Sokwanele
27 March 2009

What would you have done? Taken the merc, or said ‘no thank you’…?

I hope, faced with the decision that all our new Ministers were faced with – to accept the Mercedes Benz which comes as a ministerial perk or not – that I would have refused.

Senator David Coltart declined his and hats off to him for doing so.

Unfortunately, our enquiries seem to suggest that every other minister accepted theirs – including the new guys, the MDC-T and MDC ministers.

Nelson Chamisa, our youngest Minister at the age of 31, said that, “It’s a symbol of authority and power … If you don’t have it, people will think you don’t have power. They feel good when they see one of their own in power.”

Why stop there Nelson? Why not accept a farm or two as well, wrap your wife in gold and diamonds, and jet around the world after commandeering Air Zim planes? That will really show the poor how much power you have – they’ll be under no illusions who’s the boss then.

By the way, does an E-Class Mercedes come with really big doors, Nelson? I hope so, because if your head keeps growing at this rate it may not be long before you can’t fit it into the car.

Eric Matinenga at least had the grace to be slightly shame-faced when he accepted his. He said, “I know it’s not a good excuse, but will I make a difference if I turn this down?”

You’re right, Eric, it’s a thoroughly lousy excuse.

As to the question about whether it would have made a difference… perhaps we can help out there. We did a bit of research on the Internet and we estimate that an E-Class Mercedes Benz is worth approximately US$50,000. There are 40 ministers (including Zanu PF) which means the government spent US$2,000,000 on cars while our people are starving and dying from cholera.

How many drips is that? How much mealie-meal does it buy? How many school books? How many prisoners, who are currently receiving no meals and dying of starvation, will that feed? Perhaps one of the Ministers could be kind enough to swish up to the prison in their new E-Class Mercedes Benz and find out and let us know…?

Tendai Biti recently said in Parliament that government revenue was running at US$30 million for March. So these cars seem to represent a spend of nearly 7% of the revenue coming in for that month. The issue here is not how you justify this to yourselves, but how you justify to us, the people, spending 7% of one month’s revenue on luxury vehicles for your goodselves when the majority of Zimbabweans are unemployed and most are depending on outside aid for food.

Furthermore, how can you go to the International Community and bawl about how bad things are, and beg for money, when one of the first things the new government did was take ownership of brand new luxury vehicles. It’s absolutely insane.

We’re only referring to the Ministers cars here; apparently the Deputy Ministers will all receive Pajeros, luxury 4×4 vehicles. The MPs have yet to be given their cars but they will and we don’t know yet what those will be but somehow we doubt they will be no-frills practical vehicles designed to get MPs with bags of maize out to their starving constituents in rural areas! And so the money for cars for an extremely bloated government (one which, incidentally, exceeds the numbers outlined in the Global Political Agreement) piles up and up and up. It’s disgusting. It’s a vulgar insensitive African cliche and I feel ashamed of our new Ministers.

Yes, US$2,000,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to our country’s needs, but its priceless as a gesture of good-faith, as a symbol to the people that this government will be different. The cost is the loss of credibility and diminished respect from the people.

Matinenga said he tried to talk other Ministers into turning theirs down:

“I said, ‘Look, how would we justify getting these luxury vehicles when there is a humanitarian crisis out there? … To my disappointment, we were not able to come up with a single position.”
All I can say is they didn’t try very hard. I hope this is a hiccup, and not the first step on a slippery slope.

The Chronicle
Chronicle Reporter
27 March 2009

THE Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) 2008 Ordinary and Advanced Level results will be released next month, the Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture, Senator David Coltart, said yesterday.

Speaking in a telephone interview from Harare, Minister Coltart said marking of the 2008 final examinations was almost complete, adding that results should be expected before the end of April.
“The results will be out before the end of the schools holiday, that is, sometime in April,” he said.
Minister Coltart paid tribute to the more than 3 500 markers who turned out despite the financial constraints facing the examination body.

The ZIMSEC 2008 final examinations marking was delayed due to a year-long teachers’ strike that almost crippled the education system.

Minister Coltart pleaded with markers to be patient with the Government as it finalises the payment process.

He said payment was delayed due to an administrative problem at the Ministry.

Minister Coltart said the Government was working closely with the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) to make sure that markers were paid before the end of next week.

“We want to assure examination markers that they will get their payment next week. We apologise that we have not been able to pay them on time and this was due to an administrative problem,” said the Minister.

However, the Government is working tirelessly to address the plight of teachers. The Government has since started paying civil servants in foreign currency and they received US$100 this month.

The money has been received as with a sigh of relief by most Government workers who were battling to make ends meet owing to the ravaging effects of hyperinflation.

Schools have been instructed to enroll Form Ones and Lower Sixth Forms using mid-year examination results.

New Zimbabwe.Com
Xinhua
Posted to the web: 26/03/2009

ZIMBABWEAN boxers risk being permanently banned from all fights held under the auspices of the World Boxing Organisation following revelations that four out of six fighters who traveled for bouts in Namibia on March 21 failed their medical tests, reports said Wednesday.

Apart from supplying the tournament organisers with a match record that is impressive enough, it is also mandatory that boxers undergo tests for hepatitis B and HIV.

Two of the boxers, Isaac Phonkeni and Livingstone “Master” Kachigwada, were supposed to participate in WBO international title bouts in an event organised to coincide with that country’s Independence Day celebrations.

Nestor Tobias of Sunshine Boxing Academy was the promoter of the bill scheduled to have been held at the Windhoek Country Club Resort and Casino on the outskirts of the capital city.

Phonkeni had been matched against Jatoorora Tjingaveti for the lightweight title while Kachigwada had been penciled in to meet Paulus “Ali” Nuumbembe for the welterweight title.

The other boxers who failed the tests but were engaging in non-title fights were Blessing Moleni (bantamweight) and Tom Fernando (lightweight).

Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper says that the medical reports supplied to the WBO from Zimbabwe were probably tampered with and indicated the boxers were fit to take part when, in fact, they were not.

The boxers did not pass a test carried out by Dr Bernard Haufiku in Windhoek before the matches.
A fuming WBO Africa Zone representative, Andrew Smale, said his organisation would seek an audience with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart following which the results of the investigations will be made public.

Phonkeni and Kachigwada, a bouncer at a nightspot in Harare, returned home on Monday without both the belts and the purse money they had traveled for.

The Herald
25 March 2009
By Rumbidzai Mashayahanya

BARCLAYS Bank and Junior Achievement Zimbabwe launched the three-year programme-Barclays/Junior Achievement Zimbabwe Talent for the Future Initiative — at Prince Edward School in Harare last week.

Zimbabwe has already received a US$90 000 grant to implement and expand the programme, 100 students are participating in this edition of the programme.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture Senator David Coltart said the initiative was a milestone in educating and addressing Zimbabwe’s economic challenges to young entrepreneurs. “This initiative will help foster the economic development of the participating communities to help our young people compete effectively in the global economy,” he said. Barclays managing director Mr George Guvamatanga said the organisation was delighted to be working with the youths to aid in the turn around of the economy since they are the anchors of the economy.

“Developing the youth is important to the sustainability of any business today and Barclays is delighted to be working with Junior Achievement Zimbabwe, to provide youth with the inspiration to start this journey of entrepreneurship,” said Mr Guvamatanga.

The programme’s launch came a few weeks after the International Women’s day commemorations and to this Mr Guvamatanga remarked that it was encouraging to note that female representation in the programme had increased as reflected by the number of girls schools and co-schools.

” This is a clear indication that as society we now realise the value of our girl children, Barclays is committed to investing in women and will definitely support initiatives that will provide us with female leadership,” he added. Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy.

Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programmes for students.

The training focuses on three key content areas which are work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy.

The programme has already reached more than four million students in the United States of America through the organisation’s 137 individual area operations.

“An additional five million students are expected to be served by operations in 123 other countries worldwide,” remarked Jo Ann Ross, Junior Achievement Zimbabwe board member. Barclays will work with Hewlett Packard to provide computer hardware and peripherals to the selected schools so that they can better serve the needs of the students and help them become computer-literate.

SA Times
By Moses Mudzwiti
25 March 2009

A POWERFUL Zimbabwe labour organisation yesterday warned of a looming crisis as state workers prepare to strike over wages.

Zimbabwe’s has about 150000 state workers. Incredibly, they all earn the same — a miserly US100 (R1000) shopping voucher a month.

The rest of their pay is made up of worthless Zimbabwe dollars.

“In the police and army, everyone is getting US100,” said Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

Matombo said he was aware that teachers were planning to go on strike to press for better wages.
Last month, teachers accepted the vouchers as a temporary solution. Initially they were demanding US2 300 a month.

The Congress of Trade Unions said it was pressing the month-old inclusive government to pay salaries in US dollars or in rands.

But the labour body said it was less than optimistic about an amicable resolution.

“This is a crisis,” said Matombo. “What we hear is that the government has no money.”

Education Minister David Coltart told the state-controlled media at the weekend that Zimbabwe would have to rely on donors to meet teachers’ pay demands.

Coltart said the teachers’ demands were difficult to meet because the government was “battling” to find money to fund the shopping vouchers.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Tendai Biti revised the country’s budget and cut the government’s planned spending by US500-million to US1-billion. The only trouble was … there was no money in the treasury.

“The government is dead broke,” said Matombo.

“Even members of parliament are earning US100 a month.”

Zimbabwe Telegraph
By Mcedisi Nkomo
22 March 2009

Senator Coltart announced an impressive list of names on Thursday that will constitute the new National Education Advisory Board according to reports by SW Radio Africa.
The board will advise on matters pertaining to the improvement of primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe.
Minister Coltart said in a statement: “I have consulted widely before appointing the group of “grey-hairs” gathered here today.
I look forward to working with them to restore the rule of law in our education system and to reconstruct our primary and secondary education, which used to be the best in Africa.”
But the group faces an enormous task to try and rebuild the education sector which has been ruined as a result of the political and economic crises.
The Minister said the immediate task for the new board members would be to conduct a rapid assessment of primary and secondary education, as the foundation for a long-term plan for the Ministry.
The Education Minister was on Wednesday forced to admit that he could not guarantee that government will pay teachers their March salaries, because the country’s treasury coffers were completely empty.
The board members are: Dr Isaiah Sibanda (Chair) – Lecturer in technical teacher education at NUST, Founding Director ZIMSEC, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry.
Dr Fay Chung (Treasurer) – Education consultant, formerly UNESCO Africa, UNICEF New York and Minister of Education. Mrs Trudy Stevenson (Secretary) – Former teacher/Cambridge oral examiner and MP Harare North.
Dr Goodwill Shana – Representing Church schools, Chair Heads of Christian Denominations in Zimbabwe, President EFZ. Dr Sharai Chakanyuka – Education researcher and lecturer, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Education, Zimbabwe Open University.
Mrs Mary Ndlovu – Education consultant, former lecturer in education at Hillside. Fr Joe Arimoso – Head of Jesuit education, former teacher St George’s College.
Mr Stanley Hadebe – Board member, ZIMSEC, Zimbabwe Open University, former Matabeleland Regional Director of Education. Sr Tariro Chimanyiwa – Special education, Head of Emerald Hill School for the Deaf.
Mr Neil Todd – CEO Association of Trust Schools, former Head Falcon, Deputy Head Plumtree. Mr Mike Ndubiwa – Educationist and former Bulawayo Town Clerk.
Mr Charles Maunze – President, National Association of Secondary Heads NASH and Head Oriel Boys. Ms Tendai Chikowore – President, Zimbabwe Teachers Association ZIMTA
Mr Takawafira Zhou – President, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe PTUZ.

Sunday News
By Charles Dube
21 March 2009

WHEN things have not been going well for sometime, it calls for hard work for the system to normalise.

There are many problems bedevilling the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. Already the credibility of O- and A-level examination results for 2008 is being questioned in educational circles.
According to a representative from a teachers’ union, the examinations are disputed. They were written under very hard conditions. Many children did not get formal learning last year. Some students never had teachers before them hence whatever they produced will not be reflective of the actual performance they would have achieved if they had been guided by teachers.

I believe it is of paramount importance to restore the credibility of the examinations if students who sat their public examinations last year are not to be stigmatised. People will question the authenticity of their results and will always ridicule them for having not passed well even if they would have passed. Registration for this year’s examinations should be done early to instil confidence to both teachers and students. Examinations give direction. Teachers and students are motivated by the desire to perform well in examinations. They are a target which must be accomplished well. Learning with no proper set goals is discouraging.

Even though it looks like the problems that are there will continue to haunt the system for sometime, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, has already ordered schools to enrol Lower Sixth students in cognisance of the fact that they have already lost out on valuable time to learn. They are to register students basing them on the reports from the previous year. A step in the right direction as reports can easily show the potential in the students.

The fees charged by different schools are still causing concern and there are squabbles reported here and there with parents crying foul over the high figures demanded by schools. There is welcome news associated with those who cannot afford to pay the fees. There is a new scheme where those who cannot afford to fill in forms to ask for exemption or to pay less. But such a scheme needs to be tight to combat any corrupt acts which might be associated with it. Such noble ideas have been abused before where well-up individuals manipulated the system and had their children learning for free at the expense of deserving cases like the poor and orphans.

There is also a suggestion to allow people who cannot afford to pay fees one time to stagger their payments. This is a very sympathetic type of arrangement but again it cannot be ruled out that it can be abused. People will take advantage and continuously delay payment thereby affecting service delivery at the schools. Schools need money to run effectively. People have shown untrustworthiness on examination fees — students were allowed to register for examinations even before payment, the school being the guarantor. Some cunning people do not pay their dues until at the release of the results but the schools would have been inconvenienced as they need money everyday for them to run efficiently.

World Book Day, 23 April is coming soon. Does it make sense to you? It should make sense to readers as programmes of the day are meant to encourage a reading culture among students and the nation at large Through reading, students get a cross-section of ideas, learn about different cultures thereby understanding mankind. Students become objective in their perceptions of life and respect other people’s opinions from an informed perspective.

The Independent
By ENOCK MUCHINJO
20th March 2009

With politics being a pastime inside Zimbabwe rugby, accepting the post of Zimbabwe Rugby Union president was quite a courageous decision for youthful Themba Sibanda, who took over from Bruce Hobson this week.

It’s never easy, with a strong belief in the rugby circles that there are opportunists and armchair critics lurking along the way, ready to jump on any mistake made.

This is why you have to understand when Sibanda, 34, chose to be cautious in revealing his work plan — not promising much, yet clearly eager to make a difference and divert from his predecessor’s iron fist and hands-on approach.

“I’m going to involve a lot of people,” he says. “I cannot formulate anything without including stakeholders; the schools, women, clubs and others. I need to incorporate all of them. My plan is to have a meeting with various stakeholder groups before formulating anything.”

Diverse views have been expressed over the state of rugby in the country, uppermost being the different levels of the Sevens and XVs games. Sibanda does not have an illusion about the health of the game.

“We still got rugby, at least,” he says. “That alone is positive. Sevens have done well but we need to revamp XVs because it’s our flagship game. We need to emphasise that.

“Clubs are still going, which is another positive. It’s just a matter of building on that by helping development clubs such as Mbare, Mabvuku and Untouchables, which have fallen by the wayside. Then there are also clubs in Bulawayo and (the) Midlands which need our help.”

Development is a subject which excites the otherwise calm Sibanda, perhaps because of his own background — attending a school that was never a powerhouse in the sport. Born in Lupane, Matabeleland, and then growing up in Harare, he was introduced to the game in Grade 3 at Vainona Primary School.

He proceeded to Vainona High, where he played for six years. At Harare Sports Club where he became club chairman, he had a special interest in juniors and women. With his older brother, HSC coach Sykes Sibanda, he was instrumental in twinning the club with Churchill High School, an exercise which saw a number of talented youngsters from the school getting special attention at “Sportivo”.
For Sibanda, development in Zimbabwe rugby should not be a grassroots exercise in the common context of development.

“The structure is already there. We need to support the existing structures that are not doing well,” he says. “You cannot talk of developing rugby at grassroots level when schools or clubs that used to play the game no longer play. After we have revived these structures then maybe we can turn to grassroots.

“For example Churchill used to be a powerhouse but now they are struggling. And this is a feeder school. We need to look into that. How to do it is obviously by consultation.”

Sibanda will of course be hard-pressed to breathe life into the Sables.

To allow teams that sailed through to the next rounds of the 2011 World Cup qualifiers adequate time for preparations, the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) has shelved this year’s edition of the
Africa Cup, replacing it with regional one-off tournaments.

The Sables will play Zambia, Botswana and Swaziland in a CAR trophy event in Gaberone in July.
The Sables will play additional test matches in the year.

“My vision for the national team is to give more emphasis to players settling in the national team. I think we need to have a feeder group, or say, two feeder representative teams,” Sibanda says.

“We’ve got players who play for the Under 21s in a given year, become over-aged in the following year but would still not be ready for the national team. They then get tired of waiting. In between there is need to have another team they can aspire to play for.

“We need to have an Emerging Sables or something like that — perhaps a Zimbabwe A side. (However) the biggest problem is finance. Once you have teams they need to play. If you don’t have finance, they will fall by the wayside.”

Last month in an interview with this paper, new sports minister David Coltart said he would try to get the Zimbabwe national side in a competitive domestic league in South Africa. Sibanda also sees this as a possibility.

“We could do that but it boils down to finance. As a union, with what we get as a grant, we cannot afford to do that unless there is corporate support. We also need government to get involved in rugby.

“Playing in SA is a good idea because you get to play week-in-week-out and your skills level improve. What we lack is finance. Talent-wise, we are prepared for any team. In 2007 we played the Emerging Springboks at Loftus before the South Africa/England test. We were very competitive. If we had prepared better we could have upset them. It all boils down to preparation and preparations boils down to finance.”

New York Times
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: March 19, 2009

HARARE, Zimbabwe — On his first day as education minister in a government so broke that most schools were closed and millions of children idle, David Coltart said he got a startling invitation.

“Come and get your brand-new white Mercedes,” an official told Mr. Coltart, a veteran opposition politician, as President Robert Mugabe peered down from a portrait on the minister’s office wall.
The offer of an E-Class Mercedes to every minister in the month-old power-sharing government was vintage Mugabe, an effort to seduce his political enemies with the lavish perks he has long bestowed on loyalists.

Mr. Coltart said no thanks.

Opposition members like Mr. Coltart who joined Mr. Mugabe in office last month have already achieved some successes, like getting teachers back to work and winning the release of some political prisoners.

But many of them warned in interviews that the progress would be short-lived if Western nations, meeting Friday in Washington to discuss expanding assistance, did not extend billions of dollars to rebuild Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s main donors of emergency medical and food aid — the United States, Britain and other European nations — face a painful question posed by those pleas for more help. How do the wealthiest nations pump money into Zimbabwe’s crippled economy without propping up Mr. Mugabe, feeding his patronage machine and extending his disastrous three decades in power?

Before fully re-engaging with Zimbabwe’s government, the donors have said they want to see the release of all political prisoners, the adoption of sensible economic policies, a halt to seizures of white-owned farms, and the restoration of a free press. But some diplomats here say hard-liners in Mr. Mugabe’s old guard seem determined to sabotage the power-sharing deal and the infusion of Western aid that the public would credit to the newcomers, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.

The most critical test for Mr. Tsvangirai is whether he can deliver on his inaugural promise to pay the civil service in foreign currency — particularly the police officers and soldiers who have enforced the repressive rule of Mr. Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF, but whose pay in local currency is now worthless.

Even some diplomats who were most skeptical about Mr. Tsvangirai’s deal to govern with Mr. Mugabe, 85, now sense an opportunity to weaken “the old man,” as he is called here.

“There’s a creeping sense that we are in an endgame, that there is a new dynamic here,” said one Western diplomat who spoke anonymously according to diplomatic protocol. “Never before has the government been this prostrate. Never before has ZANU-PF been so weak or the opposition in office.”
The opposition politicians say that they, too, sense an opportunity to loosen Mr. Mugabe’s grip on power.

Mr. Coltart’s experience is a good example. He faces huge hurdles, not least the fact that his ministry’s foul-smelling headquarters had no running water to flush toilets when he arrived. But he has coaxed most of the nation’s teachers back to work with little more than a paltry $100 monthly allowance and the promise to try to give them more.

The sight of children in tattered uniforms walking to school has become another sign of encroaching normalcy — along with affordable loaves of bread and well-stocked grocery shelves — in a country ravaged by hunger, hyperinflation and cholera.

But the teachers’ unions have warned Mr. Coltart that their members will soon stop working unless he can get them better salaries, akin to what the British, the United Nations and other donors are already paying to more than 20,000 doctors, nurses and other workers in Zimbabwe’s collapsed public health system.

“If we don’t get support for education in, literally, the next few weeks, there’s a very real danger the teachers will leave in their thousands as they did last year,” Mr. Coltart said.

Teachers at the Fungisai Primary School in Chitungwiza, a city south of Harare, the capital, say $100 a month does not come close to paying for the essentials: rent, clothing, food, school fees. Still, they seem hopeful.

“The government is broke, but it’s better to have someone promising something better,” said Mercy Manza, 38, a third-grade teacher and mother of two. “Before, it was as if we didn’t exist. They just ignored us.”

The hyperinflation became so bad last year that the teachers’ pay in Zimbabwean dollars was worth almost nothing. Many teachers emigrated to South Africa to work as maids or grape pickers. Mrs. Manza and Kudzayi Chivasa, 44, a widowed teacher, said they sold their clothes, plates and silverware to raise cash to feed their families.

“I went for a week in January without food,” Mrs. Chivasa said.

The teachers said their lives had gotten materially better this year. The Zimbabwean dollar has effectively died, and all goods are now priced in United States dollars and South African rand. With the lifting of price controls and some import restrictions, goods have flowed into the country and food staples cost less.

The Fungisai school, a complex of single-story red brick buildings, was empty for months last year. All its 52 teachers are back, along with 2,200 neatly dressed children in royal blue uniforms.

But the headmistress, Angela Katsuwa, doubts she can hold on to her staff unless they get a raise. “I’m afraid they may go away,” she said. “They’re grumbling because that $100 is not enough to take them to the end of the month.”

The teachers are not the only ones challenged by poor pay. Every minister in the new government makes the same as a teacher — or a janitor, for that matter.

Sitting in his 14th-floor office, with a sweeping view of Harare’s skyline, Mr. Coltart took his crumpled pay stub out of his wallet. His earnings were 4,224 worthless Zimbabwean dollars and the voucher for $100. Mr. Coltart is a prominent human rights lawyer from Bulawayo who describes himself as “completely self-funding at present.”

Some new ministers, however, have devoted years to political activism in a country whose economy is crumbling. Diplomats here worry that Mr. Mugabe will exploit this vulnerability with his usual strategy of “bait the hook.” Many new ministers have accepted the Mercedes-Benzes that Mr. Coltart refused.

“There’s a very real danger our members and ministers could be sucked into the patronage system,” said Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who is now driving an E280 Mercedes. “Our members have to be vigilant and principled.”

Eric Matinenga, one of Zimbabwe’s most respected trial lawyers and the new minister of constitutional and parliamentary affairs, said he talked to others in the Movement for Democratic Change about taking a unified stand on the cars. “I said, ‘Look, how would we justify getting these luxury vehicles when there is a humanitarian crisis out there?’ ” he said. “To my disappointment, we were not able to come up with a single position.”

Mr. Matinenga, who braved arrest and weeks in jail last year after representing victims of political violence, took a metallic green E-Class Mercedes. “I know it’s not a good excuse,” he said, “but will I make a difference if I turn this down?”

Diplomats and local analysts say that despite some missteps the Movement for Democratic Change ministers, led by Mr. Tsvangirai and Mr. Mutambara, are standing up to Mr. Mugabe and demanding a say in how the country is governed.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti is credited with taking control of economic policy from Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank governor widely blamed for the profligate printing of money that drove inflation to astronomical levels.

“If Zimbabwe was a company, it would long ago have been liquidated,” said Mr. Biti, a combative lawyer who was beaten and jailed on flimsy treason charges during his years in the political wilderness. “If it was a human being, it would be brain dead.”

Looming over them all is the old man. Mr. Coltart has not quite figured out what to do with the portrait of Mr. Mugabe hanging behind his desk. “I’m thinking I’ll find a more appropriate place,” he said, “where he’s not looking over my shoulder.”

UPI
19 March 2009

HARARE, Zimbabwe, March 19 (UPI) — Zimbabwe cannot guarantee teachers will be paid this month, the new government’s education minister said, triggering a call for another teachers strike.

“While we are very concerned with the genuine demands of the teachers, right now I cannot promise anything in terms of salaries,” David Coltart told a news conference.

He said the nation’s “treasury coffers are almost bare” and appealed to the unions to show a spirit of patriotism by delaying any strike action while the government seeks money for salaries from the international community, the ZimOnline News Agency reported.

The country’s pleas for international money have failed so far, Coltart said.

The government offered in February to pay the teachers, like other civil servants, $100 a month — the first time their salaries would be paid in a foreign currency — but the union argued that $100 would have the buying power of $2 a month due to Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, Southwest Radio Africa reported.

The unions rejected the offer, first demanding $2,300 a month and later softening their demands, insisting teachers receive meaningful salary increases.

“If within 14 days they don’t give us a satisfactory answer, we are going back to the trenches (and plan a strike for the second term in May),” Firebrand Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Secretary-General Raymond Majongwe said.

The teachers have been on strike over pay disputes and working conditions much of last year and the beginning of this year, SW Radio Africa said.