Coltart appalled by Commonwealth and Britain

By David Coltart | Published April 22, 2018

Bulawayo News 24

22nd April 2018

FORMER education minister David Coltart says he is appalled by the way the Commonwealth and the British government have rushed to embrace President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

According to NewZimbabwe.com, the opposition politician accused “the (Mnangagwa) regime of brazenly violating the country’s constitution by refusing to open up State media”.

A member of MDC party led by Professor Welshman Ncube, Coltart said Zanu-PF was refusing to open up State media in violation of section 61(4) of the constitution, in addition to firing of striking nurses without following due process.

“I’m utterly appalled by @ Commonwealth and the #British government feting the Zimbabwe regime as it brazenly violates our constitution refusing to open up State media in violation of section 61(4) and by firing nurses without due process and all rest,” said Coltart on Twitter.

The UK government has actively engaged with efforts by Mnangagwa’s government to improve relations which had been frosty for nearly two decades under former president Robert Mugabe.

Britain recently invited Zimbabwe for a roundtable meeting on the side-lines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in London.

UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson also told media that his country would back a Zimbabwe bid to re-join the Commonwealth if elections scheduled for between July and August go smoothly.

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Chamisa supporters must learn from history

By David Coltart | Published April 22, 2018

Nehanda Radio

By Hopewell Chin’ono

22nd April 2018

Elections are not necessarily about bravado, faith and hope only, they are also about strategy, rationale and logic. Nelson “Wamba Dia Wamba” Chamisa’s supporters are high on unrestrained hope and faith and refusing to learn from lessons of not so long ago.

History is the best teacher as it holds the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it is empirical not prophetic.
History gives us the necessary tools to predict the future within reason.

Elections are not just a game of rallies but also a game of voting numbers.
Every vote counts in an election as we saw in 2013 and if the opposition thought 2013 was tough, 2018 is going to be tougher because they are not up against an ailing and geriatric Robert Mugabe.

A lot of MDC Alliance supporters are relying more on un-interrogated wisdom than on the real game of numbers, common sense & objective reality.

The break up of the MDCT into the Nelson Chamisa and Thokozane Khupe factions is only beneficial to ZANUPF parliamentary electoral chances and Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidential bid.

The MDC Alliance needs Matabeleland under their electoral victory belt in order to even consider a realistic chance of winning the general election.

Without Matabeleland, it will be daydreaming to imagine a Nelson Chamisa presidential victory, an objective that will only become pursued but unattainable if the two protagonists fail to find common ground in resolving the leadership tussle that is now in the courts of law.

In 2013, the two MDCs of Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube lost more than 7 seats to ZANUPF in Matabeleland South alone.

They would have won these seats had they fought as a United MDC.

That is an undeniable reality of elections, they are not won on emotions or hyperbole, they are won on grassroots engagement and on not dividing the vote.

They are won on making sure that you are as united as you can be.

The reason why Emmerson Mnangagwa is holding on to toxic ministers like Joram Gumbo, Supa Mandiwanzira, Obert Mpofu, David Parirenyatwa and Petronela Kagonye is for that very fact alone and nothing else.

He knows that they command variable grassroots support and if he got rid of them now, they would lead Bhora Musango campaigns against his presidential bid.

He also has to make a rational calculation on the votes he might lose for keeping them against the votes he will retain for not firing them, at least for now.

Thokozani Khupe represents such a mortal danger to Nelson Chamisa’s presidential bid and a real disaster for the MDC Alliance parliamentary prospects in Matabeleland.

Many in the MDC Alliance believe that Wamba is wildly popular and as such, he can go it alone.
Such a misplaced political calculation and infantile notion needs us to read the future with the aid of a rear view mirror perspective.

It is important to remind us of the fact that Morgan Tsvangirai was more popular than Wamba is today, but he lost 10 seats in Matabeleland South alone because of that disunity syndrome.

These parliamentary seats could have been retained if the two MDCs had fought as a united front.
Tsvangirai even lost Kwekwe Central to ZANUPF and yet the combined MDC vote was higher than that of ZANUPF.

MDC-T’s Blessing Chebundo lost to ZANUPF’s Masango Matambanadzo in Kwekwe by only 255 votes. If you add up the 508 votes that the smaller MDC’s Cathrine Bobo got, a united MDC would have won the seat by 253 votes.

That loss to ZANUPF was the unintended consequence of disunity, a political dashboard error that continues to infest the MDC’s thought process to this very day. The combined vote of the two MDCs would have won them 10 seats more than they got in Matabeleland South alone.

Today’s numbers at Khupe’s “congress” shows that she is not someone to recklessly dismiss. She will not win any presidential election even in fantasyland, but she is capable of stopping Wamba from any prospective victory both in parliament and in the presidential race.

If I were Wamba, I would sit down with her and cobble up a deal to see them through the elections then sort out the rest after the plebiscite. Wamba’s hardcore social base must understand that it is a game of numbers stupid!

I have seen a lot of memes mocking Thokozani Khupe and sometimes derogatively so, the post-election memes might be a joke on the Alliance comrades.

They are fighting a war with Khupe and yet they are failing to see that she has different political objectives to theirs. Hers is to stop Wamba, and Chamisa’s objective is to win the presidency.
One can’t deploy the same strategies for different desired outcomes.

Why would Emmerson Mnangagwa need to lose sleep about how to decapacitate the opposition when they are doing a very good job of it by themselves? What Mnangagwa needs is legitimacy and the reality is that he has the power of incumbency and runs the electoral machine.

Mnangagwa and his deputy, Constantino Chiwenga, put their heads on Mugabe’s block and they survived the guillotine treatment that many of their colleagues fell foul to.

They pulled the biggest Harry Houdini of our times by essentially putting tanks in the streets, getting their enemies not only to march for them but with them too, then getting away with the global censure that usually follows such military interventions.

They are not stupid and to imagine that they did all those unimaginable acts only to govern for seven months then hand over power peacefully to a divided opposition outfit, it requires Dr Dixon Chibanda, the famous Harare psychiatrist to examine those holding that view.

The MDC Alliance has lost its erstwhile friends in the western diplomatic community in Zimbabwe, more so Britain, the mother country that carries the ultimate western democratic moral dictate on Zimbabwe.

For any election in Zimbabwe to be discredited, it can only come from the Western alliance that includes Britain.

That alliance is desperately eager to see economic and political stability in Zimbabwe and Britain will call the shots according to a senior western diplomat. These are some of the things that the opposition and Wamba must bear in mind.

It won’t be an easy road unless if they fix their own internal problems and constitutional contradictions, the first one is to unite!

As they say, unite or die. I am not a descendent of a Jewish prophet and nobody needs to be one to understand these things that we should all hold to be self-evident a long as we are applying logic and restraining our emotions from empty rhetoric and slogans and also filtering partisanship mantras.

Wamba has a rag tag army of activists driving his agenda, Mngangagwa has state machinery, super powers and powerful businessmen with long pockets looking after their self interests.

Whilst the local media has focused on the deadwood he inherited from Robert Mugabe, they have ignored the sharp minds around him like Local Government minister July Moyo who was part of the team that set up the south Sudanese government.

He is the most influential and closest man to Emmerson Mnangagwa and yet he is unassuming whilst deadly and effective and some say the right hand man who plotted his rise to power.

For the first time in twenty years, I have heard white Zimbabweans talking about voting for ZANUPF, they say “I am voting for ED because he understands business’ adding that he is the only realistic hope for them.

For white Zimbabweans, there seems to be a natural mystic flowing through out the air and they keep saying that things will not be the way they used to be anymore.

They base these declaratory statements on what the president has promised them. I use Bob Marley’s wisdom to explain what we are hearing from ZANUPF’s erstwhile enemies these days, a distant thunder from six months ago when Robert Mugabe was in power.

Today I asked the son of the former education minister, David Coltart, about what he thought was the position of the white community regarding the elections and their preferred candidates.

Swinging back and forth in his office chair at his law chambers, human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said that generally speaking the white community is disconnected from the struggles of most Zimbabweans and are not that concerned about human rights and democracy.

He said that they are more interested in their personal comfort and securing their business interests, as is Zimbabwe’s black business elite class.

Like all the influential drivers to the Zimbabwean change project, they got tired and weary of fighting and have chosen to work with the most realistic options available to them, as opposed to the dogged pursuit of beautiful aspirations which seem distant to their immediate needs.

What will it take for Wamba and Khupe to realise that unity is strength and that it gives hope to those sitting on the fence? Perhaps the penny will drop for them when everyone walks away post election with a result that they would have helped to predetermine through their intransigence.

There won’t be a geriatric 94-year-old bogeyman to demonise, just a croc smiling once more with the top prize that has been elusive to the democratic project for 18 years.

As the saying goes, “to sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”

Whilst hope and faith have become the intoxicating spiritual feed for Zimbabwe’s poor and desperate masses every Sunday morning, not all especially those controlling the levers of power will take note of the pastor’s parables and tales of a bulletin train futuristic tomorrow.

Wamba needs to think hard about the mistakes made by his recently departed mentor, Morgan Tsvangirai. Only history will give him a realistic picture of what the future might look like.

Emmerson Mnangagwa did not become president through a beauty contest, he visualised a reality he wanted to live in and worked hard for it to culminate including sitting on the same table with unpalatable characters. I am not sure if God was in it or not, but his dream came through, it did happen.

Hopewell Chin’ono is an award winning Zimbabwean journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is a CNN African journalist of the year and Harvard University Nieman Fellow. His next film, State of Mind looking at mental illness in Zimbabwe is coming out soon. He can be contacted on hopewell2@post.harvard.edu or on twitter @daddyhope

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Planet Cricket – Zimbabwe are being zapped by hapless bosses

By David Coltart | Published April 21, 2018

www.thecricketpaper.com

21st April 2018

After disappointment, there are a few alternative routes for an organisation or a sports team to take.

There is stability, reasoning that those who failed will learn from their errors and put things right; there is well-reasoned change, carefully analysing what went wrong, making carefully-judged changes in personnel, aiming to tweak the structure to subtly improve, while retaining what works; or there is the ‘burn everything to the ground approach’ – fire everyone and try to reinvent the wheel.

The third approach, of course, can be necessary. But it can also be deeply damaging – for if a side is flawed rather than rotten to his core, the fire everyone approach risks losing everything that is good about a side, and destroying all that has been built up. It is this approach, alas, which Zimbabwean cricket have adopted since failing to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.

They were extraordinarily close to doing so. Had Zimbabwe scored another four runs against the UAE, they would have won and qualified for the tournament. For all this despair, the root cause of Zimbabwe’s failure was the ICC’s decision to contract the World Cup to ten teams; had the tournament been 14 or even 12 sides, they would have qualified.

Prior to the qualifiers, Zimbabwean cricket had been a quite successful story in the past 12 months. Last year, Zimbabwe defeated Sri Lanka 3-2 away – their first away victory in an ODI series for 17 years. With Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis returning to international cricket, after their hiatus in the county game, the team was shaping up as stronger than for many years under head coach Heath Streak.

All of this progress, alas, is now endangered. In the aftermath of missing out on their first World Cup since 1979, Zimbabwe Cricket have fired the lot of them – Tatenda Taibu, the convenor of selectors; Streak, the head coach; captain Graeme Cremer; and the entire backroom coaching staff.

As David Coltart, the former Zimbabwean sports minister said: “It is one of the most absurd and damaging decisions made by any sports body ever in Zimbabwe’s history.”

The players, coaches and support staff are easy scapegoats. Yet the truth is – in beating Afghanistan, and coming agonisingly close to beating West Indies, too, Zimbabwe performed admirably enough at a time when the global ODI game has never been more competitive.

The real problem in Zimbabwean cricket is not the team. It is, as in so many sports organisations, the suits.

Consider some of the findings in a devastating statement by Coltart, based on information leaked from within the organisation.

-Five days before Zimbabwe’s opening World Cup Qualifying match, the organisation’s head of human resources contacted all staff to let them know that they would now only be paid 40 per cent of their salaries due to financial problems: an extraordinary indictment of Zimbabwe Cricket’s mismanagement, given the $93m they receive from the ICC from 2016-23; and catastrophic on the brink of a seminal tournament in Zimbabwe’s cricket history. Streak managed to convince the board to pay the players in full, but accepted the cut for himself, making his subsequent firing all the more astounding.
During the tournament, the board did not provide the team with enough cricket balls for training, so the side had to borrow some from the ICC.
-The board bought motorised super soppers before the tournament but failed to pay for duty. This meant, during the rain-affected game against the UAE – when a fuller game would have significantly increased Zimbabwe’s prospects of victory – the soppers could not be used.
-No domestic competitions will be completed this season.

In light of all these obstacles the remarkable thing is not that Zimbabwe only narrowly failed to reach the 10-team World Cup, it is that the players were so successful in rising above these difficulties and almost making it.

Yet as Zimbabwe Cricket – out of a combination of covering up their own failings, and a certain disbelief about how competitive the global game now is – destroy all that has been good about the side in recent months, the consequences for the sport there threaten to be shattering.

It is no exaggeration, as Coltart says, to fear that Zimbabwe may even become another Kenya – who have utterly collapsed, largely due to administrative incompetence, since reaching the 2003 World Cup semi-finals.

Players who have returned, or those with offers elsewhere, will see an organisation that has taken leave of its senses and be tempted to depart for good.

That would be profoundly sad. There is a lot to like in Zimbabwe’s side – think of Taylor’s batting, Cremer’s leg-spin, or Sikandar Raza’s all-round prowess and off-field eloquence.

In a country with a tragic recent history, the cricket side serves as an outlet of national unity and, as the phenomenal support they enjoyed all tournament showed, can bring great joy. A successful national team can also, as Coltart points out, bring in essential foreign currency to the country and bring livelihoods for thousands connected with the game.

All those who want to see the international game grow, and cricket be vibrant in as many countries as possible, should hope that Zimbabwe Cricket stop their purge before it sets the nation’s cricket back irrevocably. It may already be too late.

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Zimbabwe cricket on a knife-edge after chaotic fortnight

By David Coltart | Published April 10, 2018

Cricbuzz

By Tristan Holme & Brian Goredema

10th April 2018

Two weeks of turbulence in Zimbabwe cricket will reach a critical juncture on Wednesday (April 11) when the country’s sports minister meets with representatives from the Zimbabwe Cricket board as well as a group calling for the board to resign. Among those who will be monitoring the reaction of sports minister Kazembe Kazembe to those meetings is the ICC, whose relationship with ZC has reached a crucial stage.

ZC has come under sustained pressure from several quarters since the board decided to sack national coach Heath Streak, his entire technical staff, selector Tatenda Taibu and captain Graeme Cremer in the wake of the team’s failure to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. The decision was made at an impromptu board meeting on March 25 that, Cricbuzz understands, had no formal agenda, and was arrived at without any consultation with the players or affected coaching staff.

The clearout has thrown Zimbabwe cricket into disarray, not least because the manner in which it was carried out was unlawful. The coaches were given a deadline by which to resign or face the axe. Many of them opted to resign – in part because it was made clear that they could re-apply for the vacant positions – but three coaches who refused to do so took up legal action. Streak, batting coach Lance Klusener and strength and conditioning coach Sean Bell challenged ZC, leading to the farcical situation where they were rehired and then fired again on the same day.

On Monday, in correspondence seen by Cricbuzz, ZC’s lawyers wrote to the trio’s legal representative: “After extensive consultations with our client on the position of the law, our client has resolved to unreservedly retract all and any communications leading up to the ultimatum to resign and the subsequent dismissals against your clients. Kindly note that our client will shortly advise your clients of the way forward.”

The coaches’ contracts were subsequently terminated with three months’ notice – in accordance with Zimbabwean labour law. ZC is expected to advertise the vacant positions within the next week but has suffered extensive reputational damage, which was made worse by ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani intimating in an interview that Streak had made selection decisions based on race. Streak, who is currently in India working as the bowling coach for the Kolkata Knight Riders, hit back with a video riposte that went viral. Speaking in Ndebele, one of Zimbabwe’s native tongues, he labeled attempts to brand him a racist as “preposterous and laughable”.

Streak’s standing with Zimbabwe followers has become clear since his sacking was made public, with the vast majority of social media posts condemning his treatment by ZC. That groundswell of support led to the creation of a group calling themselves the Zimbabwe Cricket Family, whose cause has been taken up by politicians from both sides of the spectrum. Last week, in a lengthy statement that spelt out the various failings of ZC’s board, former sports minister and opposition politician David Coltart called on the Sports and Recreation Commission to suspend the ZC board under section 30 of the SRC Act for “conducting itself in a manner that is contrary to the national interest”.

The call was backed up at a press conference given by the Zimbabwe Cricket Family on Friday, which was fronted by long-time development coach Lazarus Zizhou. The group claim to have assembled several dozen individuals from across the racial divide who have played a key role in cricket structures over the past two decades, including a handful of former Zimbabwe players. Zizhou was flanked by Temba Mliswa, a firebrand politician who sits on the parliamentary portfolio on sports. “Failure to resign by the ZC board within seven days we are going to create parallel structures,” Mliswa said on behalf of the group. “We are giving them seven days to resign, after which they will be playing cricket on their own and watching cricket on their own. We shall call upon all the people of Zimbabwe to boycott their matches until they are gone.”

All of the dissenting voices have raised the lack of cricket experience on the ZC board as a key problem. But Mliswa’s involvement confirmed the politicisation of the issue within Zimbabwe. Not only does this bring into question which way Kazembe Kazembe might lean after Wednesday’s meetings, but also how the ICC might react to political interference.

This is especially important given the sensitive negotiations over a financial assistance package, which has moved closer to reality in recent months. It is understood that an ICC decision on a potential bailout is possible as soon as their next conference, which takes place in Kolkata in two weeks’ time. But any decision by the sports minister to remove the ZC board would scupper that process, with the government interference potentially leading to questions over Zimbabwe’s status as a full member.

Away from the politics, ZC confirmed on Tuesday that the domestic season would resume next week after a four-month delay. The pause was a result of the need to upgrade grounds ahead of the World Cup qualifiers, but also ZC’s parlous financial state. It was thought that the remaining three rounds of the Logan Cup and much of the Pro50 would not be completed, but ZC confirmed that the first-class competition will now resume on April 19. It will be concluded on May 15, while the remainder of the Pro 50 tournament will run from May 17 to June 2.

Provincial contracts will be extended by a month due to the extension of the season, and ZC’s head of cricket affairs told a press conference in Harare that outstanding salaries should be paid “in the next few days”. Players were paid 40% of their salaries for February, and although the balance was settled at the end of March, their salaries for March are still outstanding.

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Statement by Senator David Coltart regarding the firing of Tatenda Taibu and Heath Streak and others by Zimbabwe Cricket

By David Coltart | Published April 4, 2018

Senator David Coltart

Statement re Zimbabwe Cricket’s firing of Taibu and Streak

4th April 2018

It is a fact that the most successful countries and companies throughout the world are those which remember their heritage and draw on the wisdom of the past. In the modern era there is no better example of this than the one given by the relationship of Apple and Steve Jobs. Jobs started Apple but fell out with its Board; Apple then lost much of its ingenuity and the value of its shares plummeted. The Board brought Jobs back in and his creation of the iPad and iPhone are now legendary; despite Job’s death a few years ago Apple remains the wealthiest company on earth.

Zimbabwe Cricket was a powerful organisation in the late 1990s which punched well above its weight in the 1999 World Cup. However in 2004 a Zimbabwe Cricket Board dominated by corrupt and inefficient people, who were motivated by self interest and politics rather than the game, hounded out experienced players. The result was a catastrophic collapse of the game in Zimbabwe and the need for Zimbabwe to suspend itself from playing Test cricket. During my tenure as Minister of Sport between 2009 and 2013 Zimbabwe Cricket started its slow process of recovery. One of the things I then impressed on the Board was that we draw on the experience of retired Zimbabwean test players to both coach and select the national side. I felt that not only did we have some superb ex players but they were also people who loved their Nation deeply, so they would see their positions not as mere jobs, but rather their patriotic duty.

It was for that reason that I applauded the Zimbabwe Cricket Board when they appointed Tatenda Taibu and Heath Streak as Convenor of Selectors and Head Coach respectively. I do not think that it has been any coincidence that the performance of the national side has steadily improved since their appointment. Despite some periodic setbacks, such as the recent series against Afghanistan, the general improvement in the side was apparent to all cricket loving Zimbabweans – something attested to by the fact that Zimbabweans fans returned in great numbers to support a passionate national side in the recent World Cup qualifiers.

Although like all Zimbabweans I was devastated by the recent failure to qualify for the World Cup I did not blame the players, coaching staff and selectors, because I saw other factors at play, particularly the appalling decision by the ICC to limit the World Cup to 10 teams, the shockingly poor standard of umpiring and their failure to allow DRS, which arguably lead to both Zimbabwe and Scotland’s elimination from the World Cup. Had DRS been operational and had there been umpiring of a better standard both Scotland and Zimbabwe would have qualified., at the expense of the West Indies and Afghanistan. It has been for that reason that all my ire since the World Cup qualifiers has been directed against the ICC.

But through it all I believed that a new cricketing spark has been ignited within Zimbabwe. Although I realised that the failure to qualify would place enormous financial strain on Zimbabwe Cricket I remained confident because of the belief that, unlike 2004 when we lost all our experience, we still now had a magnificent foundation to build on. We had a great pool of experienced players, some exciting youngsters coming through, a resurgence of fan interest and a coaching and selection team which enjoyed the confidence of the players. I knew that, despite our failure to qualify, if we could address the financial woes of Zimbabwe Cricket an exciting future still existed for the game in Zimbabwe.

It was in that context that I was almost numbed by disbelief when I heard that the Zimbabwe Cricket Board had resolved to fire the entire coaching staff and the selectors. It is one of the most absurd and damaging decisions made by any sports body ever in Zimbabwe’s history. As I have sought to understand why this has happened over the last few days it seems to me that the decision has been made for reasons completely disassociated from the interests of the game and rather from the personal interests of a few. Indeed it seems to me that this has been done to scapegoat the coaching staff and selectors to divert attention away from the grievous mismanagement of Zimbabwe Cricket by its Board.

It now seems clear to me that if anybody needs to be dismissed from their positions it is the Board members of Zimbabwe Cricket. Whilst I have been prepared to give credit where it has been due I have held deep reservations about the competence of successive Boards for many years. It is now clear to me that the current Board is just as bad as the previous Boards responsible for the near total destruction of Zimbabwe Cricket. I have listened closely to the views of many and I believe that the current Zimbabwe Cricket Board should be suspended by the Sports and Recreation Board in terms of section 30(c)(i) of the Sports and Recreation Commission Act (Chapter 25:15) for “conducting itself in a manner which is contrary to the national interest”, for the following reasons:

1. Failure to represent Zimbabwe’s interests before the ICC

The decision of the ICC to restrict the World Cup to 10 teams represents a failure by the Zimbabwe Cricket Board to adequately represent the interests of Zimbabwe Cricket before the ICC. A more competent and credible Board would have lobbied nations such as India more effectively to prevent this decision from happening. A more effective Board would have built coalitions with other nations to form an effective block to counter this decision. In contrast the Zimbabwe Board put up a pitiful fight and remained mute. The reality is that previous Boards and the current one are in such bad standing before the ICC, because of their incompetence and corruption, that they hold very little clout now before the ICC. This would not have been the case if the Board had been comprised of competent people with a strong track record in cricket administration and play.

2. Failure to ensure that the World Cup qualifier would be organized more efficiently and in accordance with current international standards.

The failure by the Zimbabwe Cricket Board to insist on the use of DRS, a panel of more experienced umpires and the provision of reserve days, constitutes a serious error on its part. The Board has criticized the selectors and coaching staff for the loss against UAE but the fact remains that had the Zimbabwe/UAE match been rained off Zimbabwe would still have failed to qualify – and that would solely have been the Board’s fault. Likewise the Board’s failure to insist on better umpiring and DRS being used resulted in Zimbabwe’s narrow loss to the West Indies. Had Masakadza been able to contest his dismissal and had Raza not been given out in the manner he was Zimbabwe would have in all probability have won that match. It beggars belief that a Board with cricketing experience would have agreed to the conditions the Zimbabwe Cricket Board did as hosts of the World Cup qualifiers. Aside from anything else knowing as hosts the high probability or rain in Harare in February/ March the Board showed gross dereliction of duty in not insisting on reserve days.

3. Gross mismanagement of the financial and administrative affairs of Zimbabwe Cricket

A little known fact is that on the 27th February 2018, just 5 days before Zimbabwe’s opening match against Nepal, Zimbabwe Cricket’s Head of Human Resources Nesta Vaki wrote to all staff, including the players to announce that due to “ongoing cash flow challenges” staff, including players , would only be paid 40% of their net salaries. A copy of that letter is attached on my Facebook profile. On receipt of this news Streak, convinced that it would undermine the morale of his players, urgently discussed the matter with the Zimbabwe Cricket CEO and the Chairman. Streak advised that he was prepared to take the cut himself but insisted that the players be paid. Eventually the Board relented and the players were paid. Streak however was only paid 40% of his salary.

When the ICC personnel released daily allowances in new US$100 bills cash to all the sides who qualified for the Super 6 round, the Zimbabwe team received their allowances by means of RTGS bank transfers into their bank accounts. When the players realised that all the other teams had been paid in US$100 bills they protested. ZC responded by paying them $450 each in old tatty US$ 5 bills. When some senior players and staff questioned this with ZC authorities they said the cash crisis was to blame, without explaining what had happened to the original US$100 bills paid to Zimbabwe Cricket by the ICC. It seems clear that the Zimbabwe Cricket management retained the new US$100 bills for themselves unlike the other teams who respected their players. This affected the morale of the team when they realised how they were treated in comparison to the other teams by their own Board.

The Zimbabwe team ran short of cricket balls to train with during the qualifiers and had to make plans to try and source balls through other channels to see them through. The coaching staff had to borrow balls from Ben Lever of the ICC because of the failure by the Board to supply them with this basic equipment.

Generous bonuses were “promised” to the players and staff for qualification yet no figure was put in writing by the Board despite several efforts and requests to get this done. The coaching staff were advised that the CEO and Chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket were authorized to finalise the bonus. The CEO was asked prior to the Super 6 stage what was happening regarding the bonuses but was told that the Board would have to approve that issue, contradicting the earlier promises.

Before the injection of the $1.3 million by the ICC to run the qualifier tournament the last time ZC bought equipment for the ground preparation needs at Harare Sports Club and Queens, such as mowers and rollers, was in 2003 when the ICC injected money to then cohost the cricket World Cup. Due to gross incompetence some of the equipment purchased for the qualifiers could not be utilized because of the Board’s failure to pay for duty. In fact motorized super soppers, which could have helped the match against the UAE, were still sitting at customs in Beitbridge because of this incompetence. The excess water had to be slowly mopped up manually which in turn made for a more difficult Duckworth Lewis target. Given that Zimbabwe only fell short of the revised target against UAE by 4 runs this failure alone by the Board resulted in Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify.

For years now ZC have blamed their financial situation for all their shortfalls yet none of the successive Boards, including the current administration, in this time have taken any positive steps to rectify the situation. ZC receive millions from the ICC on a 7 year cycle while unions such as Scotland and UAE receive considerably less yet have arguably better structures in place. Ireland, now a test playing nation, still receives a quarter of the amount Zimbabwe cricket does per cycle yet their lowest paid contracted player is on £60000 per year in comparison to $16000 for junior nationally contracted Zimbabwe players, while coaching staff in other test and associate nations receive three to four times the remuneration of Zimbabwe’s high performance coaching team. In contrast many administrative officials in ZC receive salaries way in excess of what their counterparts in commerce in Zimbabwe receive. Indeed many administrative officials receive way in excess of some national players.

The internal administration of the cricket has all but broken down. It is a prerequisite of the ICC for members to play 1st Class, List A and T20 competitions to get ICC disbursements. Zimbabwe Cricket has not organized any T20 competition for 2 years and this season none of our 3 competitions, including the Logan Cup, will be completed. Aside from the devastating impact that has on the standard of play in Zimbabwe it further risks the loss of ICC funds.

Support for schools and cricket development has all but dried up. Schools such as Milton, Prince Edward and Churchill, which used to receive substantial support from ZC, have seen that support dwindle. If it were not for the growing passion for the game amongst the public cricket would in fact be a dying game in Zimbabwe., because of the current Board’s failure to invest in the future.

It seems as if Zimbabwe Cricket is now facing worse financial turmoil than ever before. The national players have recently been told by management that they will not receive their salaries for March. In the same communication they have been told that the Board is “trying to raise funding” and they are hopeful that the crisis may “ease in June”. Clearly there is need for an urgent audit to be conducted by the SRC to establish what the actual financial state of Zimbabwe Cricket is.

4. None of the current Zimbabwe Cricket Board have played 1st class cricket.

Many of the poor decisions taken by the Board stem from the fact that the Board members themselves have never played cricket at any high level and so they lack a fundamental understanding of the game. This is demonstrated in their decision to fire the entire coaching staff in one fell swoop. That is unprecedented amongst test playing nations throughout the world and would be unthinkable in most nations. It shows that the Board itself has no understanding of the personal relationships built up between players and coaching team and of the devastating impact this has on players.

This lack of understanding of the game is also demonstrated in the Board’s failure to insist on DRS and reserve days for the qualifying tournament. The Board’s apparent failure to complain about the shockingly poor standard of umpiring throughout the qualifying tournament is also indicative of an administration that simply doesn’t understand the game.

The Board’s failure to understand how the dismissal of Streak and Taibu has affected players’ morale is a further indication of how little they understand the game. The players have great confidence in these two Zimbabweans patriots because they know they have deep rooted experience of the unique pressures of the modern game of cricket and what it means to play for Zimbabwe. This element is simply lost on a Board which doesn’t have this experience.

5. The current Board clearly does not enjoy the support of sponsors

It remains a harsh reality that the current Board is held in such low regard by the business community in Zimbabwe and internationally that it has failed to obtain a single sponsor to inject cash into the system. For all the hoopla around PPC sponsorship the fact remains that none of that sponsorship will come in cash but rather in the construction of concrete nets. A local company that was allegedly prepared to invest some US$125,000 before the qualifiers had not heard back from the Board prior to the qualifiers so that potential sponsorship has been lost.

6. The current system of election to the Board is opaque and excludes minorities

One of the reasons why the Board is comprised of people who have little passion for, or experience of, cricket is because of the opaque system for election to the Board which perpetuates the tenure of a clique who are driven by self interest, rather than national interest. The Government needs to review Zimbabwe Cricket’s constitution to ensure that any new Board is comprised of people of all races who have a demonstrable experience either in playing cricket or the administration of cricket.

7. The current decision of the Board to sack Streak and Taibu may irreparably damage cricket in Zimbabwe

What is not in the public domain is the fact that the entire current national team opposes the decision taken by the Board. I have it on exceptionally good and reliable authority that the team is appalled by this decision. We are now in grave danger not only of undermining the morale of the current crop of national players but also of losing some of our key players. If this decision results in a similar loss of experience as happened in 2004 Zimbabwe cricket may never recover and we may go the same way Kenya went and become just another second-class cricketing nation. The resultant loss of income, national profile and national pride will be completely against our national interest. Conversely if cricket grows as it should it will be the source of foreign exchange and a livelihood for thousands in the years to come. Our economy cannot afford the collapse of yet another once vibrant sector.

Conclusion

This statement has been prepared using evidence supplied to me by a wide range of sources, which span both players and coaches and include the entire racial spectrum. I have cross-referenced the information I have received from individuals with others to ensure that it is accurate. Reports received from different sources have corroborated each other and accordingly I am satisfied that what I have been told is accurate. The reason the information has been shared with me is because both players and coaching staff do not feel they are being heard by anyone else.

As can be shown above there are numerous and adequate grounds for the SRC Board to suspend the entire Zimbabwe Cricket Board as a matter of urgency. It will then be up to the Minister of Sport to act in terms of section 30(2) of the SRC Act to appoint a committee to administer the affairs of Zimbabwe Cricket pending the rewriting of its constitution and the election of a new Board which will efficiently take Zimbabwe Cricket forward.

President Mnangagwa has stated often since taking office that he wants to see the growth of the Zimbabwean economy and all sectors of society. If Zimbabwe Cricket is allowed to collapse during his watch it will be a severe indictment against his administration. I hope that the SRC Board and the Minister of Sport will accordingly act quickly and diligently to rectify this disastrous situation.

Senator David Coltart

Former Minister of Sport – Zimbabwe – 2009 – 2013

Bulawayo 4th April 2018

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MDC-T violence must be nipped in the bud!

By David Coltart | Published February 23, 2018

The Chronicle

Propaganda by Hildegarde Manzvanzvike

23rd February 2018

TRUTH can be ruthless and hurtful. There is no substitute to truth for to substitute it would be to give dignity to fabrications.

We all wanted to see former Prime Minister in the inclusive Government Mr Morgan Tsvangirai who died on Valentine’s Day accorded a befitting burial, with the whole nation holding hands in unity to give him that decent send-off. That is part of our Hunhu/Ubuntu.

When we say “May his dearly departed soul rest in eternal peace”, we should do so with the conviction that we lived up to the letter and spirit of giving the deceased a celebratory send off.

After fighting the cancer monster that has claimed thousands of lives, the man deserved to be put to rest by family, party members and the nation in peace.

When the Government of Zimbabwe accorded him a state assisted funeral, this was a show of unity and recognition of Tsvangirai’s contributions in trade unionism and opposition politics over the past three decades.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his predecessor Cde RG Mugabe mourned him. The whole nation and the international community mourned the opposition leader. This showed that despite the internal contestations on the geo-political landscape, the democratic processes remained vibrant in Zimbabwe.

However, while Tsvangirai was laid to rest in his rural home in Humanikwa, Buhera district on Tuesday, we were all left with unanswered questions about some of the unfortunate events that occurred before the burial.

Political violence reared its ugly head at the funeral. The events that people witnessed or are reading about have been points of debate and cross analysis, since Tuesday.

When the first images about the violence being perpetrated against former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Thokozani Khupe, Mr Douglas Mwonzora, Ms Lwazi Sibanda (MP), Abednico Bhebhe and others, by some unruly MDC-T youths started circulating, we could not believe that the succession wrangles that engulfed the MDC-T since Mr Tsvangirai was in hospital could manifest in such an ugly manner moments before he was laid to rest. After all, this is the MDC-T that always claims to be non-violent, despite historical incidents in the public domain.

It was initially confusing to interpret the first pictures that were circulating, since Khupe and Mwonzora were under police escort. With social media driving the agenda, we kept on getting conflicting reports until our reporters on the ground gave a realistic narrative of events.

It now turns out that there were shocking scenes that could have claimed more lives and ignited serious conflict not just for the MDC-T members, but for all mourners attending the burial. It could have also compromised Tsvangirai’s burial.

The shocking events were also witnessed by dignitaries attending the burial, including some members of the diplomatic corps. The affected personalities — Dr Khupe and Mr Mwonzora also gave their side of the story.

According to reports, rowdy party youths threatened to burn down a thatch-roof rondavel where Khupe and Mwonzora “had sought refuge after being assaulted.” The ugly situation was saved by police who moved them to a nearby school.

In an interview with the Voice of America, Dr Khupe said, “One man asked us to go into his hut. Those thugs threatened to burn the hut but we were lucky that it was raining and so, the thatch could not catch the fire. They threw a burning log into the hamlet. If it was not rain, we were going to die. But I went back to attend the funeral to make sure that he (Tsvangirai) was laid to rest.

“This happened in full view of the police. The police tried to stop them (youths) but they were too vicious. Everybody saw what happened. I don’t know what they will do to them. They (police) saw the criminals,” she told VOA.

Newzimbabwe.com, a news website cited an MDC-T official who gave another side to the story: “When they (youths) were charging at her (Khupe), they were singing the song, ‘into oyenzayo, siyayizonda’ (we hate your bad habits).”

The website claims that, “the song was popularised by Highlanders football club fans who often chant it in protest over some controversial refereeing decisions against their team.”

In a Twitter message, Mwonzora condemned the violent behaviour by the youths: “The politics of hate and violence should not have any place in our society. Really sad developments at Dr Tsvangirai’s funeral. The physical attack on @DrThoko_Khupe was cowardly and sadistic. It was tribal, sexist and totally unacceptable.”

The toxic atmosphere was further poisoned by the alleged assault of a University of Zimbabwe student Nyaradzo Mutize by the deceased’s uncle Innocent Zvaipa, when she took pictures of Gogo Lydia Tsvangirai at the graveside, and was asked to delete the pictures.

According to reports by a Herald reporter, Mutize was “detained for close to 40 minutes under intense interrogation by Mr Tsvangirai’s family members.”

Democracy is a costly commodity, but as the saying goes, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at other people’s glass houses.”

The violence witnessed at Tsvangirai’s burial is being roundly condemned, and among those who denounced it is the United States of America who tweeted: “The US Gov strongly condemns the violence that occurred today @ the funeral for Morgan Tsvangirai. He stood in opposition of such violence & there exists no place for these types of actions today in Zimbabwe, as the country moves forward.”

Jessie Majome came under fire from other women, when she was evasive in her criticism of the violence against Khupe, Mwonzora and others. She claimed in her tweet, “I didn’t witness it myself but I understand @DrThoko_Khupe was attacked. . .”

However, Caroline Matengu came out guns blazing: “As women in the party it’s time for you to speak up and denounce all forms of violence against women especially the way she is being ostracised. It’s very bad and we all (know) that her contributions were equally important.”

Lawyer Fadzai Mahere also condemned the attack saying, “Violence in any form by whomsoever must be condemned in the strongest terms. We can’t take violence with us into the future. That’s not who we are,” as MDC politician David Coltart also condemned the clashes: “Turning a blind eye to violence & intolerance was a root cause of the split in the MDC in 2005.”

All fingers are pointing at MDC-T co-vice president Nelson Chamisa, the self-anointed Tsvangirai successor.

This is the same Chamisa who together with other MDC-Alliance members Tendai Biti, Dewa Mavhinga and Peter Godwin appeared before the United States senate committee on foreign relations last December, barely a fortnight after President Mnangagwa took over from Cde Mugabe.

They urged Washington to maintain the ruinous sanctions regime on the new Government, something that the MDC did soon after Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme in 2000.

The writer says self-anointed because Chamisa made that claim in his graveside address: “He (Tsvangirai) planned his succession. He was always moving with me — nzou yaifamba nemhuru yayo. We are going to make sure that his wishes are observed.” (Daily News)

He indirectly told mourners that he will be the MDC-T’s presidential candidate, despite welcoming NPP’s Dr Joice Mujuru’s remarks that her party would now join the Alliance. Chamisa vowed to quit politics if he loses the forthcoming elections to President Mnangagwa.

The million dollar question is how will he contain youths in his party to ensure a non-violent election, if they bared for Khupe and Mwonzora’s blood before Tsvangirai’s burial?

His responses and apology to the violence in Buhera are not convincing as he tries to apportion blame.

In an interview with VOA, Chamisa said, “Whoever did it is trying to have an agenda that is foreign. She (Khupe) has been the longest serving vice president and has been loyal to the MDC. We need to be vigilant. This apology goes to Khupe, secretary general Mwonzora.”

If this was done by provocateurs how come the footage captured shows his security guy being able to contain the rowdy crowd?

We hope that Khupe and company filed the violence complaint with the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and that it will be fully investigated, and perpetrators are brought to book.

This is a national issue, and should not be confined to the MDC-T’s internal processes. It threatens to derail the peaceful, free, fair and credible elections that President Mnangagwa promised to deliver.

As Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Rtd Maj-Gen Sibusiso B. Moyo warned on December 13, 2017, it is “incumbent upon every Zimbabwean to contribute towards the elimination of any threats to the peace and stability of our motherland.”

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Bulawayo mourns Tsvangirai

By David Coltart | Published February 18, 2018

The Zimbabwe Mail

18th February 2018

HUNDREDS of people from different churches and political parties yesterday thronged the Large City Hall in Bulawayo for an inter-denominational memorial service for the late former Prime Minister and MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai.

Speaker after speaker spoke glowingly of Mr Tsvangirai describing him as a humble person who respected other people even if they differed politically.

Bulawayo Deputy Mayor and MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chair, Councillor Gift Banda, said Mr Tsvangirai was a selfless leader who was quick to forgive.

“We do not need anyone to tell us about his heroic status as we knew him better. We are talking about a selfless leader who considered others before self. He forgave many people. I was shocked at his death, I had hoped that he would pull through as he was a fighter of note,” he said.

Clr Banda said he had to return to the country on Friday from a trip overseas to come and mourn with the rest of Zimbabwe.

He said Mr Tsvangirai stood for the values of solidarity, justice, equality, freedom, transparency and humble leadership as well as accountability.

“We will honour his wish of alliance building and making the alliance work. We should reach out to everyone to ensure that we fulfil his vision of unity.

He invited me to his house and told me about his wish for MDC reunification. He told me that he regretted whatever happened over the years but he wanted MDC to come together and work as one like in the beginning,” he said.

City Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo described Mr Tsvangirai as an inspiration to his followers.

“He inspired us to seek change, and the key word in all the MDCs is change, we must aspire to seek that change as a party. Change reconciles people and we become a united nation. He was passionate about an alliance and we must fulfil his wishes,” he said.

Former Education Minister Mr David Coltart said Mr Tsvangirai was a consistent man whose character never changed over the years. He said he had a great sense of belonging with the people and the party.

“He was consistent, his character never changed and he had no trace of racism in his blood, he treated everyone the same and never judged people by the colour of their skin or language that you spoke. Morgan was a hero in our hearts,” he said.

Deputy MDC-T Bulawayo chair Ms Dorcas Sibanda said Mr Tsvangirai was a champion of human rights who sacrificed his peace and comfort to make others happy. She said the MCD-T recognised his hero status through the work he did for the betterment of Zimbabweans.

MDC Alliance spokesperson Professor Welshman Ncube who also attended the memorial said the nation must celebrate Mr Tsvangirai’s life as a life well lived as he struggled for the benefit of the masses.

He described him as a man of the people who was empathetic and full of humility. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions vice-president Mr Juniel Manyere said Mr Tsvangirai was a hero in the labour movement and a champion in human and workers’ rights.

Mr Tsvangirai died at a South African hospital on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He will be buried at his rural home in Buhera on Tuesday.

His body arrived in the country from South Africa last night.

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Coltart Urges MDC-T To Bury Morgan Tsvangirai With Dignity, Calls For Constitution To Be Respected In Choosing Successor

By David Coltart | Published February 18, 2018

Pindula

18th February 2018

Former Minister of Education David Coltart has expressed his disgust at the leadership squabbles in the opposition MDC-T party. The party’s three co-vice presidents Thokozani Khupe, Elias Mudzuri and Nelson Chamisa all claimed that they were the rightful acting president of the party before veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had died. After his death, Chamisa was appointed as acting president the very next day, a move which was criticised by senior party leaders.

Coltart urged the leadership to lay aside their differences and to bury Tsvangirai with the dignity he deserves. He also called on the MDC-T to use respect its Constitution in choosing a new leader. Speaking on Twitter, Coltart said:

“I find the conduct of the entire top leadership of the MDC T shockingly distasteful at present. For goodness sake bury Morgan Tsvangirai in unity and with dignity -without hurling insults at one another -and then decide who will lead the party in terms of the MDC T constitution.”

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Zimbabwe opposition icon Tsvangirai dies

By David Coltart | Published February 16, 2018

AFP

16th February 2018

Zimbabwe was plunged into grief on Thursday following the death of veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, roundly praised as a hero, champion of democracy and symbol of resistance who will be hard to replace.

The former trade union stalwart who posed the most formidable challenge to the ruling ZANU PF party’s nearly four-decade hold on power, died on Wednesday in a hospital in neighbouring South Africa where he was being treated for colon cancer. He was 65.

Zimbabwe’s new Presi­dent Emmerson Mnangagwa lauded his party’s arch-rival as “a strong trade unionist and opposition leader” and vowed free elections in honour of Tsvangirai who was assaulted, jailed and humiliated under his ZANU-PF government.

“We remember him for his insistence on free, fair and peaceful elections which we must validate in the forthcoming” elections “in tribute to him and to our democracy,” said Mnangagwa.

“This we owe him as political leaders of all contesting parties in our country which deserves unfettered peace and stability,” he said.

Tsvangirai’s death firmly places Mnangagwa, the ZANU PF veteran who took over after ousting veteran ruler Robert Mugabe, on the path to victory in elections that are to be held before July.

Infighting over who will succeed Tsvangirai is threatening to tear his opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party apart.

One of his three deputies Nelson Chamisa said in a post on twitter that the demise of Tsvangirai “is a huge blow to the party and the nation. As a party of excellence, we will unite, be disciplined and honour our hero”.

David Coltart, a fellow opposition leader said Tsvangirai will be remembered as “one of Zimbabwe’s greatest patriots” and that he deserves to be called a “hero”.

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Morgan Tsvangirai dies aged 65

By David Coltart | Published February 15, 2018

iNews

By Karl McDonald

15th February 2018

Morgan Tsvangirai, a long-time rival of the former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, has died at the age of 65. The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) died yesterday of colon cancer in a hospital in Johannesburg. For years, Tsvangirai presented the biggest challenge to Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, and he became the country’s Prime Minister in a coalition concocted the stem unrest. His death leaves the opposition’s chances in question ahead of new elections promised by Zanu-PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa after Mugabe was ousted in a coup last year.

Tsvangirai came tantalisingly close to winning power outright in 2008 when he got the most votes in the national election, but according to official results, he was just short of the more than 50% majority needed to win outright. He boycotted the run-off, citing widespread violence against his supporters, handing Mr Mugabe the victory. Mr Mugabe resigned in November after pressure from the military and ruling party, and this year’s election will be the first without the man who led the southern African nation for 37 years.

In January, Mr Tsvangirai suggested he would be stepping down, saying he was “looking at the imminent prospects of us as the older generation leaving the levers of leadership to allow the younger generation to take forward this huge task”. Fractured skull Being Mugabe’s most prominent opponent brought Mr Tsvangirai considerable hardship, and he was jailed several times and charged with treason. He suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding in 2007 when he and more than a dozen other leaders of the MDC were arrested and beaten with gun butts, belts and whips. In an earlier incident Mr Tsvangirai was almost thrown from his office window by a government agent.

“Morgan Tsvangirai will be remembered as one of Zimbabwe’s great patriots,” opposition figure and human rights lawyer David Coltart said. “Although, like all of us, he made mistakes none of us ever doubted his commitment to transform Zimbabwe into a modern, tolerant state.”

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