Art Moves Africa

By Josh Nyapimbi

30 March 2010

BAF/ATERIAL NETWORK ZIMBABWE

ntfd@mweb.co.zw

Owen Maseko the Chairperson of the Visual Association of Bulawayo (VAB) and a member of the Bulawayo Arts Forum (BAF) was remanded in custody yesterday after being arrested last Friday for organizing an exhibition on the Gukurahundi atrocities. Maseko was showcasing pictures of the Gukurahundi massacres at a two-day exhibition when he was arrested. Judgment will be made today.

Maseko, who spent the weekend in prison, is being charged under Section 33 and 42 of the Criminal Law Codification (Reform) Act. Under Section 33 Maseko is being charged with insulting and undermining the authority of the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe while clause 42 of the Act says anyone causing prejudice on religion and creed shall be guilty of an offence.

Chronicle
Chronicle reporter
29 March 2010

The government has selected 20 schools which will be rehabilitated and turned into centres of excellence in an effort to improve the country’s education standards, a Cabinet Minister said.

The schools were drawn from all the country’s 10 provinces under a programme which it is hoped may be funded by the World Bank.

Addressing guests during the launch of Milton High School Centenary Celebrations on Friday, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said the selected schools were identified as a result of widespread consultations he has had in assessing government schools’ infrastructure in the last year.

He said the establishment of the centres of excellence had already been agreed on by the Cabinet, adding that the project was mostly meant to help nurture talented but disadvantaged children.

“After realising the falling standards in government schools, we devised a policy to identify talented disadvantaged children and to channel them into academic and sporting institutions so that they realise their full potential,” said Minister Coltart.

“The enrolment of every school will comprise 40% of academically, athletically and artistically talented, but underprivileged, pupils who will be chosen through a rigorous exercise that will be conducted by an independent body. The remaining 60% will be filled by other pupils, “ he said.

“A new grading system which will culminate in the creation of a special grade in headmaster and teacher grading will be used in the selection of the staff at the centres so that the pupils will be taught and trained by highly professional, proficient and experienced mentors in all fields.

“When the inclusive government took office we were faced with a number of challenges, one of them being the deteriorating education system and in light of this, we approached a number of institutions, one of them being the World Bank, with the request that they assist in the funding of centres of excellence as a means of resuscitating the nation’s education system.

“My ministry is still waiting funding approval which is needed to see the total rehabilitation of the infrastructure at the selected schools. The major areas that need to be targeted include the rehabilitation of buildings, hostels, science laboratories, libraries and sporting fields.”

He said if the funds are released soon enough the first enrolment would be next year. “We have a six-year programme of action and the first enrolment target is the first term of next year,” he said.

Among the schools that were selected include Milton Boys’ and Eveline Girls’ High in Bulawayo, Plumtree and JZ Moyo High Schools in Matabeleland South and Fatima and Binga High Schools in Matabeleland North.

The Standard
By Kholwani Nyathi
28 March 2010

ZIMBABWE School Examinations (Zimsec) directors have allegedly launched a witch-hunt targeting employees after information was leaked that the exams body is bleeding because of mismanagement, corruption and nepotism. This comes amid indications Education, Sport and Culture Minister David Coltart has brought in an independent expert to clean up the rot.

A joint audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General and Ernst & Young leaked to The Standard a fortnight ago titled Zimsec Capacity Assessment: November 2009 said the institution’s management systems were weak and its credibility severely diminished.

The report said Zimsec director Happy Ndanga could be making “errant decisions” because the institution has been running without a board for a long time.

“A day after the story was published the directorate immediately stopped salary negotiations with managers accusing them of taking sensitive information to the press,” said a source.

“But the rot is just getting worse, just last week a former temporary worker was arrested for selling fake exam slips.

“Zimsec has also bought 13 BT 50 trucks for regional managers and the directors would be taking delivery of the vehicles yet it is said there is no money for the smooth running of examinations.”

The audit raised concerns about the lack of security and the employment of under-qualified clerks on a temporary basis, which it said impacted on the credibility of the examination system.

Coltart yesterday said although he had not seen the report he had secured the services of an independent chartered accountant, an expert who is not attached to Zimsec to address management weaknesses that were already known before the audit.

He said GTZ, a German organisation, had provided “generous” funding to help the independent expert who will soon visit the Cambridge University Overseas Examination Board, which administered the examinations before they were fully localised in 2002, to investigate how the localisation of the “O” and “A” examinations can be improved.

“I want to stress the fact that I am not neglecting the problems at Zimsec,” Coltart said. “We are doing everything possible to rectify the problems that have been outlined in the report.”

Zimsec employees had raised concern that Coltart appeared to be siding with the directors who have reportedly dismissed the audit report as biased.

Current and former workers at the exams body said the findings by the audit team were only a tip of the iceberg.

Tobias Moyo, a former human resources officer who retired on medical grounds in 2008 and has been battling to get his pension, made stunning revelations about record keeping at Zimsec.

“The human resources office does not keep records of people who are leaving and those who are being hired,” Moyo said.

Moyo said he was told that the processing of his pension was not a priority and that thousands of other former employees were also in the same boat.

The Standard
By Judith Todd
28 March 2010

Just on 11 this morning Vote Thebe, Acting Director of Bulawayo’s National Gallery, rings to ask me to come straight down to his place although he wouldn’t be around. He has accompanied police to the Charge Office and an exhibition, which had opened at the Gallery Thursday, is being closed.

First I ring Minister David Coltart who thankfully, I find, already knew and had spoken to relevant people in the inclusive government. He says he understands a lawyer, Pulu, had been engaged. Coltart gives me a hint of what it was all about by saying there weren’t any specific references in this exhibition to any particular person, “although the glasses…”

The Gallery receptionist is expecting me and I am taken to the exhibition in the main ground floor gallery where staff is covering with newspaper the windows, which give views into the Gallery from the pavement of Leopold Takawira Avenue.

The whole exhibition area, walls, pillars, paintings is drenched in a sticky looking red and as you enter you see a sign that directs you to “Place your ballot here”. “Here” is a toilet stuffed and overflowing with ballot papers where a sinister black figure wearing spectacles seems about to pull the chain to flush the toilet.
Telling the truth and reclaiming the past in Zimbabwe…

This acrylic 2010 exhibition is by Owen Maseko, also now at the police Charge Office with Thebe. While the atmosphere is one of terror and bloodshed, it is also oddly elegant with graceful figures of pregnant women and others fleeing, or trying to flee, along the walls. Even the friezes of a sinister black man wearing glasses are elegant.

One of the most haunting depictions is a set of galvanised faces, loud mouths wide open, imperfect teeth on display, eyes contorted under deeply etched foreheads ……. they made us sing their songs while they tortured and killed our brothers and sisters ………

I join the staff who are papering the windows and look at what had been possible to see from the street, but was now being hidden.

Breaking the silence — through telling the truth. Two black bodies, also drenched in a sticky red, hang by the ankles….dissidents or ordinary civilians? …………….The idea was not only to leave bodies but to leave pieces of bodies, as a warning to others…

… they disappeared are denied a place among the living and also denied a place among the dead……

In Matabeleland most fundamental is the problem of aggrieved spirits and the presence of the murdered dead.

Amongst the paintings writing fluidly covers spaces across the walls and around the pillars.

In our country, perpetrators of violence are still in powerful positions, and survivors remain silenced and afraid. The overwhelming residues of unprocessed pain, anger, suspicion and grief remain in the community as a negative, silent weight, a dark, even humiliating secret that undermines shared community activities, causing finger pointing and division….

Destroying the cohesive functioning of communities has been a deliberate strategic policy by many governments of African countries.
We don’t trust each other any more.

Only the guilty are afraid, only if you know that you are partly responsible, or you participated in the orchestration of this event. “I survived with gunshot wounds, the other 55 died.”

We can still be eliminated at any time … this wound is huge and deep.

As no one will now be able to see the exhibition; they also won’t be able to see what was put in place at the exit for departing viewers under the exhortation GUKURAHUNDI ..the rain which washes away the trash/chaff before spring time ……. times fearful, unforgettable and unacknowledged. A bowl of pieces of chalk sits at the way out. Visitors are invited to “pick a chalk and write something in this ballot room”. Although the exhibition opened only the evening before last, Thursday March 25, the sticky red wall is already full of white, chalky comments.

Leaving the Gallery I call in to say goodbye to an old lady in their little shop. “What is going on?” she asked. I explain. When I remain silent she sighs heavily, waves her hand irritably in the air at something unseen and says “Well, that is our country”.

Chronicle
By Busani Ncube and Discent Bajila
27 March 2010

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai recently made an interesting revelation about the status of our political leadership.

Addressing his party supporters at Glamis Stadium in Harare in his capacity as the president of MDC-T, he said about his councillors: “Vamwe venyu makange musina kana boots, nhasi makufamba nemota six six (some of you could not afford shoes, now you are driving six cars each). This is indeed an informative statement on the calibre of people that the elections make us entrust with our future and our unborn children.

Failure to possess a pair of shoes is a reasonable symbol that you are completely incapable of managing your own affairs.

The outcome of the municipal elections was, according to the Prime Minister, such that people who are supposed to be in charge of housing, health, environment, road construction and other local governance issues are men and women who cannot even manage their individual affairs.

This is disaster but at a smaller magnitude compared to what could have happened if such people were deployed into Parliament. The final sad outcome of such an issue is that these people become candidates for selection into Cabinet.

Most of our MPs are voted for because of the parties that they belong to, not because of any form of expertise that they have exhibited or gained anywhere. There is no need in this story to give examples of known MPs who are good examples of what an MP should not be in terms of competence.

Government departments are the most important institutions for service delivery and should thus be run by experts, both at ministerial and permanent secretary level.
Enemies of development might call this meritocracy but reality on the ground shows that someone ought to be an expert in a field to run it and this expertise can be acquired either through academic pursuits and/or management experience.

Some may argue that the permanent secretary is the only one who should be an expert but this is a serious fallacy that we should all collectively disabuse ourselves of.
All is well with having an expert permanent secretary but all is unwell with having a non-expert minister because the relationship between a minister and a permanent secretary can be likened to that of a bus driver and a conductor.

There is nothing wrong about the conductor having a driver’s licence but it is a must for the driver to have it. The only thing compulsory for both is that they must know the route.

Problems that emanate from deploying people without experience in a particular field are manifested in the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development.
The Minister responsible is Samuel Sipepa Nkomo who has vast experience in accounting and pensions management. He also had a stint with media house, the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe.

Minister Nkomo has no known history in civil engineering and/or water management. He is simply an accountant experienced in entering figures out of other people’s works. This is why there is not much he has done in his ministry more than entering or adding extra terms to existing names.

He added or entered the word “National” to the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project and a “T” to the Shangani Dam — giving us National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project and Tshangani Dam as the only changes ever seen in his ministry since his appointment.

In simple terms, Minister Nkomo is an expert, yes — but in fields other than water resources and infrastructure development.

There is nothing these writers have personally against Minister Nkomo but there is a lot these writers have against his deployment into that critical ministry and the general principle of having MPs as ministers. These are the basic socio-economic arguments against the issue.

The legal arguments are premised on the principle of separation of powers, which dictates that there are three arms of state, namely the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive and a usually forgotten arm, the Press.

The principle further states that each of the arms should monitor all the others and vice-versa. Closer to this case, the Legislature consists of all Members of Parliament regardless of how many chambers a parliament has.

On the other hand the executive in the Zimbabwean case is made up of the Presidency, the Premiership and all the Ministers, excluding permanent secretaries who are usually hired as assistants to ministers or just a technical team.

This clearly shows that there are certain individuals who are part of the two arms of State – the executive and the legislature – and it lies in the wisdom (or lack of it) of the current constitution in Zimbabwe and other parts of the world that the executive is supposed to monitor its activities when it resurfaces as a sub-set of the legislature.

Simply put, it is difficult to run or to effectively uphold the principle of separation of powers when you have certain individuals belonging to both the executive and the legislature.

Furthermore having ministers as MPs makes them super MPs with more powers than their colleagues who are elected out of a similar process by many, at times the same electorate.

Serious imbalances in parliamentary debates are created as many non-Minister MPs get to be called ordinary MPs and hence struck by an inferiority complex.

Some of these people are actually elected by very few individuals but they become super MPs simply because they have been appointed ministers.

For example Minister Sipepa Nkomo got slightly above 2 000 votes in Lobengula House of Assembly constituency in Bulawayo, but is now a super MP, far more superior to Gabriel Ndebele who won by more than 10 000 votes in Matopo South constituency in Matabeleland South.

This is a clear example of the superiority complex problems and status disparities that dog our legislature.

There are many ministers we can cite that are not qualified to be in ministerial offices that they hold but are very qualified elsewhere.

A simple example is of lawyers like David Coltart and Tendai Biti who are in the ministries of Education and Finance respectively.

And there are also many well-placed ministers like the Justice and Legal Affairs and the Parliamentary and Constitutional Affairs led by Patrick Chinamasa and Advocate Eric Matinenga respectively.

Strangely, there are other ministers and deputy ministers with little or no academic qualifications that have to do with their day-to-day jobs. This is dangerous for economic recovery and service delivery to any intended beneficiaries.

Our input to the nation is that an ideal situation will be to have ministers appointed by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe on merit after proof of expertise through curriculum vitae and recommendations from corporate bodies like the Institute of People Management in Zimbabwe, Law Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the Institute of Bankers in Zimbabwe and many others.

These should be from out of Parliament so that they can be full-time ministers rather than the current scenario where some individuals double as full-time ministers and full-time MPs.

Appointing people from outside Parliament has worked before, for example commissioners who are chosen on merit and after serious consultative processes – and this has been done since time immemorial and recently by the inclusive Government.

We implore Zimbabweans at this juncture to work hand in glove during the oncoming constitution-making process to make proposals to the effect that our laws should be revamped to make sure that our MPs do not become Ministers – for as long as they are not qualified to handle the jobs at hand.

While there are no easy precedents to cite in this case, it is however worth noticing that in neighbouring South Africa and United States of America, some ministers are not MPs but are hired technocrats on certain fields.

Even going further, we urge the nation to make it a hard and fast law that any person who desires to be a presidential candidate in our fatherland should have at least a degree in any field.

This will help in nation-building and brand creation for future generations and the level of competence will be high compared to elevating an academic dwarf to the highest office in the land.

This is not to negate the fact that there are a lot of wise men like President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma of South Africa who recently confessed that he was educated in Nkandla Village where he comes from, and not at any university but ironically has been voted Africa’s best President.

The feat achieved by President Zuma, inspiring as it is, must not however be a roadblock to beginning a new era and a new type of leaders in our fatherland. Indeed there is neither harm nor crime in starting a good deed.

A great scholar, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” As Zimbabweans we must leave a trail and the hour is now.

Busani Ncube is a freelance journalist and Discent Bajila is a youth activist based in Bulawayo.

The Herald
By Robson Sharuko
27th March 2010

DAVID COLTART, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, is a devoted fan of Scottish football giants Glasgow Celtic — that massive team from Parkhead that has about 10 million fans across the world.

He is old enough to have been a witness of his team’s landmark triumph in the 1968 European Cup and the significance of the Lisbon Lions’ sensational victory that day to the global Celtic brand that we have today.

When you are a fan of Celtic, passion runs naturally through your blood veins, and the team’s Old Firm battles with their bitter Glasgow rivals, Rangers, has created one of modern sport’s greatest rivalry stories.

These are explosive battles that, while influenced by football, go beyond the game and spread into religion and ancestry and have historically divided the city of Glasgow — just like Harare — into two blocs of green and blue.

Scottish clubs have found the going tough, of late, fighting in the jungles dominated by the big money of the English, Spanish and Italian heavyweights and Celtic’s 1968 success story now looks like a tale from another era.

But the supporters of Celtic have remained loyal to their team and, seven years ago, 80 000 fans travelled to Seville in Spain, for the Uefa Cup final against Portuguese giants Porto, and they were gracious in a painful 2-3 extra-time defeat.

Fifa and Uefa were so touched, by the exemplary behaviour of the Celtic fans on that night, that the two football governing bodies decided to give the club prestigious Fair Play awards.

Given that background, it’s probably safer to also assume that the spirit of Fair Play runs very deep in the veins of Coltart — if not stemming from a background related to his love for Celtic then from years of being shaped by the virtues of profession as a lawyer.

There must have been a lot of Zimbabweans who cheered Coltart’s passionate defence of this country, in general, and its cricket, in particular, as he reminded the Black Caps of New Zealand of the virtues of Fair Play and challenged them to fulfil their tour in June.

What was remarkable about Coltart’s initiative was that he took his gospel — in support of Zimbabwe Cricket — right into the homes of the New Zealand public.

His passionate defence of this country, which he described as a safer place to visit for the Black Caps than either the United Kingdom or South Africa, was not initially carried in the local newspapers but was sent directly to the New Zealand Herald.

The letter’s reproduction, in this newspaper under a different headline and analysis, was also carried around the world — from India to the United States and from the United Kingdom to Namibia — with newspapers like USA Today reproducing the article.

It went beyond the borders of cricket and international magazines like Rugby World and Road Runner also reproduced the article — signifying its impact around the world — while NewZimbabwe.com, who had their own version, said it was one of the most read articles on their website.

That is what is called impact and one has to give Coltart credit for that.

The minister was responding to the decision by the New Zealand cricketers to postpone their tour of Zimbabwe, scheduled to get underway on June 10, because of claims they were concerned about the safety of their players here.

It’s the second time, in as many years, that the Black Caps have postponed the tour of Zimbabwe and the New Zealand Cricket board now wants the matches delayed until next year or played at a neutral venue.

—It is clear from our recent discussions that the Government’s assessment of the security situation in Zimbabwe has not changed from that of a year ago, when the scheduled tour was postponed,” said New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan.

Coltart said he found it strange that the Black Caps could decide to stay away from Zimbabwe, on the basis of imaginary security and safety concerns, when it was clear that this country was a safer place to visit than the United Kingdom, South Africa or even the Indian sub-continent.

The minister said New Zealand was wasting a golden opportunity to be remembered as a nation that helped Zimbabwe Cricket during its journey back from the darkness, after years in which the sport was torn by internal strife.

There are concrete signs that Zimbabwe Cricket is stepping back to life — after a lengthy period of paralysis triggered by boardroom battles that were entrenched in race complications — and key figures have returned to help the game.

Coltart believes domestic cricket had the potential to play the same unifying role that was played by rugby, in the sensitive period shortly after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, in bringing South Africa together.

But, hidden deep in Coltart’s letter, were issues — related to the crisis that almost destroyed domestic cricket and its governance — where the minister, once again, appeared to re-open old wounds and trade blows with those in charge of the domestic game.

It’s not a secret that the relationship between Coltart and the ZC leadership has always been tricky and things appeared to get a little bit messy when the minister used his personal website as a medium to publish the views of an Australian writer who believes that Peter Chingoka is a thug.

That Peter Roebuck, the same journalist who made those remarks, has continued to see nothing positive about the developments unfolding in Zimbabwe Cricket — even to the extent of attacking fellow veteran journalist Neil Manthorp for writing a couple of positive articles — shows that there is more to his fight than just the game.

Some say it’s related to incidents that happened when he used to visit this country and found himself facing questions about the real nature of his fascination, or is it relationship, with some local schoolboys.

It’s hard to dismiss those fears, imagined or otherwise, against a background of Roebuck’s suspended jail sentence by a British judge in 2001 for his caning three young cricketers he had offered to coach.

Roebuck pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault involving three South African teenagers, between 1 April and 31 May, 1999, causing actual bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution and was sentenced to four months in jail for each count, with the sentences suspended for two years, at Taunton Crown Court.

So when Coltart told the New Zealand Herald that there was need for them to tour, simply because we are not only a safe country but issues like maladministration in the sport were being addressed, it also exposed his frosty relationship with the ZC leadership.

At a time when the same minister was preaching for the New Zealanders to forget about the past — the way the political leaders in this country appear to be doing to create the safe haven he was writing about — it was ironic that he also used the same opportunity to re-open old wounds.

“When it’s the clear wish of former Zimbabwe cricketers such as Heath Streak and Grant Flower — now both national coaches who have suffered in the last decade that this tour should go ahead — they, too, should be listened to,’’ wrote Coltart.

“Importantly, maladministration in cricket is being addressed, racism and tribalism in tem selection has ended and former doyens of the sport, such as Heath Streak, have been re-integrated.”

Yes, the return of Streak and company is key and only someone without a passion for domestic cricket would tell you that the exodus of the white players was a non-event and their contribution is not needed to take the game where it belongs.

But, to suggest that Streak and Flower probably suffered more — in the past decade — than Tatenda Taibu, Proper Utseya, Elton Chigumbura, Chamu Chibhabha and the other black players is, to a certain extent, playing the race card that the good minister appears to be vehemently opposed to.

To portray the white players, who rebelled against the establishment simply because they were not happy about some particular issues, are use them as the face of our battle to convince New Zealand to change its decision and tour this country, is not only wrong but an assault on the process of reconciliation prevailing in the game.

The problem, with Coltart’s appeal, is that it sends a certain message — by design or by default — that the only way we can get the Black Caps here is by telling them that their fellow white players are back in the fold in Zimbabwe Cricket structures.

In other words, rightly or wrongly, New Zealand can tour here if there is a certain white influence in the game — especially that bloc which turned against the establishment — and can’t do the same if the entire system is dominated by blacks.

Certainly, that wasn’t the message the minister sent out but, in an environment dominated by tricky race relationships and were the race card left a lot of emotional scars which are yet to heal, it’s a sensitive subject and wrong interpretations can be drawn from such statements.

When Coltart tells the New Zealanders that, “importantly, maladministration in cricket is being addressed,” it’s a huge statement given the background that even the ICC cleared the ZC leadership of such allegations.

What has changed within the structures of the ZC leadership, which Coltart’s address to the New Zealanders, appear to suggest?

Chingoka is still in charge and Ozias Bvute is still the managing director — that was the case at the time of the rebellion by the white players — and that is still the case now.

In times of battles, opposing factions tend to look for every weapon possible to use against their opponents and there were a plethora of allegations, from financial mismanagement on a grand scale to just about anything one can ever think of, which were leveled against the ZC leadership.

Not that the ZC leadership were saints and they have also conceded, as much, in recent interviews that they read the politics of their battles wrong and rather than see the clear signs that they were fighting a force bigger than those opposed to their values, they were actually fighting the world.

They are human, and they have their faults, but if the ICC investigation can clear them of questionable financial management, then isn’t it wrong to use the same carrot — that there is maladministration in Zimbabwe Cricket and it is being addressed — as a means of luring New Zealand here?

To suggest, as Coltart did, that “racism and tribalism in team selection has ended,” in his letter to the New Zealand Herald, was taking his plea a bit too far because the real battle of Zimbabwe Cricket was never about questionable drafting of certain players into the national team, but the resistance of an institution — for decades built on race prejudice — against change.

There were big mistakes on both sides — in a fight that was built on race — and the good part is many of those who were in the trenches have conceded that they erred, in one way or another, and have accepted that there is need for them to rebuild their battered game.

That is the reason why Streak and company have decided to come back and work with the leadership hoping that both sides can use the lessons from the past decade to build a foundation of success where the curse that almost destroyed their game will never again be allowed to return.

We have already seen positive things from that and the Stanbic Twenty20 Cup — which attracted a battery of sponsors who had fled the game during its bad times and, crucially, a huge fan base that had deserted the game — shows there is a light flickering in the distance.

The national team might have lost in the West Indies but they gave a fight and were certainly not humiliated and, for many of those games, it was closer than the scores suggested.

The absence of genuine pace, to spearhead the attack, remains a concern and hopefully the trials that are on-going and the return of Andy Blignaut will give us hope in that direction.

Therefore, against such a background, it doesn’t help the game that the minister re-opens old wounds and suggests that there was a time when the Zimbabwe cricket team was chosen on the basis of someone being Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika or Ndebele by the current leadership.

There is no doubt, in my mind, that Coltart played his innings — in defence of our country in that letter in the New Zealand Herald — with honour and he deserves to be commended for his stance.

It’s only unfortunate that, to hammer home his point, he somehow tainted his argument by playing the same race card that we believe is a cancer to our game and was the root of all the problems that ended up nearly choking it.

Coltart will certainly not be surprised to find that there are some people, within the ZC leadership, who believe that he didn’t exercise Fair Play in his letter when it came to issues related to the administrative side of the game.

And, for a man who supports a team called Glasgow Celtic whose fans are known to believe in the virtues of Fair Play, Coltart shouldn’t be surprised that there are some in the ZC would believe bowled a wide.

Comment:

Senator David Coltart

Mail and Guardian
By Neil Manthorp
Comment
March 26 2010

Zimbabwe Cricket deserved to be criticised during the 2000s and it was. Such was the decay in administration and performance that no place on the international stage could be justified. The decision to withdraw from Test cricket was wisely taken — and in the nick of time.

Having reported on virtually every incoming tour to the country from the inaugural Test against India in 1992 to 2000, I became passionate about cricket in Zimbabwe. It wasn’t easy to sit back and watch the decade of misery which followed and, though the criticism may have seemed easy to dish up, it wasn’t pleasant.

Zimbabwe’s refusal to sanction my return to report or commentate undoubtedly soured relations and inevitably increased an already biased slant on events. The trickle of information which came from the country was almost inevitably from the disenfranchised and a balanced perspective became impossible.

The story of Zimbabwe Cricket’s attempt to reintegrate meaningfully into the world game is too long and complex to fill a novel, let alone this page, but for me it began with an invitation from a man I had labelled a tyrant, among other things.

ZC managing director Ozias Bvute is certainly not perfect, but welcoming several hours of finger-pointing, chest-jabbing questioning from a hostile journalist is unusual behaviour for a dictatorial, self-serving administrator, as I had called him (based on the information I had been able to gather).

Every question was asked and answered. The ICC spent more than $500 000 on a forensic audit of ZC’s financial affairs following allegations of theft and corruption by Bvute and chairperson Peter Chingoka. The results were never published. Bvute swears he wishes they had been. They revealed some incompetence, outdated accounting systems and naivety about such things as broadcasting costs.

Whether either man also profited from the economic collapse of the nation’s financial system is undecided. But many businessmen did — just ask the tobacco and property industries how much money was made by currency trading during the freefall of the Zim dollar.

But if Bvute did benefit personally then he is giving back to cricket at an extraordinary rate. And he already has an American green card guaranteeing residency, so why is he risking his personal fortune by bank-rolling Zim cricket’s debt of close to $4-million?

Ultimately, however, the most pertinent question may be this: Why should the country’s many, many aspiring cricketers be denied the chance to compete at the highest level because of allegations against their bosses and, even more pertinently, because of the horrendous and abject suffering inflicted on millions of the population by the president of the nation?

South African sports teams of the 1980s knew more than most about the stigma created by isolation and the frustrations of a situation beyond the control of “mere” sportsmen. But the rest of the world was united in its condemnation of apartheid; and the abhorrence of anything that could be construed as indifference, let alone support, of the regime was universal. “No normal sport in an abnormal society.” The slogan was sharp and pertinent and the global sports media took eveery opportunity to use it.

The only debate about the slogan today concerns the interpretation of “abnormal”, but sports boycotts are few and far between, which, presumably, means that a nation’s imperfections and sometimes even appalling faults and abuses are expected, if not accepted, but are still no reason to cancel sporting contact.

South Africa deserved its isolation even if the innocent among its sports people did not. But since the overthrow of apartheid almost 20 years ago, international sporting sanctions have been marginal, localised, short-term and often even petty. Sometimes calls for sporting boycotts are ill-considered and based on emotion rather than analysis or fact.

Even for the most passionate, anticolonial pan-Africanist, for whom Robert Mugabe was, and always will be, a heroic freedom fighter, the president of Zimbabwe was a hard man to whom unconditional support could be given for much of the past decade while his tyrannically obsessed leadership dragged a once-prosperous country into economic ruin. Hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens either fled or starved. Fact. Not fiction, not propaganda, just the truth.

Since the beginning of 2009, however, with the formation of a government of national unity and the official adoption of the rand and the US dollar as national currencies in place of the laughable local equivalent, the people of Zimbabwe are gradually hauling themselves and their life prospects back from the abyss.

Yet, extraordinarily, there are calls for the Zimbabwean cricket team to be banned from international competition. The national team has an average age of 24 and is full of passion and determination. They long to recreate the era of the early and mid 1990s when Zimbabwe, always the underdog, was a team to be, if not feared, then respected at all times and costs.

Zimbabwe Cricket is still cursed with racial tension and misunderstanding, but there are many differences today from the early 2000s when national captain Heath Streak led a walk-out by 15 white “rebels”. There is a genuinely shared vision among the players, with the return of Test cricket at its hub.

There is a powerful belief that politics — and its influence — can no longer extend into the professional lives of the players. Ten years ago they would not speak outside of cricketing affairs because they were cautious, even fearful, of the consequences. Today they see that option as a right rather than a necessity. Whereas they once considered political talk a hazard, they now see it as an irritation.

Zimbabwe is, in the words of the life-long human rights lawyer and current minister of education and sports, David Coltart, “a country in transition, but one which is working hard to resolve its own problems”.

Coltart (52) has suffered things in his life that many of Zimbabwe’s critics would be unable to digest mentally, let alone physically. Houses of colleagues burned down, staff terrorised and multiple imprisonments. Yet he declares, unbowed: “Zimbabwe needs all the strength it can get and, believe me, I know for certain that a strong cricket team gives people some hope and belief that we are still heading in the right direction.”

Bvute says: “I wish more of our critics would come and see us, come and see for themselves. Our books and accounts are a matter of public record. Anybody with an interest is welcome to come and be our guest. Hopefully they will also have time to see the work being done across the board in Zimbabwe cricket, the franchise system, our development programme and everything else.”

Streak, the “rebel” leader, is now national bowling coach. “Things aren’t perfect, but the will and desire is undoubted. It’s simple to me: You either want to be part of the problem or you want to be part of the solution. It didn’t take me long to decide. I have a son and I want him to be able to play for Zimbabwe.”

Bvute has given another former national captain, Alistair Campbell, the task of “making the rebirth of Zim cricket happen”. He chairs the selection panel and heads the national cricket committee.

“It’s time to draw a line in the sand,” Campbell says. “Whatever happened in the past is gone; it’s time to move forward. We struggled as a nation for a decade and, whilst there’s still plenty for the politicians to sort out, it’s time for cricket to put the crap behind us and head into the next decade.”

Neil Manthorp ended a seven-year banishment from Zimbabwe by accepting an offer to commentate on the country’s inaugural, domestic T20 tournament last month before travelling with the national team to the Caribbean as media liaison officer for the five-match ODI series against the West Indies