The Observer

By Andy Bull

Sunday 2 May 2010

No team in the World Twenty20 have more to prove than Zimbabwe. They missed the 2009 edition in England after being denied visas and have been blackballed by most of the top nations in international cricket. Now they are powered by two potent forces: anger and pride. Anger for what they regard as the hypocrisy and cowardice of the English, Australian and New Zealand cricket boards, and pride at the work that has been done to rebuild cricket in Zimbabwe from the ruins it was reduced to three years ago, when first-class competition came to a complete halt.

Not everything has changed in Zimbabwe, but a lot has. Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute are still the men at the top of Zimbabwe Cricket, but power and financing has been devolved to five new regional franchise sides. The new Education and Sports minister David Coltart, is a bright light from the Movement for Democratic Change party. ZC have brought back a number of the white players from both previous and current generations to run and play the game.

Alan Butcher, the former Surrey manager, has joined as a foreign chief coach and alongside him are a string of great former players. Heath Streak, whose sacking as captain sparked the mass exodus of white Zimbabwean players in 2004, is the bowling coach. Dave Houghton is the batting coach, though he will move into the franchise system when Grant Flower returns from Essex and
takes up the job at the end of this season. The key appointment has been Alistair Campbell, the former captain who is now chief selector and chairman.

“We have all got baggage, but you have got to put that aside if you want something to work,” says Campbell. “We had got to the point where we had to do something or cricket was going to be dead and buried. That was not an option.” Campbell has made this argument many times, mainly when persuading back the players who left to play county or club cricket in England.

The current squad includes Charles Coventry, Andy Blignaut, Greg Lamb and Ray Price, all talked back to Zimbabwe from their lives overseas. “I told all the guys that regardless of what the politicians do, we have to give this a fair crack.

“The sad thing is we need the rest of the world to buy in. We need to play to progress. What’s the point of not giving the Zimbabwe cricket team visas?

“Who are you getting at? Who is suffering? Are you making a stand? Are you achieving anything? No,” continues Campbell. “Our domestic Twenty20 final had 10,000 people there. Harare Sports Club was full. For a domestic game. That’s what our people are starved of.”

The scaremongering about security concerns infuriates Campbell. “Do you honestly think we live in built-up compounds with security outside and bomb barriers? Do you think we would all live there and send our kids to school there if it was a war zone? I mean please! Let’s be real about this. Just ask the Australian ambassador. He lives here, does he report back home that he drives in an armoured car and wears a bullet-proof vest? I mean, he’s out playing golf every Wednesday!”

Campbell is furious with the England and Wales Cricket Board because they refused to let Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire make pre-season tours to Zimbabwe. “It is incredibly frustrating. You have these counties who want to come out here and play but because of politics they are not allowed to. They have to toe the line.” His real ire though is reserved for
the New Zealand cricket board, who pulled out of a one-day tour last year citing concerns over a cholera epidemic. The two teams play each other on Tuesday in a real grudge match for Zimbabwe. “Blaming the health system? That’s rubbish. Be honest: It was a political issue.

“A little help from our friends wouldn’t go astray. We are trying to rebuild a broken country. The country and the economic situation? It’s on the mend.”

The cricket team are one clear and visible area where the balance between old and new Zimbabwe, between black and white, seems to be working. They
will surprise a few in this competition. They field brilliantly and have two
good spinners in Prosper Utseya and Ray Price. But their most powerful
weapon may be their sense of injustice.

Eyewitnessnews.co.za

1 May 2010

By Ryan Truscott

Officials in Zimbabwe on Saturday said it was not clear whether the North Korean football team will train in the country ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Rights groups had promised to protest against the team’s presence in Zimbabwe because of North Korea’s military involvement in the country in the 1980s.

Sports Minister David Coltart said it was not clear if North Korea was actually going to be Zimbabwe.

He told Eyewitness News the soccer team’s trip to Zimbabwe was not sure.

The visit has been shrouded in controversy.

North Korea was one of five foreign teams invited to train in Zimbabwe and the only one that appeared to have accepted the invitation.

Initially Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said the team would train in Bulawayo but that sparked an angry reaction from activists and survivors of the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s.

North Korean troops trained Zimbabwe’s Fifth Brigade, which carried out the killings.

Mzembi then said the team would stay in Harare but only for sporting reasons.

Zimbabwe Independent

30 April 2010

Editor’s Memo by Constantine Chimakure

THE failure by the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC to curb growing violence in the party is disturbing and gives credence to reports that its leaders are fanning the brutality – negating the founding principles of the party that placed so much emphasis on a non-violent democratic struggle. The party last week issued a strong statement that it had set up an independent committee to investigate an incident of violence and intimidation that had occurred at Harvest House – the MDC headquarters – about a fortnight ago.

MDC director-general Toendepi Shone and security director Chris Dhlamini were assaulted by youths allegedly belonging to a faction in the party led by Tsvangirai. The case against the directors, according to media reports, was that they belong to another faction in the party headed by secretary-general Tendai Biti. The Biti faction was reportedly positioning itself to land key posts at the party’s congress next year.

What is disturbing is the culture of intolerance that has been creeping into the MDC since 2001. Some of the party’s youths have turned into hoodlums who are intolerant of divergent political views.

To make matters worse, over the years the party leadership has done little to stop violence within the party. Independent committees to investigate earlier cases were set up, but nothing concrete was done to end the culture of impunity.

Several commissions of enquiry into violence within the party were established since 2001 when then MDC lawmakers and activists, among them, Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Gabriel Chaibva, Edwin Mushoriwa and Janah Ncube were assaulted by hired youths during a Harare provincial meeting.

There were other commissions of inquiry into the September 2004 attempted murder of then security director Peter Guhu and the assault of the then Bulilimamangwe MP Moses Mzila Ndlovu and other party members.

When in July 2006, Trudy Stevenson, now ambassador to Senegal, was attacked in Mabvuku by MDC youths, the party was quick to establish an independent internal inquiry chaired by Advocate Happiaus Zhou. The committee also consisted of two prominent lawyers, Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and Kay Ncube of Gill Godlonton & Gerrans while Kudakwashe Matibiri was the secretary.

What I found unacceptable was that when the findings of all the commissions I alluded to above were revealed, the MDC expelled some of the youths involved, but some of them found their way back into the party because they would have participated in the orgy of violence on behalf of the powerful and might in the party.

The founding legal secretary of the MDC, David Coltart, in an article he penned giving reasons why he did not join the Tsvangirai-led MDC chronicled how the party had adopted violence to deal with dissent.

He wrote: “Zimbabwe is afflicted with a disease akin to alcoholism, namely endemic violence. What attracted me most to the MDC was its commitment to breaking this cycle of violence by using non-violent means to achieve its political objectives. I was also impressed by its commitment to end impunity in Zimbabwe.

“Accordingly, the attempt by some MDC youths to murder MDC director for security, Peter Guhu, on the 28th September 2004 in Harvest House was deeply shocking, because it breached a fundamental tenet of what we stood for. Even worse were the subsequent revelations made at the enquiry into the Guhu incident that senior ranking MDC officials and employees were either involved or sympathetic to the youths. No action was taken against any of those responsible for this violence and in that inaction we saw for the first time a culture of impunity developing within the MDC itself, which in some respects was the worst thing of all.”

Coltart added: “Those responsible for the September 2004 violence were not immediately disciplined and it came as no surprise when the same youths were used to seriously assault MDC staff members in mid-May 2005. A further enquiry was held and its report was presented to the National Council meeting held on the 25th June 2005. It was resolved that one member of staff found responsible for directing the youths be expelled.

“The youths themselves had already been expelled in late May by the Management Committee and the expulsion of the youths was confirmed. That was undoubtedly progress but regrettably it was clear from the evidence that other senior members of the MDC and staff members were also involved or sympathetic towards the youths. Before a full debate about their fate could be held the meeting was ended much to the dissatisfaction of many, including myself.”

My point in quoting Coltart is to demonstrate how the MDC has allowed a culture of impunity, which if not nipped in the bud may have disastrous consequences for the party.

We have seen how violence has discredited and alienated Zanu PF from the electorate. It is my
hope that the committee set up last week will come up with stern measures against the perpetrators of violence. The inquiry should not be a ruse this time around.

The Herald

Editorial

30 April 2010

Harare — Zimbabwe is in great danger, looking at the Grade 7 results for last year, of producing a generation where the majority of school-leavers will be functionally illiterate, a tragedy when it is realised that their parents were probably the first fully literate generation.

The results show that while urban children were not too badly affected by the educational meltdown of the 2000s, with more than 70 percent achieving four to 24 points, rural children were badly hit. Results from provinces where almost all children attend rural schools suggests less than a quarter managed this level.

In fact, more than 85 percent of children should achieve at least 24 points and remedial education needs to be offered the small minority who cannot, so that at least they are functionally literate.

While everyone knows of the problems that follow from the economic meltdown of the 2000s, we also have to deal with the attitudes of far too many parents who seem to believe that their children are entitled to quality education for free or at low cost.

That parental attitude is weird, because the present generation of parents were the first to benefit from the post-independence education expansion. Their parents, the grandparents of today’s schoolchildren, made huge financial sacrifices to ensure that expansion was successful.

After independence Zimbabwe became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to give all children the right to at least 11 years of formal education.

This huge effort involved building hundreds of new schools, introducing special programmes to train, convert and upgrade thousands of teachers, and having new textbooks written, printed and bought.

But everyone thought it was worthwhile. Parents made considerable sacrifices to help finance the expansion, for despite the fact that the education ministry absorbed easily the largest share of the Government budget, it was not nearly enough. Urban parents were expected to pay significant levies and rural parents to offer free labour to actually build, expand or maintain the schools their children attended.

And it worked for 20 years. There were problems, principally in secondary schools, over the fact that the syllabus was designed for the academic minority with nothing really for those who were unlikely to ever pass O-Level. But moves were afoot to introduce more vocational subjects to help ensure that a school-leaver could either progress to higher training or start earning a living.

No one denies that ground was lost in the 2000s with the sanctions-induced socio-economic problems. But the effort made in the 1980s to create the system that was damaged still dwarfs the effort that must now be made to restore what we had and start moving forward.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, notes that a higher percentage of the National Budget must be allocated to education. He has a point. Round about 20 percent was the figure for several years when things were working.

We also need the sort of support we used to get from the international community. We realise that there are a lot of demands on the global purse, but fairly modest sums by international standards can make a huge difference to Zimbabwean schools.

But we feel parents must also be willing to take more responsibility. We see in urban areas what can be done. Even in the poorest suburbs, keen parents tend to congregate at certain schools, and ensure that minimum funding is available. All parents have to make the same effort.

In the 1980s, the then Education Minister, Dr Dzingai Mutumbuka, made it crystal clear that he expected urban parents and urban authorities to pay far more towards their schools. “I will provide teachers and chalk: you do the rest.”

The small amount he had left over in his budget after paying the teachers he concentrated on the poorest of the poor in rural areas, and even there he expected parents to do what they could. He also pressed embassies and other well-wishers to help these rural schools. It was working; things were getting better each year.

We need to go back to that attitude of mind. The parents of the 1980s, few of whom had attended secondary school and many of whom had not even finished seven years of primary school, sweated to ensure their children could take advantage of one of the most crucial gains of independence, education for all.

Now the beneficiaries of that effort and those sacrifices, the parents of today, must make the same effort. It was not a one-off; it is something we are going to have to do for decades to come if a small developing world country is going to have education for all.

Minister Coltart and his officials must obviously plan and lead the effort. They cannot sit in their ivory tower in central Harare and wait for money and help.

If trained teachers are in short supply, we must re-introduce the Zintec colleges. We must have clear packages of books and building materials that donors can buy for a school. Even rural parents without cash can help build decent teachers’ houses and maintain school maize and vegetable fields.

Above all, we have to remember that the education system we had requires more than the taxes can pay for. Unless we want to revert to the standard African educational model we must realise that it will take unremitting effort for decades.

Zimbabwe Independent

30 April 2010

By Tangai Chipangura and Fortune Dhlamini-Moyo

CIVIC groups, human rights activists and political parties based in Matabeleland are mobilising to resist the proposed camping of the North Korean football team in Bulawayo ahead of the Fifa World Cup to be held in South Africa in June. Leaders of the pressure groups told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that strategies were being put in place to ensure the North Koreans are made aware they are not welcome in the western part of Zimbabwe because of their complicity in human rights violations in the 1980s.

More than 20 000 people, including women and children, were killed by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade when Prime Minister Robert Mugabe unleashed the crack unit on the region at the height of political conflict between him and the late Joshua Nkomo.

Mugabe has not openly apologised and has rejected pleas for compensation of the victims, acknowledging only that the massacre did take place during “a moment of madness”.

Now the people of the region say it is highly provocative for government to bring North Koreans to the region, invoking memories of the murder of their relatives and loved ones.

At the forefront of the mobilisation is Ibhetshu likazulu, a Bulawayo-based pressure group, ZimRights, Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network, National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations and several human rights groups.

Mqondisi Moyo from Ibhetshu likazulu said a committee was already in place in Bulawayo and they were yet to come up with dates of holding public meetings and demonstrations.

He said: “We want to hold a public meeting where we want to conscientise members of the public of the visit by the North Korean team and why we do not want this team training in Bulawayo. Thereafter, we will set a date for a public demonstration where we will march to show our disapproval of the team camping in our city.”

Tourism minister has Walter Muzembi confirmed there was simmering discontent surrounding the proposed North Korean team camping in Bulawayo and said the matter was being discussed at cabinet level.

Mzembi has been trying to plead with the people of Matabeleland to drop the protest plans saying they should not mix sport with politics and that they should allow national healing to take place.

“The issue is now at cabinet level and we are discussing an alternative venue for the team to train. However, I cannot go into any more detail,” Mzembi told the Independent on Wednesday. “We will inform the public of the decision that will be made.”

The Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, distanced himself from the matter.

“At the moment I have not been advised officially that the North Korean team will be training in Bulawayo. I have only heard and seen it in the press, so I cannot comment on the issue until I know for sure,” he said.

BBC Sport

30 April 2010

Zimbabwe on Friday appeared to back away from an announcement that North Korea’s national team would train in the country ahead of the World Cup.

This follows protests over the Asian country’s role in training an army unit accused of killing thousands of people.

Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi last month announced the North Korean team would train in Zimbabwe.

But Sports Minister David Coltart said on Friday the visit had not been finalised.

“First of all, it has not been confirmed that they are coming at all.

“If they did come, clearly, we will handle it in a sensitive way that recognises the history and emotions around the matter,” Coltart said.

Associated Press

By Chengetai Zvauya

30 April 2010

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A Zimbabwean opposition group said Thursday it will protest against North Korean soccer players when they come to train here ahead of the World Cup because of North Korea’s role in the massacres of tens of thousands of Zimbabweans in the 1980s.

Up to 40,000 civilians were massacred by an army brigade trained by North Korean instructors in western Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland province during a five-year uprising.

“We have not forgiven them for that. We are totally opposed to the North Koreans coming to any part of Zimbabwe. We don’t want them here. We are going to follow them (to Harare) and demonstrate against them,” Methuseli Moyo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe African People’s Union party, or ZAPU, told The Associated Press by phone.

North Korea‘s World Cup soccer team initially was to train in Bulawayo, in Matabeleland province. Zimbabwe Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said the team now plans to train at a stadium in Harare, the capital, next month ahead of the tournament in neighboring South Africa. Mzembi denied the change of venue was politically motivated and said sporting facilities in Bulawayo were not adequate.

ZAPU, which is based in western Zimbabwe, said the whole affair has reopened wounds for families of victims massacred by troops loyal to President Robert Mugabe — a longtime ally of North Korea.

Troops were trained and commanded by North Koreans to crush the uprising after Zimbabwe won independence from colonial-era rule in 1980. Some human rights activists liken the five-year purge to genocide. Parts of Matabeleland were blocked from access to medicine and food during a drought.

The uprising ended when Mugabe signed a peace pact with ZAPU rebels and made party leader Joshua Nkomo a vice president in 1987.

Sports Minister David Coltart said Thursday the dates of the North Koreans’ visit are still to be confirmed.

“It is important that the Zimbabwe government deals with this matter in a very sensitive way and does not ignore the history of North Korea here, and does not do anything that might inflame passions or reopen old wounds,” he said.

But he added: “I don’t think it is right to attack a group of young players for what happened 27 years ago in this country.”

North Korea has qualified for its first World Cup since 1966 and will play Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast at the 2010 World Cup in what is probably the toughest of the eight competing groups.

Coltart described as speculation reports that North Korean team managers favored staying in Zimbabwe in the run-up to the World Cup amid fears some players might defect if they went elsewhere.

Guardian.co.uk

By David Smith

Friday 30 April 2010

Zimbabwe‘s attempt to bask in the reflected glory of next month’s World Cup has backfired by reviving memories of one of the country’s bloodiest massacres.

Plans to host the North Korean football squad have been condemned as a symbolic insult by opposition politicians and activists because of North Korea‘s role in the mass killings of Zimbabweans in the 1980s.

Campaigners are threatening to target the visitors’ hotel and training camp and disrupt their preparations for the tournament, which kicks off in neighbouring South Africa on 11 June.

At least 20,000 people were slaughtered by an army brigade trained by North Korean instructors in western Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland province during a five-year uprising from 1982. The operation was known as Gukurahundi, meaning “the rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rains”.

Despite local sensitivities, North Korea are due to play friendly matches in Matabeleland’s main city, Bulawayo, and were set to have their training base there, although the government now insists no final decision has been made.

Zapu, an opposition party based in the region, said the affair had reopened wounds for families of victims massacred by troops loyal to the president, Robert Mugabe, a longtime ally of North Korea.

Dumiso Dabengwa, interim chairman of Zapu, said: “After all the atrocities caused by Gukurahundi as a result of the training given by North Koreans, it revives bad memories. The people say they will not be welcome. You could get people throwing stones at them.”

He said the consequences of the “ethnic cleansing” were still acutely felt. “It’s more than 20 years ago but these memories have not died down for people who lost their loved ones. You get to an area today where you find there are families headed by people under 18. Most of the parents were killed during that time. There are families headed by very elderly men and women who saw it all, and they are now the ones looking after the grandchildren. No mothers, no fathers.”

Troops were trained and commanded by North Koreans to crush the uprising after Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980. Parts of Matabeleland were blocked from access to medicine and food during a drought. The uprising ended when Mugabe signed a peace pact with Zapu rebels and made the party’s leader, Joshua Nkomo, a vice-president in 1987.

Zimbabwe had sought a major football power such as England or Brazil in the weeks before the World Cup. Its hopes for a boost from spillover tourism have also been dashed as projections for the number of foreign visitors to southern Africa waned.

Political activists say the North Korean players are not welcome. Max Mkandla, of the Liberators Peace Initiative, whose father was killed in Gukurahundi, said: “We don’t want anything from Korea because that reminds us what they did, training the locals to slaughter the people of Matabeleland. To look in the face of the Koreans reminds us what happened here.”

He warned: “People are mobilising for a showdown to make sure they don’t come. We will find their hotel and something will be done. I cannot reveal what.”

North Korea have qualified for their first World Cup since 1966 and will play Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast in what is probably the toughest of the eight first-round groups.

Zimbabwe’s sports minister, David Coltart, said the dates of the North Koreans’ visit were still to be confirmed. “It is important that the Zimbabwe government deals with this matter in a very sensitive way and does not ignore the history of North Korea here, and does not do anything that might inflame passions or reopen old wounds,” he said.

But he added: “I don’t think it is right to attack a group of young players for what happened 27 years ago in this country.”

The Herald

By Felex Share

29 April 2010

Harare — The November 2009 national percentage pass rate for Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations was 19 and 70 percent respectively, a slight improvement from previous years.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart yesterday also revealed that the Grade Seven performance was the worst in a decade at 20 percent.

Rural schools fared the worst, with several recording zero percent pass rates.

The number of candidates who registered for the 2009 “O” Level exams was less than half the figure recorded for 2008 and dropped by over 90 000 from 2007.

Minister Coltart said Zimbabwe’s education sector was in a “critical state” and stern measures were needed to turn things around.

“There is a grave danger that the nation will suffer from a lost generation if this crisis is not taken seriously.

“Urgent steps need to be taken to rectify some of the obvious problems, such as the scarcity of teaching and learning material, inadequacy of physical infrastructure and the no longer attractive working conditions for teachers.

“A higher proportion of the National Budget and resour-ces should be allocated to education to resuscitate Zimbabwe’s education system, which is obviously in a critical state,” he said.

The national pass rate for “O” Level exams last year stands at 19,33 percent compared to 14,44 percent in 2008.

For “A” Level exams, the figure is 76,88 percent, up from 67 percent in 2008.

Minister Coltart said 2009 “O” Level candidate levels were the “worst” in years.

In 2007, 179 274 students sat for the examinations while only 87 201 registered for the exams last year.

“A” Level exams registration dropped by more than 10 000 students from 2007 with 23 500 registering last year.

The figure for 2007 was 34 126.

Thousands of prospective candidates failed to register for the public examinations in 2009 citing “exorbitant” fees.

Candidates were asked to pay US$10 and US$20 per “O” and “A” Level paper respectively.

Minister Coltart attributed the low registration to poverty and disruptions to classes.

“Our major concern is the dramatic decline in the number of children sitting in the examinations which one hopes will be addressed when help is extended to orphans and the vulnerable.

“Most of them were affected by poverty, but we have to take into consideration other factors which made it impossible for the children to be ready for the examinations,” he said.

Minister Coltart bemoaned the performance of rural schools.

“There are worrying figures in the rural areas and a huge disparity when we compare with urban schools.

“It is mostly the rural teachers and students who experience hardships when it comes to resources,” he said.

He, however, paid tribute to parents and teachers who worked collectively to improve the situation.

“At all levels, efforts by teachers to adequately prepare their learners for the examinations should be noted and appreciated,” he said

Minister Coltart said he was optimistic students’ performance would improve this year as the economic environment improved.