SMM to the MDC.

But Mawere pointedly wrote: “The MDC was not in government when SMM was placed under the control of a state-appointed administrator whose appointment was done without the involvement of the courts.” He couldn’t have put it better.

He continued: “Equally important, Moyo . . . believes that the SMM is about an individual forgetting that many lives have been affected by the decisions and actions of various state actors, including him.”

Mawere earlier in the article wrote: “The issue of SMM is not personal. The company was a significant foreign currency worker as well as an important employer.”

Instead of scoring political points Moyo should express great worry about the state of SMM today in comparison to when it was under the effective control of Mawere. Jobs have disappeared and thousands of livelihoods going back decades have been ruined.

This is the same fate that befell ZBC under Moyo’s watch as Information minister.

To him, the general welfare of the people isn’t a factor worth considering so long as he ingratiates himself to the powers-that-be.

The same Moyo left ZBC on its knees despite its monopoly status in broadcasting through his misguided policies under a purported Pan-African banner; he antagonised and banned advertisers.

Anyone with the barest knowledge of the media knows that advertisements are the lifeblood of newspapers and radio and TV stations. Up to now, ZBC is still hobbling.

The same binary vision, two-track mind, tunnel vision, could be the driving force behind Moyo and his ilk’s lies about Roy Bennett and David Coltart having been Selous Scouts in the Rhodesian army.

He sees things in black and white. That is the problem of experts who become interested players and thus start from an a priori or entrenched position in the guise of academic discourse.

Their modus operandi is to dress lies in intellectual clothes to give them credibility and respectability exploiting, firstly, the fact that many people have the erroneous notion that whatever is published is the gospel truth; and, secondly, if a lie is repeated many times, it begins to assume a ring of truth.

So it’s not surprising that Moyo made a linkage between the SMM and the MDC even though Mawere was, at the time he acquired the conglomerate, believed to have clinched the deal because of the backing of Zanu PF heavyweights and his troubles only started after he fell out with them.

(I stand to be corrected on that because I don’t want to fall into Moyo’s trap of liberally dispensing wildly defamatory, mendacious statements.)

Moyo should take a leaf from retired Cuban president Fidel Castro who recently accused Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of anti-semitism, in a passionate defence of Israel’s right to exist.

Castro, a long-time critic of Israeli government policy, said Jews had been slandered and slaughtered for centuries whereas Muslims were not.

Castro criticised Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and urged Iran to acknowledge the “unique” history of anti-semitism and understand why Israelis feared for their existence.

The comments stung Iran’s president and proved awkward for Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, who reveres Castro and has forged close ties with Ahmadinejad.

This is the sort of frank, balanced assessment of a situation expected of those who would be experts.

True academics, like Castro, an academic in his own right, don’t tell people what they want to hear, but what they ought to hear.

Because if they do that, they would have crossed the invisible line between trust and mistrust.

ctutani@newsday.co.zw

Zimbabwean

By Gift Phiri

25 November 2010

HARARE – Next year’s general elections in troubled Zimbabwe will be decided largely by the country’s rural population, as both Zanu (PF) and MDC scale up their efforts to win over the local chiefs.

Last week Prime Minister Tsvangirai met with Fortune Charumbira, the president of the Council of Chiefs and a hard line supporter of Mugabe. The Zimbabwean understands the Council of Chiefs is now sharply divided, with one small faction fiercely resisting President Mugabe’s plan to draft them into his Zanu (PF) campaign machinery. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The meeting was meant to find ways of improving relations with the chiefs following widespread reports that some chiefs were being abused by Zanu (PF).

President Tsvangirai told Chief Charumbira that the MDC respected the chiefs as custodians of the tradition and culture. He said the chiefs played an invaluable role in securing societal stability.

Besides periodically awarding chiefs allowances, installing electricity in their homes, pampering them with the latest all-terrain government vehicles, the chiefs are beginning to question the status quo, flatly refusing to be active participants in Zanu (PF)’s plan to win the hearts and minds of the rural people. However, a huge number of the chiefs still vociferously back Zanu (PF), even proposing making the 86-year-old Zanu (PF) leader, Life President.

Analysts said Zanu (PF) wanted chiefs to be grateful of this generosity by helping in making rural areas ‘no go areas’ for Zanu (PF)’s political opposition. In the bloody 2008 vote, rural areas became places for political purges and retribution, flashpoints for those considered not loyal to the ‘revolution’.

Zanu (PF) is moving to enlist the support of headmen, village heads and even chief’s aides or messengers. War veterans and party activists have terrorised the countryside to prevent black farm workers and peasants living on community settlements perceived to support the MDC from voting.

Villagers must now take loyalty tests to Zanu (PF) in exchange for a guarantee they will not be harassed and allowed to continue the work of ploughing, sowing, harvesting and going to auction. And the chiefs are being put at the centre of this strategy.

“The outcome of the next vote will be determined in rural areas,” said Ronald Shumba, a political commentator. No date has been fixed for the vote, but Mugabe said it must be early next year amid reports it could happen in June just after the referendum on a new Constitution.

“People in these areas have been the stake in the violent political struggle that we have seen in recent years between the MDC and Zanu (PF),” Shumba said.

After the defeat in March 2008 of President Robert Mugabe in the historic general election, former veterans of the independence war backed by Zanu (PF) and Mugabe unleashed a “smart genocide”, abducting and viciously assaulting MDC activists and returning the grievously wounded activists to their communities to act as billboards of Zanu (PF) brutality. The gruesome violence cowed the MDC, forcing it to boycott a subsequent run off election.

David Coltart, an MDC-M leader and minister in the GNU, said in a recent paper he thought the government was trying to use old intimidation techniques in the next election, but “they simply do not have the same resources as before”.

He said: “They used to have a guerrilla army of 50,000 people country-wide. We think that there are probably no more than 3000 to 4000 of these people – the actual core, then they use untrained youths.”

Shumba declared: “People are determined to go and vote no matter what the conditions are,” he said.

SW RadioAfrica

24^th November 2010

Part One of Question Time, where SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma speaks to the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart (pictured). Questions from the listeners centred on what his Ministry is doing to stop the harassment of teachers by ZANU PF youth militia, the alleged incompetence of the exam council ZIMSEC, incentives for teachers and his position on targeted sanctions, especially the international isolation of the cricket team.

Interview broadcast 24 November 2010

Lance Guma: Good evening Zimbabwe and thank you for joining us on our Question Time. Our guest this week is the minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Senator David Coltart. Senator, thank you for joining us.

David Coltart: Thanks Lance, good evening to you.

Guma: Now obviously you are in South Africa, can we just start off the programme by just letting people know what you are doing there?

Coltart: Yes Lance, one of the projects that I’ve started on is a thorough reform of Zimbabwe’s curriculum and the Curriculum Development Unit, which is located next to the university in Mount Pleasant in Harare, has degenerated. It has got equipment which is antiquated, most of it is over 20 years old and I’m down in South Africa meeting with Apple to see whether we can’t persuade Apple to come in and provide us with new technology which will form the technological basis for the redevelopment of our curriculum. So I’ve got a meeting all day tomorrow with Apple in South Africa for that purpose.

Guma: OK, well let’s hope that goes on well. I suppose we can start off with a question coming from Abe Nyoka who wants to know if it is true that kids are still being turned away from school for not wearing uniforms and if so, what is the Ministry doing about that?

Coltart: Lance I must admit this is the first time that I have heard this – that children are being turned away for not wearing uniforms. The government policy, certainly in government schools is obviously we have a uniform policy, we would like children to wear uniforms but we understand that in these difficult economic circumstances, there needs to be a bit of flexibility, so I will be surprised if children, especially orphans or vulnerable children, are actually being turned away.

It may be that this has happened in a private school or a mission school over which we don’t exercise the same amount of authority. But the policy is yes, we have a uniform policy, as far as possible it must be respected but no child should be turned away because through poverty they have been unable to comply with the uniform.

Guma: So are you saying it’s optional – the wearing of school uniforms is optional for all schools that are run by the government?

Coltart: No, it’s not optional. We expect children to, as far as possible, wear the uniform for the school. We need to try and maintain standards as best we can, but where through poverty, an orphan or a vulnerable child simply does not have the means to get a uniform then that child should not be excluded.

But obviously we can’t have a situation of children from wealthy parents just deciding to arrive at school in jeans – that would lead to a total breakdown of the policy – but where, as I say, through poverty, through force of economic circumstances children can’t comply, then headmasters know that they have to be flexible.

Guma: Isn’t that a bit of a grey area though? How do they prove and what mechanism is in place to separate those who are genuinely suffering poverty and those who are not?

Coltart: Lance it is a grey area and we rely on the headmasters to exercise discretion. They tend to know the background of children, the homes they come from. Obviously if a child pitches up carrying an iPod and in jeans there’s going to be very little sympathy but if a child is known to come from an impoverished family, well then the discretion will be exercised in their favour.

Guma: The next question comes from a listener in Hurungwe who wants to know what is being done about the constant leakage of exam papers by ZIMSEC (Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council), he wants to know if anything can be done to improve the competence of that council seeing there’s been a catalogue of blunders and they are failing to achieve even the basics?

Coltart: Well let me challenge that statement right at the outset – to say that there’s been a catalogue of blunders and, I forget the precise wording but, numerous leakages. That may have been the case several years ago. This year for the writing of the ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level and Grade Seven examinations at the end of the year in October, November, there was one break-in that occurred in Masvingo. It was done by a criminal element who broke into a school, broke the safe and stole the examination papers.

That was not ZIMSEC’s fault, ZIMSEC in my view cannot be blamed for that and so I don’t believe there has in fact been a catalogue of blunders. I think in fact that ZIMSEC’s performance and delivery has improved beyond all recognition in the last two years. It is delivering papers on time, the examinations are starting on time, they are being marked on time and the results are being delivered on time.

This was one very unfortunate event which as I say was not the fault of ZIMSEC, in fact was not even the fault of the school. It’s impossible for us to secure all 8000 schools in the country and ensure that every single one of them cannot be broken in by thieves. So I’m very encouraged by the improvement in ZIMSEC. I don’t for a moment say that it’s perfect, Lance, we’ve got a lot of work to do to restore the public’s confidence in ZIMSEC but I think it’s, as I say, it’s improved beyond all recognition in the last two years.

Guma: In November this year we did a story about how seven schools in Rushinga had closed after teachers there fled ZANU PF threats. ZANU PF youths are reported to have wanted to punish them for contributing to the constitutional outreach exercise which ended in October. Now ironically the Rushinga Member of Parliament, the deputy Education Minister Lazarus Dokora who is your deputy from ZANU PF, is believed to have a close relationship with these youths in the local community.

So when we advertised that we were having you on the programme, a teacher at one of the schools, asked us to ask you what is being done to stop the harassment of teachers by these militia youths and why the deputy Education minister of all people can actively encourage such harassment of teachers in his constituency?

Coltart: OK Lance, that’s a good penetrating question. Let me just clarify a couple of things: I’m not aware of seven schools having been affected in Rushinga. I’m aware of one school where six teachers have been threatened and suspended. That case has been brought to me by the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and I’ve acted in the last week in support of those teachers.

They wrote to me personally to say that they had been intimidated, that they felt worried about going back to that particular school and I have authorised their transfer, just last week to ensure that they are kept safe and that they can transfer to new schools so that they can continue their teaching careers.

Regarding the allegation against the deputy minister – obviously that is a press report. I have not received any substantiated reports in that regard and quite frankly I can’t rely on press speculation and hearsay. I have not received any affidavit evidence, in fact in the case that these six teachers brought, these six teachers who were affected in Rushinga, they mentioned nothing about the deputy minister.

Obviously if I get credible evidence that the deputy minister or any other member of the Ministry of Education is involved in intimidating teachers, well then that will be viewed in a very serious light and I will take the necessary measures but I simply can’t comment on mere speculation.

Let me just end this question by saying that I’ve given very clear directions in the last year that schools are not to be used for partisan political activity. I have banned war veterans and militia and indeed members of any political party from using schools for political ends.

Schools are meant to be educational institutions, there needs to be security for children and teachers and it’s simply unacceptable that teachers or children for that matter should be subjected to political intimidation or threats of any kind.

I’m also working on a comprehensive review of the education regulations and when these are finally published it’s going to be made very clear that schools are not to be used for partisan political activity and I hope that we can even attach some criminal sanctions to ensure that any people who breach that policy will then incur the wrath of the law.

Guma: We move on to Tawanda Mhuriro – he wants to know what will happen after parents’ incentives for teachers are banned, will teachers be content with their base salaries and what’s in place to avoid the resultant chaos?

Coltart: Lance the incentives issue has been one of the most vexing problems that I have faced since becoming minister in February 2009. You will recall, when we came into government the teaching profession was in a state of chaos. 20000 teachers left the profession during 2007 and 2008 and even when the inclusive government started, teachers were only paid an allowance of 100 US dollars which is not befitting their status as teachers and is an unviable salary.

And whilst their salaries have gone up somewhat most teachers simply cannot come out on what they’re paid and the amount the teachers are paid in Zimbabwe is way below what they can expect to be paid in, certainly private schools, in mission schools and indeed in schools in South Africa and Botswana and even in some schools in Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.

But the problem I faced was that the Minister of Finance, Minister Biti simply did not have sufficient money to pay teachers a viable salary. The policy of incentives had been introduced prior to me coming in as minister and I decided, in consultation with the trade unions, to continue allowing incentives to be raised from parents to ensure that there were these top-ups for teachers.

It has been unsatisfactory, I don’t like the policy, I would like to end it as soon as possible. It has caused tension between teachers and parents, it has even caused tension between rural teachers and urban-based teachers because of the discrepancies. Rural parents tend to have less capacity to pay incentives than urban parents and because of all of these problems it’s a policy that should have a short life.

It needs to be ended as soon as possible but it can only be ended when I can be assured that teachers will remain at their posts and will remain motivated to teach children. We simply cannot afford to revert to the situation that prevailed in 2007 and 2008 in which teachers went out of the profession in droves and that seriously undermined the entire education system.

I have lobbied as hard as I can, Minister Biti is very sympathetic, he understands the need to ensure that teachers are paid a viable salary but of course his ability to do that is constrained by the economy, by the state of the economy but the moment we can start paying teachers a viable wage I will move to end incentives but, I stress, only once I know that teachers will be paid a reasonable salary.

Guma: OK now as Sports Minister, your position on cricket has been very clear and you have been calling for Zimbabwe’s international isolation to end. Now Samson in Mutare wants to know whether you still stand by this position given the apparent collapse of the coalition government. He says the isolation was meant to be a pressure point and by seeking to have it removed, are you not doing ZANU PF’s work for them?

Coltart: Lance, my view on sanctions is as follows: I, there’re two main arguments – the first is that we signed up to the GPA and included in the GPA was an undertaking that we would move to lift sanctions. ZANU PF has not honoured the GPA. They have not put the governors in place, they have breached the GPA in a variety of different ways but quite frankly, we, in my view, need to honour our side of the bargain. That’s the first argument.

The second argument and it touches on the first because I’m sure many people will say well you’re simply being naïve to think that ZANU are ever going to honour their side of the bargain and that’s why the second argument is vitally important and it’s this – I believe ironically that sanctions actually benefit ZANU PF more than anyone else at present.

We’ve had these targeted sanctions in place since 2001 – we need to ask ourselves the question – have they affected the ZANU PF hierarchy at all? Perhaps it has prevented them from shopping at Harrods but it has not stopped them from abusing the rule of law, it has not stopped them from looting the country.

You’ve just got to go to Borrowdale to see the massive mansions that have been built by the ZANU PF hierarchy in the last decade and you will see that the financial targeted sanctions have not affected them one iota and the irony is that they now use sanctions as a pretext, as an excuse not to implement other aspects of the GPA such as the swearing in of governors and the like.

And my view is that we need to actually deflate ZANU PF, remove this excuse because it is not, it is simply a fiction, it is an illusion if we think that these targeted sanctions are having any, either physical or psychological impact on ZANU PF.

I think that they are cynically using the continuation of targeted sanctions as an excuse and we need to remove that excuse so that they are left naked and the region and the rest of the world can see in fact who is now to blame for the non-implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Guma: But the argument of course used to counter that is that you remove that excuse, ZANU PF will find another excuse and history has shown us that at different political periods they have used different excuses for different things.

Coltart: Oh I have no doubt that they will try and use a different excuse but if you look at their rhetoric and their propaganda the last year, two years, they have been solely focussed on sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. It has been their mantra day in, day out. It’s very difficult to change that mantra if that excuse is lifted.

But then I come back to the other argument Lance, we have to seriously ask ourselves the question what effect have the sanctions had? Even if they do move on to some other excuse, what leverage have they in fact had on ZANU PF? Perhaps they’ve stopped one or two of them from travelling to Harrods but that is the only impact that I see that targeted sanctions have had on ZANU PF.

Guma: OK we just have to quickly round up the first part of this interview. I’ll just throw in one more question and if you can just answer briefly – when ZANU PF are asking to have these sanctions removed, and this is one question posed by our listeners, who do they want to remove them because does the MDC really have the power to have the sanctions removed?

Coltart: Well of course we don’t and in fact that’s been illustrated very clearly in my own ministry. As you know, as Minister of Sport I’ve been to Australia, New Zealand and Britain this year and in every country I’ve called for these targeted measures to be removed.

I as you know, I tried to encourage the Scottish cricket team to come out and the British government simply disregarded what I had to say and it’s a clear illustration of the fact that with all the good faith in the world there’s a limit to what the MDC can do in the removal of these sanctions.

Guma: So what does ZANU PF want you to do? What does ZANU PF want you to do if you have no power to remove them?

Coltart: Well exactly and that is why this excuse that they give for not implementing other aspects of the GPA must be removed.

Guma: OK we have to conclude Part One of the interview with the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. We received quite a huge response from listeners in Zimbabwe and clearly I hope Senator you’ll join us next week to conclude some of the questions that hundreds of Zimbabweans have been asking. Many thanks for joining us this week.

Coltart: Thank you Lance.

Southern Times

22 November 2010

Harare – Paulus Ambunda takes to the ring on November 25 in defence of his World Boxing Organisation Africa title which he has so far managed to hold onto since claiming it in October last year.

With an impressive 13-0 record  (seven of his fights victories by KnockOut)  the 30 year-old Namibian pugilist faces a challenge from Zimbabwe’s Tawanda Chigwida who has partaken to the ring the same number of times.

However, the latter has succumbed to three defeats and drawn once in a professional career which spans close to a decade.

He is a product of the Fly High Boxing Academy based in Epworth, a boxing-rich poor settlement on the outskirts of Harare.

Chigwida is not a new traveller to Namibia, having undertaken his last assignment at the Kuisebmond Community Hall, where he fought and lost to Gottlieb Ndokosho by a unanimous decision in the fourth round.

This will be his third international fight. He has also lost to Zambia’s Godwin Mutampuka at home in Zimbabwe.

But the spotlight will next Thursday be on Ambunda who, since claiming continental supremacy in the bantamweight division, has so far sent three fellow countrymen to the canvass with his vernomous glove.

His first casualty was Tommy Nakashimba, followed by Tendani Munyai, before Klaas Mboyane became the latest victim in the champion’s last successful defence bid on July 24 this year.

Though he is yet to face an opponent from another country, life is expected to be a lot easier for him, given that he will be fighting on home soil and before a supportive crowd.

Confirming the grand forthcoming fixture scheduled for the Windhoek Country Club and Resort, WBO Africa President Andrew Smale, said from his Johannesburg base this week that he would be travelling to the Namibian capital this weekend to assess the preparations done so far ahead of the duel which will also be the main drawcard.

‘What I can confirm is that yes, we have given Zimbabwe a second shot at a WBO title, after the super middleweight being held by Tineyi Maridzo also from that country,’ said Smale.

Sporting relations in the area of boxing between Windhoek and Harare had of late soured bit following a medical reports scandal in which three medical documents of Zimbabwean boxers were alleged to have been tampered with.

It is mandatory – according to rules and regulations governing the sport – that boxers be tested for HIV and hepatitis B before they fight.

The trio of Isaac Phonkeni, Livingstone ‘Master’ Kachigwada and Tinashe Madziwana failed a second medical test done in Namibia ahead of an Independence Day Celebrations tournament which had been put together by Nestor Tobias of Sunshine Boxing Promotions.

Then, most Namibian promoters vowed to distance themselves from engaging in contracts with Zimbabwean managers for fear of exposing their boxers to ‘potential health hazards from uncertified opponents.’

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Education, Art, Sport and Culture in Zimbabwe, David Coltart, has instituted a second commission of inquiry into the incident, amid reports that more scandals bedeviling the sport of boxing in his country continue to be unearthed.

Coltart, who this week said he was ‘appalled’ by more new revelations, has asked the Director-General of the Sports and Recreational Commission, Joseph James, to compile a full report to be presented to him as soon as possible.