New York Times
By Celia W. Dugger and Caiphas Chimhete
October 16, 2009

JOHANNESBURG — Eight months after entering a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced Friday that he and his party would boycott cabinet meetings and withdraw from dealing with Mr. Mugabe’s party, in the biggest breach yet in the transitional government.

“It is our right to disengage from a dishonest and unreliable partner,” Mr. Tsvangirai said at a news conference in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

The catalyst for this step was the jailing Wednesday of Roy Bennett, Mr. Tsvangirai’s deputy agriculture minister-designate, a white farmer who is scheduled to stand trial Monday on three-year-old terrorism charges that his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, says are fabricated. But even after Mr. Bennett was granted bail on Friday after the news conference, officials in his party said their decision to disengage had not changed.

“This is the time for us to say enough is enough,” said Thabitha Khumalo, a spokeswoman for the M.D.C.

Mr. Tsvangirai laid out a broad array of grievances. He accused Mr. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, of selectively using the law to punish his legislators, putting 16,000 members of its youth militia on the government payroll and remilitarizing the countryside on bases used in last year’s discredited election to organize a campaign of terror against his supporters.

Although he stopped short of quitting the government, Mr. Tsvangirai warned that if the crisis was not resolved and a working relationship restored, he would call for elections supervised by the United Nations.

A former ZANU-PF information minister, Jonathan Moyo, who recently rejoined Mr. Mugabe’s party, said Friday that the M.D.C.’s decision to disengage would reduce the party and the prime minister to political irrelevance.

He said the M.D.C. had decided to act because of pressure from what he called “the Roy Bennett constituency, a Rhodie constituency, the former white Rhodesians in the army and farming community.” Before it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia.

“You say you’ve disengaged, but are not pulling out,” Mr. Moyo said. “That’s nonsensical. You’re either in or out.”

Mr. Tsvangirai’s strategy appears to be in part an effort to get senior political leaders in the African Union and the Southern African Development Community — guarantors of the power-sharing deal — to put pressure on Mr. Mugabe to act in a more conciliatory manner. But the move also reflects rising anger in the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change. Mr. Tsvangirai, who outpolled Mr. Mugabe in elections last year but withdrew from the runoff after an onslaught of attacks on his supporters, has sought to put a good face on the deal in recent months. He had argued that the country and its devastated economy had stabilized.

But Mr. Bennett’s jailing after uneventfully spending seven months on bail seemed to have been the breaking point for the M.D.C. Mr. Tsvangirai said it “brought home the fiction of the credibility and integrity of the transitional government.”

Although no one has been prosecuted for the murders of about 200 people before last year’s presidential runoff, or the abduction and torture of the human right activist Jestina Mukoko in December by state agents, seven M.D.C. members of Parliament have been convicted on what Mr. Tsvangirai called “shadowy charges,” and others still face prosecution.

The state’s pursuit of Mr. Bennett, a senator from Manicaland Province, has aggravated animosities. One of Mr. Tsvangirai’s demands has been that Attorney General Johannes Tomana, a Mugabe loyalist, be replaced.

After months of relative quiet, civic leaders and human rights workers said this week that tensions were mounting.

Requesting anonymity because of the risk of retribution, they distributed a memorandum on Thursday reporting that ZANU-PF members had been rounding up people in Mashonaland East Province and insisting that they chant ZANU-PF slogans or sign up for training.

In one case, the memo says, villagers were told that their heads would be chopped off if they opposed the version of a new constitution that ZANU-PF favors, which retains Mr. Mugabe’s extensive powers.

Harsh criticism of M.D.C. officials in the state-run Herald, the sole daily newspaper, and on television, a state-controlled monopoly, has also created frustration.

The education minister, David Coltart, who belongs to a smaller faction of the M.D.C., said the regional development group should have a permanent representative in Zimbabwe. Tomas A. Salamao, executive secretary of the development group, could not be reached for comment on Friday.

“They just assume that protagonists can manage on their own,” Mr. Coltart said. “But this has been a long and bloody struggle. It’s simply unreasonable to think we can muddle through.”

Celia W. Dugger reported from Johannesburg, and Caiphas Chimhete from Harare, Zimbabwe.

The Herald
16 October 2009

Harare — Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart has reminded all parents and guardians of prospective candidates who intend to sit for the November 2009 public examinations that the registration deadline is today.

In a statement, Minister Coltart said parents and guardians could make arrangements with schools and regional ministry offices to pay the exam fees in batches until January 31, 2010.

“The arrangement has been granted by Government to all candidates who want to write either ‘O’ or ‘A’ levels, so parents and guardians should register their children,” he said.

However, Zimsec will withhold the results until the exam fees were fully paid, he cautioned.

The Zimbabwe Independent
By Jesilyn Dendere
Thursday, 15 October 2009

ZIMBABWE Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) yesterday said only 139 000 out of 380 000 Ordinary and Advanced Level students had registered for this year’s public examinations that have been marred by chaotic preparations. The council said 120 400 Ordinary and 18 500 Advanced Level candidates registered for the examinations compared to 239 430 and 138 000 last year.

The low number of registered candidates was as a result of the exorbitant examination fees, which were pegged at US$10 and US$20 per ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level subjects, which most parents could not afford.

David Coltart, the Education Minister, recently said government was working on modalities to ensure that students who failed to raise the fees sit for the examinations and pay later.

Zimsec director Happy Ndanga told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that the council was in a quandary as to how many question papers to print and send to each examination centres after the government directive.

“Without the actual entry figures we cannot tell what numbers to pack per centre per subject. We cannot issue a timetable, print attendance registers and order mark sheets,” Ndanga said.

The deadline for registration was extended last month to today.

On the printing of the examination papers, Ndanga said this was “progressing well” but he lamented the decision to extend the registration deadline.

He said if they had stuck to the original deadline, the “printer would have finished printing and packing and sent the full consignment by Monday 21st October enabling examinations to begin by the second week of November”.

Ndanga added: “Until we know that information and supply it to the printer, he will not know how many question papers to pack.

“We therefore cannot issue a realistic timetable (of the examinations) until we are certain that the packing lists are available and the packing can be done in the available time.”

An unnamed South African company has been contracted to print the examinations papers.

There are fears that the writing of public examinations could spill over to early next year, a situation that will further prejudice candidates. Results of all public examinations written last year were only released late into this year.

The Herald
By Felex Share and Vallery Chingono
15 October 2009

Harare — Zimsec has granted a reprieve to Ordinary Level students who failed to sit for practical exams because they had not paid examination fees.

Some students had sat for practical exams in Agriculture, Fashion and Fabrics, Food and Nutrition, Woodwork, Metalwork and Technical Graphics last week.
This had raised the spectre of their colleagues having to wait until next year to sit for practical exams.

However, yesterday Zimsec director Mr Happy Ndanga said: “For the recently-registered candidates, the implications are that they will have to sit an alternative paper for the Food and Nutrition practical examination.

“For all the other practical subjects other than Food and Nutrition, the recently-registered students have to submit their coursework. “The coursework submission requirement cannot be waived because without the coursework candidates cannot be issued with a result in that practical subject.”

He said in a normal year, marking of coursework takes place during the August holidays, but that did not happen this year because of the problems with examination fees.
Zimsec had come under fire after parents and guardians felt the exams body had failed to cater for students’ needs.

Meanwhile, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart on Tuesday met with management at the parastatal to try and resolve an impasse with employees over salaries.

Minister Coltart queried the manner in which management had been using funds this year and ordered them to rework their 2010 cash flow projections.
“What I have always queried is the income and expenditure statement. I need clarification from the management and I have urged them to go and revise their figures,” he said.

After meeting management, Minister Coltart also met the workers’ committee before addressing all employees at the Zimsec head office in Harare.

It is understood that the salary negotiations started yesterday between Zimsec management and the workers’ committee and the talks continue today.

“They must first make presentations to me highlighting what their problems are. From there the process of negotiations will begin,” said Minister Coltart. He also said the workers must look at what their colleagues in other parastatals were earning.

“The workers have to bear in mind what other people are earning. They need the money but there are also children out there who failed to register for exams and need to be bailed out,” he said.

On the issue of management’s intention to purchase new cars, Minister Coltart said luxury vehicles were not a priority.

“It is true that the institution needs cars, but they must get practical cars not the luxury cars they are dreaming of,” he said.

He urged the workers to return to work while negotiations continued.

Workers, however, said they would only return to work after Government had met their demands. When The Herald visited Zimsec offices, workers could be seen milling around.

The Daily Telegraph
By Peta Thornycroft in Zimbabwe and Sebastien Berger
15 October 2009

Zimbabwe’s unity government has been plunged into crisis after the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change staged a boycott following the jailing of its treasurer Roy Bennett.

Mr Bennett has been remanded in custody on terrorism charges widely seen as spurious.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister and MDC leader, cancelled the weekly meeting of the council of ministers, which works in parallel with the cabinet, and did not go to his office.

Tendai Biti, the finance minister and MDC secretary-general, said: “We will not be taking part in any official functions at present. The prime minister has cancelled the council of ministers meeting and we will be meeting as a party in the morning to discuss this.”

There is outrage within the MDC that Mr Bennett, who has not yet received a copy of the formal charges against him, was sent for trial in the high court, prompting his automatic re-arrest in the eastern city of Mutare, despite a court order compelling the state to start proceedings against him or release him.

Johannes Tomana, the attorney-general, is loyal to Robert Mugabe and was appointed to the post by the president. Mr Bennett was first arrested in February when he arrived back in Harare from exile to take up the post of deputy agriculture minister in the coalition government, formed after months of talks following an election wracked by violence.

Then, it took him a month to be given bail. He has never been sworn in to his post.

David Coltart, the education minister who was speaking on behalf of the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, said it condemned Mr Bennett’s detention “unreservedly”.
“While we believe in the rule of law, the manner in which this case has been handled is a direct assault on the spirit of the global political agreement and Zanu PF’s conduct will seriously undermine efforts to make this fragile agreement work,” he said.

There is a groundswell of protest growing within the MDC at the authorities’ handling of the Bennett case. “The state has had eight months to prepare for his case, they have done nothing because the police have no evidence and no witnesses,” said a Harare lawyer who has followed the case. “It is malicious and indefensible.”

The Herald
14 October 2009

Harare — Prospective Ordinary Level students who wanted to sit for practical examinations this year might have to wait until next year after they failed to register on time.

Other candidates have already sat for practical subjects such as fashion and fabrics, woodwork, food and nutrition and building.

Yesterday, a Zimbabwe School Examinations Council official said despite the extended registration deadline, those who wanted to sit for practical exams might have to wait until next year because their colleagues had already been examined.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart could not comment on what would happen to the students but instead referred the question to Zimsec management. He said as far as he was concerned, public exams had not yet commenced.

“As far as I know public examinations are yet to start because the candidates are still registering. If they have written you can get in touch with Zimsec who are the administering body of these examinations,” he said.

A Zimsec source said Government had not given any directive stopping the practical exams and hence they had gone ahead.

He said it would cost the exams body “a lot of money and time” to re-do the exams for those who had not yet registered. Practical subjects are traditionally written earlier than the theory papers.

Few candidates paid their exam fees on time, with some schools recording less than three candidates for the examinable practical subjects on offer.

Zimsec spokesperson Mr Ezekiel Pasipamire confirmed that some students had sat for the practicals but referred all other questions to his director, Mr Happy Ndanga. Repeated calls to Mr Ndanga went unanswered yesterday.

Government earlier announced an extension on registration to Ocotber 16 and said parents could pay exam fees in instalments. This was after teachers’ unions had said about 70 percent of students had failed to register for the public exams.

Minister Coltart put the ministry’s estimate at “slightly over 50 percent”.

Yesterday Zimsec officials said the pace of registration was still slow though they would only have substantive statistics next week. One school in Matabeleland had recorded zero percent O-Level registration two weeks ago.

Unconfirmed statistics show that practical subjects had the lowest registration levels this year. This year’s examination fees have been pegged at US$20 and US$10 per subject for A-Level and O-Level papers respectively.

Parents and guardians have said the figures are beyond their reach. The most affected are students in the rural areas whose parents struggle to make ends meet.
On average O-Level candidates sit for eight subjects with A-Level examination candidates taking three.

Lack of clear communication from the ministry and Zimsec has seen some teachers in high-density suburbs of Harare and surrounding areas such as Goromonzi, Seke, Norton and Beatrice expressing ignorance of the latest directive by Government on exam registration.

Newsnet
Wednesday 14 October 2009

Government says it remains committed to ensuring that schools are safe through the creation of policies that promote the protection of children’s rights in all learning institutions.

Government says it remains committed to ensuring that schools are safe through the creation of policies that promote the protection of children’s rights in all learning institutions.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister Senator David Coltart said this at the launch of the ‘Learn Without Fear’ campaign in Harare.

While teachers have been responsible for abusing of girls in schools, there has been a developing trend in which girls are abused by senior boys at learning institutions with some cases going unreported.

Minister Coltart says this trend has to be nipped in the bud and government is inviting various stakeholders in coming up with a comprehensive national strategic plan for the eradication of all forms of abuse in schools.

“As government we are very worried about the rampant abuse in schools which used to be perpetrated by teachers, A shocking development is that even children amongst themselves can abuse other minors.

“The common trend that we have adopted is that we want a comprehensive policy against child abuse to protect most victims who sometimes suffer in silence,” said senator Coltart.

Plan Zimbabwe, which is spearheading the programme says children in schools should be taught conflict resolution skills that do not inflict pain on others.

There have been media reports of abuse of children in schools by other children through acts of bullying, prefects beating up other children and teachers using corporal punishment.

The launch was preceded by a baseline survey conducted in various districts of the country which revealed shocking statistics of abuse in schools.

The Guardian
13 October 2009

It took several painful years for Zimbabwean cricket to fall apart, but this summer the sport has started to recover
These last seven days have been something of a luxury, allowing a little peace, space and time into the cricket calendar while the Champions League bubbles away in India. There was one international match yesterday, but it was not the kind that makes headlines. At the Sports Club ground in downtown Harare, among the jacaranda trees and in front of the old gabled pavilion, Zimbabwe played Kenya, and beat them by 91 runs.

It is almost four years now since Zimbabwe withdrew from Test cricket, and four years too since the Logan Cup, the country’s first class competition, was suspended for the first time in its 104-year history because of a lack of funding. It took several painful years for Zimbabwean cricket to fall apart, but this summer, with surprising swiftness, the sport has started to recover. For the first time in a long time, the news from Zimbabwe is good. The decay of the game reflected the rotting of the Zimbabwean society as a whole. In fact the two were explicitly linked, as the men in charge of the hopelessly inept, and corrupt, Zimbabwe Cricket Union had close links to Zanu PF. Now, as Zimbabwean society starts to rebuild itself, competitive cricket is also on the mend.

The improvement is due, in part, to David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s new Minister for Education, Sports, Art and Culture. Coltart, a human rights lawyer, was a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change, and took on his new role when the coalition government was sworn-in last February. Many aspects of Zimbabwean life remain in the control of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, but cricket is not one of them.

Coltart is a cricket tragic. The kind of man who checks the county cricket scorecards to see how his favourite players are performing – “when I see Sean Ervine’s averages for Hampshire,” he said recently, “I say to myself, here is a guy who should be playing for us.” Coltart singled out the cricket team as ambassadors for the transition taking place in Zimbabwe. He visited the dressing room during their recent one-day series against Bangladesh, and told them, in the words of captain Propser Utseya, that “they should not take representing the country lightly, that it was an honour and a privilege, that he believed in us. It helped.”

Coltart has spoken frankly of his “legitimate concerns” about the allegations of corruption and racism in the governing of the sport. “I have engaged Zimbabwe Cricket; I am in possession of the ICC mandated audit report which I have studied,” he said in a recent interview with The Zimbabwean. “I have had a series of meetings with ZC and they have agreed with me that corruption should not be tolerated and racism and regionalism cannot be tolerated. This is a transition. We are naive if we think everything is going to change overnight, that all the problems are going to be addressed overnight, it is a process and that process also applies to sport and I think that if one focuses on cricket there has been a material improvement since February.”

Most heartening has been the return of several of the men who helped make Zimbabwean cricket what it once was. Three former Test captains, Alistair Campbell, Heath Streak and Dave Houghton, have taken on roles within the governing body, bringing their accumulated knowledge and expertise to the task of reviving the sport. Campbell has been appointed Chairman of the cricket committee, while Heath Streak is expected to take up the role national coach and Houghton is the director of coaching. Domestically, a franchise system has been put in place.

Until recently, the notion of competitive domestic cricket in Zimbabwe was a sham, with players being bussed out from Harare to form ropey scratch XIs to contest matches nobody watched. Now, the five teams contesting the league have strong regional identities, and employ 15 professional players each. In a sign of their burgeoning good health, the Mashonaland Eagles have signed up Chris Silverwood to act as player/coach, while Houghton has brought in another former English Test player, Mike Hendrick, to act as bowling coach to the national team. The canker has not been entirely cut out.

Board chairman Peter Chingoka, who was banned from entering Australia and England to attend ICC meetings because of his links to Zanu PF, is still hovering around. But he seems to have been denuded of his power. “He’s yesterday’s man,” one Zimbabwean administrator told Cricinfo in September. “He is associated internally and abroad with the dark days of the game here and his time is thankfully drawing to a close.”
A structure for youth cricket is in place and, according to Ozias Bvute, managing director of ZC, “young cricketers are falling out of the sky like mangoes fall out of the trees in the wet season.” And while his words should be taken with a pinch of salt, excellent self-publicist as he is, the signs are that he is right when he says that ZC is working towards the ideal “of an inclusive cricket structure that gives every child an opportunity to play, regardless of creed, race or gender.”

The scorecards for Zimbabwe’s series against Kenya show a balanced, racially diverse, and talented team. When Hamilton Masakadza scored a Test century on his debut in 2000, he was the first black player ever to make a ton for Zimbabwe. Now the team has a multiethnic core, including Maskadza, Utseya and Stuart Matsikinyeri. Alongside them at the heart of the new team are off spinner Ray Price, who has returned from county cricket, Brendon Taylor and Mark Vermeulen, who has been rehabilitated after his deranged attempts to burn down ZC’s headquarters (an extraordinary story which you can read more about in this excellent interview by the Telegraph’s Ian Chadband).

“ZC makes no apology for the fact that there was a policy of affirmative action before,” Campbell told the BBC recently. “There are 13 million black people in Zimbabwe and you’re not going to will that away – they had to become more integrated.” It was the implementation of the policy that was so disastrously wrong, “When you get cricketing decisions made by non-cricketers, that is what happens.” Now the right people are in place, from the top down, and Campbell for one thinks that “In two or three years we will be good enough to get back and compete at Test cricket.” “Bygones” he added, “need to be bygones.”

Extract taken from The Spin, guardian.co.uk/sport’s weekly take on the world of cricket.

The Herald
13 October 2009

Harare — Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart will today meet Zimsec staff to try and resolve a row that threatens the smooth running of public examinations in November.

Minister Coltart said he would first meet with management before separately engaging workers at 2pm.

He said he had requested the meeting after ascertaining that business had ground to a halt at the exams body despite alleged claims by management that everything was in order.

“I called for the meeting after realising that workers at the institution had downed their tools.

“Considering that exams are just around the corner, this must be treated as a matter of urgency so that examinations won’t be disrupted,” he said.

It is understood that Zimsec management might have been misrepresenting to the ministry that there was no strike.

There are also allegations that the management wanted to buy themselves new cars when workers were demanding improved salaries.

Yesterday, Minister Coltart met Zimsec management ahead of today’s talks and said not much headway had been made in ending the impasse.

He said management had presented him with documents showing how management had been using funds this year and he told them to go back and clear some grey areas.

“We could have finalised everything today (yesterday) but I queried some of the contents of the budget.

“I ordered them to go and work on their budget overnight so that we will map the way forward,” he said.

Employees at the examinations body downed tools last Thursday demanding that the lowest paid worker get a salary of US$400, up from the current US$115.

Yesterday, Zimsec workers vowed to continue with their strike, with some of them saying management had resolved to buy top-of-the-range vehicles.

They accused their superiors of “general insensitivity” which they said made it impossible for them to continue performing their normal duties.

“They are saying they do not have money but they are on the verge of acquiring new cars. Where does that money come from?
“These managers want to enjoy themselves to the last drop with Zimsec funds and this must be stopped immediately,” said one of the workers.

They urged Government to address their grievances urgently so that 2009 examination preparations would not be affected.

“There will end up being a skeletal staff here to prepare for the exams and this will impact on quality. Government has to intervene before things worsen,” another worker added.

Contacted for comment, Zimsec public relations manager Mr Ezekiel Pasipamire referred all questions to his director Mr Happy Ndanga.

Mr Ndanga declined to comment on the allegations yesterday and said he would discuss the issue “later”.

There are fears that if the problem is not resolved soon, the situation will affect the running of exams, with Grade 7 testing just a few weeks away.

Grade 7 exams are expected to start on October 27 with Ordinary and Advanced Level papers following later.

ZimEye.org
By John Chimunhu
October 11, 2009

”Education Minister David Coltart’s tough line against Zanu PF militants who had set up bases in schools appears to have worked” a teachers union has said.

The Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ), which had raised complaints about the disruptive presence of the militias in many of the country’s schools says many of them have now fled after Coltart ordered them out.

“On a scale of one to hundred, I’d say that 95 percent of the schools are now peaceful,” Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-general of the PTUZ told ZimEye. “We still have one or two cases of harassment and intimidation but I’d say the situation has improved.”

Coltart breathed fire in August in a memorandum to the country’s 7 000 government schools stating that any militia-men and women who did not leave the schools by the time they re-opened in September would face the full wrath of the law. He also threatened to bring in new regulations banning political activities on school premises.
Majongwe said the only recent incidences that had been reported involved teachers who were driven out of a school in a village during the recent failed strike.

The disappearance of the murderous militias, who are usually backed up by members of the army and security services to terrorise teachers is seen as a major step forward in restoring sanity to schools. The militias have, during recent election periods robbed and raped teachers, besides forcing them to abandon their teaching duties to participate in Zanu PF meetings.

The militias had been deployed by Zanu PF to intimidate teachers, who are generally seen as being supportive of the Movement for Democratic Change. The militants also had orders to disrupt constitutional hearings expected to start across the country soon.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)