Zimonline
By Patricia Mpofu
Wednesday 04 March 2009

HARARE – Learning resumed this week at schools across Zimbabwe as teachers heeded calls by the new unity government to return to work after several months striking for more pay and better working conditions.

Education Minister David Coltart, who met teachers’ unions immediately after he was appointed to his new job last month to persuade them to call off the strike and give the government time to raise funds to pay their members, said only a few schools in remote rural areas were yet to resume teaching, blaming this on poor communication.

“There are some few schools in rural areas that are still to open due to communication problems with head office but this is being addressed,” Coltart said. “It’s a slow process but our officers on the ground are attending to it.”

Coltart, who openly told union leaders when he met them that the government was broke and that he would need time to approach international agencies for help to pay teachers, praised the unions for agreeing to call off the strike.

He said he would be meeting union leaders on Thursday to review the situation.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PUTZ), the two unions for teachers in the country, said their members had agreed to give the new administration the benefit of doubt by returning to work while the government looked for resources to improve salaries and service conditions.

“Teachers are back countrywide although we still have teachers that are battling to cash their vouchers so that they can raise the money to go back to their work stations,” said Sifiso Ndlovu, the chief executive officer of ZIMTA.

PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe described the situation at schools as “back to normal” but said the union was unhappy that returning teachers were being asked to resubmit CVs, birth certificates and other documents as if they were reapplying for their old jobs.

“Although the situation has returned to normal with the bulk of teachers returning to work, we are disturbed by new demands that teachers should submit CVs, birth certificates and testimonial letters,” said Majongwe.

The PTUZ official said the union would raise the matter with Coltart when they meet this week.
Very little learning took place at public schools in 2008 as teachers spent the better part of the year striking for more pay or sitting at home because they could not afford bus fare to work on their meagre salaries.

The government had to postpone the beginning of the first term of this year by two weeks because public examinations written last year had not been marked after teachers boycotted the exercise.
The first term that should have begun on January 13 was rescheduled to start on January 27 but schools remained closed as teachers refused to report for duty.

A unity government between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara has pledged to get teachers, doctors, nurses and all civil servants back at work as part of a drive to get Zimbabwe functioning again and on the road to recovery.

Last week the government paid every civil servant US$100 living allowance, keeping a promise to reward public workers in hard cash.

However analysts say the Harare administration’s ability to get Zimbabwe functioning again hinges on its ability to raise financial support from rich Western countries that have however said they will not immediately help until they are convinced Mugabe is committed to genuinely share power with Tsvangirai.

VOA
By Delia Robertson
Johannesburg
04 March 2009

Like everything else in Zimbabwe, education has felt the impact of the crisis of government under President Robert Mugabe and of an economy contracting at a record rate. The advent of the unity government has revealed the scale of devastation in a sector that is key to the country.

When newly appointed Minister of Education David Coltart reported for duty three weeks ago, he was greeted by an astonishing scene.

“I arrived at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, which is an 18-story building in Harare,” said Coltart.”The ministry takes up the entire building, and on the ground floor, I was met with the sight of Ministry of Education ladies with buckets of water on their heads, preparing to take the lift up, to as high as the 18th floor, because the building has been without water for well over six months.”

It cost $800 to repair the pump that now brings water to toilets and water faucets in the building.

For Coltart, one of 16 ministers from the combined Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] serving in the new government, the un-repaired water pump has become emblematic of the skewed priorities of Mr. Mugabe’s government, and of the degradation of the education system in the past decade.

“So, it is a profoundly shocking environment and a tragedy really, because, if you think of what ironically Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF did to boost education in the 1980s, in the 1990s, and we really have regressed to a situation, which sees our education system probably in a worse condition since before independence,” Coltart said.

After taking power in 1980, Mr. Mugabe put education at the top of his government’s list of priorities, spending 25 percent of the national budget on education during that decade. Money was spent to build schools and train teachers who were well paid.

Zimbabwe’s literacy rate was soon the highest in sub-Saharan Africa at 96 percent, and its education system was held out as an example to the rest of the continent.

But from the early 1990s, the government spent less and less on education, so that by 2006 expenditure on education was only 13 percent of the national budget. By that time hyper-inflation had begun to bite, and diplomatic sources say that, in 2008, the value of government spending per child was equivalent to just 18 cents.

Coltart says the cumulative effects of all this have left schools in a deplorable state.

“I am told that virtually all the rural schools are closed, and most of the urban schools are closed, and even if they were open and we had teachers trying to teach, the vast majority of schools do not have desks, they do not have text books, chalk, exercise books. The buildings are in a state of almost complete disrepair,” he said.

The impact on teachers has also been severe. Their once competitive salaries are now virtually worthless, eroded by stagnation and inflation officially pegged at around 231 million percent. In early 2008, teachers went on strike, but many teachers were simply unable to afford to go to work because their monthly pay was less than the bus fare for the same period.

Last month, newly appointed Finance Minister Tendai Biti agreed to pay public servants, including teachers, a monthly allowance of $100 in foreign currency. And Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Coltart each met with teachers’ unions to try and persuade them to end the strike and bring their members back into the classrooms.

They agreed to do so, but Ofwald Madziva of the Progressive Teachers Union tells VOA they expect the government to address their salary demands soon.

“And, as a union, we have given the government up to around end of April to really move in a more practical fashion and see to it that there is a resolution to the salary dispute between teachers and government. And, if they don’t respond favorably by the 30th of April, we certainly are going back to the combative mode and go for another strike action,” Madziva said.

The problem for Coltart is how to fund teachers’ demands, and to do that he needs to know how many teachers he has. But he found department records in a chaotic state.

“One of the things that shocked me was that we don’t have a computerized database, so our records are antiquated to put it mildly,” said Coltart.

In the past year, many teachers left Zimbabwe – mostly for jobs in South Africa and Botswana. Coltart says has set up a team to find out how many teachers Zimbabwe now has, but believes the number to be less than 50 percent of a full complement of 140,000.

“I suspect that we have probably got about 60,000 teachers on our books – you know lawfully and officially,” he said.

The unions have agreed to cooperate with Coltart to produce an audit of teachers; and Coltart has already appealed to western donor countries for more than $400 million in assistance to stabilize education in Zimbabwe over the next six months.

“But that gives you some idea of the extent of the crisis; almost half a billion dollars is required just to stabilize the education system at this juncture,” Coltart said.

Coltart adds that to get education back to its former glory in Zimbabwe will take one billion dollars a year, money he says will be hard to find.

Diplomatic sources confirm that existing policies toward providing funding to Zimbabwe have not changed. Countries like the United States will continue to fund humanitarian programs, but will not bail out the unity government, nor offer development assistance until all abductees are released, progress is made toward restoring the rule of law, and a comprehensive macro-economic policy framework is worked out.

Zimbabwe has also appealed to the Southern Africa Development Community for $2 billion in emergency assistance funding. SADC plans a summit this month to discuss Zimbabwe’s needs, and may adopt a plan to fund at least part of that.

But Coltart acknowledges handouts are not a long-term solution and that, before too long, Zimbabwe will have to take significant steps to get its economy up and running again. He notes that if the mining and agricultural sectors could be re-invigorated, it would go a long way toward achieving that goal.

Sunday Mail
1 March 2009
From Bulawayo Bureau

SOME headmasters are allegedly taking advantage of the absence of teachers who skipped the country to cash in on their vouchers, it has emerged.

Teachers were awarded the US$100 vouchers while the Government tries to source more funds early this month.

According to impeccable sources, some headmasters were keeping the vouchers for their own use after some teachers who had gone to seek greener pastures abroad failed to come and collect their vouchers.

A teacher from a high school in Bulawayo who requested anonymity said most of them had gone to demand their vouchers from the headmaster and were told stories time and again.

“What is surprising is that all our papers are in order but our vouchers are not there. What have they done to the vouchers, because we know the vouchers got into the hands of the headmaster?

“In the meantime the headmasters are busy living lavish lives while we starve instead of giving us our money,” he said.

The voucher system will cease with effect from March 2009, as payment will be made directly into foreign currency accounts, which the teachers opened.

In an interview with Sunday News yesterday, the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Senator David Coltart, warned headmasters engaging in such behaviour that the full wrath of the law would descend on them.

“I was not aware that such an activity was taking place. However if that is the case, then these individuals should be reported to the nearest regional education office. It is a criminal offence to do that.

“If the reports are correct, I assure you the full wrath of the law will descend upon such headmasters,” said Senator Coltart.

The Washington Post
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 28, 2009

HARARE, Zimbabwe — On many weekdays last year, Kundai Kanyemba, 16, donned his high school uniform, sat in the library and studied textbooks titled “Geography Today,” “Focus on English” and “General Mathematics,” tattered volumes he hoped would prepare him for year-end exams. There was no one to ask whether he had selected the right books — teachers were on strike because their salaries had become pittances.

This year, Kundai has not attended school at all, like many Zimbabwean children. Half of public schools are closed, while teachers at others have returned only if parents pay fees in U.S. dollars, which Kundai’s family cannot afford. Last year’s exams remain uncorrected, preventing him from starting the next grade anyway. So Kundai spends days watching soccer matches and missing the “very, very fascinating” chemistry experiments he did when he had teachers.

“It’s a basic right to go to school,” the soft-spoken boy said. “Children should go to school.”
As recently as the 1990s, Zimbabwe’s public education system was considered the best in sub-Saharan Africa, producing a literacy rate that still hovers around 90 percent. But the system is now on the brink of collapse, and the new unity government says rescuing it is one of its most immediate challenges.

A decade of economic decline and skyrocketing inflation has gutted education coffers, leaving schools devoid of desks and chalk and driving teachers to quit for better opportunities. School attendance fell to about 20 percent last year, the United Nations says, and experts warn that a society that prizes learning is being transformed into one in which children see that street skills bring more prosperity than degrees do.

“In the long term, education is the only thing that will drive this country. . . . This is a serious threat,” said Tsitsi Singizi, a UNICEF spokeswoman in Harare, the capital. “If we just have loads of children who won’t be able to access education, they’ll just sit at home and think it’s normal.”

Zimbabwe’s teachers unions agreed this week to return to work Monday, citing the $100 government allowances issued to civil servants for February and government pledges to address their demands. But they want salaries comparable to those in South Africa — at least $1,200 a month, said Oswald Madziva of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. Their most recent pay was worth about $2, he said.

But returning teachers to the classroom will hardly repair the system. According to the union, about half of Zimbabwe’s 120,000-strong teaching force has left, most of them moving to other nations. So class sizes, now averaging 50 students, will remain bloated, Madziva said.

One former high school math teacher, Leonard Makhankhula, said he would not be lured back until teachers got housing benefits, not to mention classroom supplies. He quit in 2007, after the black-market trading he was doing to supplement his earnings too often prompted him to abandon lessons to go make a deal.

“It’s pathetic,” said Makhankhula, 39. “You look at children and they are innocent souls. Other people have made their mistakes, and they are doing it at the expense of innocent souls.”

The new education minister, Senator David Coltart of the Movement for Democratic Change, likens the situation to a postwar zone and said in an interview that more than $400 million is needed to begin to rebuild the system. The Finance Ministry, he said, had already set aside $4 million to pay teachers to correct last year’s dust-gathering exams. He said he hopes foreign donors wary of giving to a government headed by the man who plundered Zimbabwe’s coffers, President Robert Mugabe, might give directly to the education department.

“If all our revenue flows have to come from our end, it’s going to take years,” Coltart said in his office in the dingy Education Ministry, which he said has not had running water for four months.

While costly private schools remain world-class and moderately priced religious schools are managing, the public schools that educate about 95 percent of students spent just 18 cents per pupil last year, down from about $6 in 1991, according to a recent U.S. Embassy report.

One high school history teacher in Harare described what she and other teachers call their “floating pool” of 20 aged textbooks, which rotates from class to class and is used by 240 students. School toilets, she said, function only because parents paid to drill a borehole; city water long ago stopped flowing. Coltart said the “vast majority” of students have no desks.

And last year, many had no teachers — leaving students, in some cases, to teach themselves.
Two years ago, Lovemore Kuzomunhu, 19, had teachers for just two of his four classes. So Kuzomunhu, a star pupil, and his physics classmates gave each other lessons. He taught forces and electronics, using textbooks he bought from street dealers.

Kuzomunhu finished high school last year. But with no exam results and therefore no degree, he is now teaching an 80-student math class at his alma mater. Administrators seem to trust him, he said; none has ever stopped by to assess his skills.

“It’s very difficult to start on your own,” Kuzomunhu, who lives in the southern Harare suburb of Chitungwiza, said of his decision to teach this year. “You don’t know if it’s wrong or if it’s right.”

The schooling that has continued survives on donations from international charities and Zimbabwean parents’ steadfast dedication to education. Many scrimp to send their children to bare-bones academies known as “private colleges,” which charge about $40 a month per subject. Last year, many paid striking teachers $5 to give their children one private lesson.

This year, with government permission, parents associations at many public schools drew up school budgets and determined fees — typically $50 to $150 per pupil for each four-month term — sufficient to attract teachers and buy toilet paper, chalk and gas for the school bus. Many offered incentives to the teachers, such as sugar and oil, or, in rural areas, chickens and goats.

But those fees are out of reach for many Zimbabweans. On a recent afternoon in a township on the western edge of Harare, a tiny and barefoot Michael Muchuchu, 14, leaned against a tree in his front yard, waving at friends passing by in khaki uniforms and striped ties on their way to school.

The $25 term fee was too much, said his aunt, Petronella Muchuchu, 34, a security guard who said she made 150 trillion Zimbabwean dollars last month, “which doesn’t even buy you a loaf of bread.”
At a meeting, she said, parents decided students who did not pay would be sent home.

“They say, ‘Take them somewhere else,’ ” she said. “But there’s no other place to take them.”

An aspiring electrician, Michael seemed beset by a sort of malaise.

“Uh, nothing?” he said, describing what he had been doing on this Thursday morning. “We don’t have a TV. Books, I don’t have any.”

A few blocks away, about a third of the student body was present at the high school Michael should have been attending. In one classroom, 11 second-year math students worked on an exercise with no teacher in sight.

Nearly 20 teachers sat chatting in the staff room or soaking up the mid-morning sun on outdoor benches.

“Coming doesn’t mean we have started working in the real sense of the word work,” said Preston Pundo, a geography and woodwork instructor, who said he had been paid $50 so far, short of the $300 monthly salary the parent association promised each teacher. “It’s only a matter of setting students on some work, and then we idle around wondering where we would get the money to survive.”

In downtown Harare, Kundai also wondered about his future, which he has determined will be “very bleak” if he does not get his exam results and return to school. But where would the money come from? His mother is dead, he said, and a mysterious illness caused his father’s leg to swell so enormously that he had stopped working as a taxi driver.

Considering the circumstances, Kundai thinks he did well on the tests, particularly on a history question about the Treaty of Versailles. He is not so sure about math — that textbook, he discovered on test day, was too advanced.

“It was very unfortunate,” he said. “You can’t really do math by yourself and expect to be excellent.”

Special correspondent Darlington Majonga contributed to this report.

The Herald
28 February 2009

THE June 2008 Ordinary and Advanced Level results are ready and the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council is urging candidates to collect them from their schools or other centres.

Zimsec director Mr Happy Ndanga yesterday said the results had been sent to Zimsec provincial offices from where the schools would collect them.

Mr Ndanga urged Zimsec regional managers to facilitate the collection of the results.

The results were supposed to have been released in November last year but were delayed as a result of a number of challenges facing Zimsec that include the lack of adequate examination processing equipment and manpower.

The late announcement of the 2008 examination fees also contributed to the delay. Marking of the November examinations was in progress while the processing of the Grade 7 national tests was at an advanced stage and results were set to be released soon.

The Grade 7 examinations began on October 27 last year and the Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations started on November 3.

Traditionally, Grade 7 examination results are announced early December to give children ample time to secure Form 1 places. Ordinary and Advanced Level November examination markers this week responded overwhelmingly to Government’s call for them to report for the second and final phase of marking the 2008 examinations.

This followed indications by the Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture David Coltart that markers are going to be paid in US dollars or South African rands.

Treasury has already disbursed some money for the markers’ allowances. The ministry has held meetings with the donor community and asked for financial assistance to cover the marking costs and to revamp the education sector. Over US$400 million is required to revitalise the country’s education sector hard hit by the effects of illegal sanctions imposed by the West.

The Chronicle
Comment
27 February 2009

THE Government should consider calling back professionals who are living in the Diaspora, as the availability of skilled human resources plays a pivotal role in the process of rebuilding the economy.

The Inclusive Government has put its main emphasis on reviving the economy, as the best way to improve the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. As we write, the government is busy mobilising resources. Several meetings have been held with the donor community and this week, finance ministers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met to come up with a rescue package for Zimbabwe.

In our lead story, we reveal that SADC has pledged a US$2 billion rescue package for the retail sector, education, health, municipal services and some infrastructure.

Although the Prime Minister, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, last week estimated that at least US$5 billion was required, the SADC finance ministers have agreed on a figure of US$2 billion for the next 10 months.
The achievements of the Inclusive Government so far have been impressive. The Government has convinced teachers to return to work leading to opening of schools next week. The financial assistance the country is receiving from SADC and other donors will go a long way in reviving the business sector.

However, we are worried that the development process might be impeded by shortages of skilled manpower. The brain drain has seen our highly qualified personnel, whose education and training have cost the country greatly in terms of both time and money, leave for better opportunities elsewhere.
We have lost a number of professionals in sectors such as health, education, finance and industry. These people are key in reviving the economy. Money on its own can not revive the economy. We need skilled personnel to implement Government programmes.

There are many Zimbabwean professionals in the Diaspora but most of them are skeptical about returning home to join their countrymen in rebuilding the economy. It is therefore, the responsibility of the Government to assure them that things are changing for the better.

We know for a fact that most of them are not happy where they are. Some have even abandoned their professions to take up menial jobs just to earn a living. Most of them are keen on returning home, as it is not the years one has lived in the Diaspora that count but it is the quality of life one is living.
Of course, not everybody can return home but for those who are tied by business or other concerns, they can still contribute to the growth of our economy by continuing to support private investments and helping to woo investors to Zimbabwe. They should be true ambassadors and help rebuild the image of the country.

We applaud the Minister of Education, Sport, Art and Culture, Mr David Coltart, for inviting teachers who left in the past two years to report at their work stations with no questions asked. We therefore urge other ministers to assess skilled manpower requirements in their sectors and extend an olive branch to our professionals in the Diaspora and locally.

As Martin Luther King once said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Let us invite our professionals to come back home and help in the rebuilding of our economy.

The Mail and Guardian
MAYA FISHER-FRENCH
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – February 27 2009

Although South Africa can technically afford to give Zimbabwe the R6-billion that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reportedly asked for, it would have to be part of a broader financial bail-out package if South Africa does not want to throw good money after bad.

Yet assistance from other countries has not been forthcoming as potential lenders are not convinced that Zimbabwe is on a real road of change while Robert Mugabe still holds power.

Stanlib economist Kevin Lings says the national budget does make provision for a contingency reserve, which this year is budgeted at, coincidentally, R6-billion. This money is put aside each year in case of a natural disaster such as floods where government needs to provide urgent assistance to its citizens.

Lings says government did indicate last year that this reserve could be used for other types of disasters when it considered using the reserve as an emergency bail-out for Eskom. Zimbabwe’s case could be argued as a disaster, which has a significant impact on South Africa’s financial and political stability, but this would leave South Africa short, should natural disasters hit our shores.

Lings says a figure of R6-billion is not significant, accounting for only 0.25% of GDP and pushing our budgeted deficit from 3.9% to 4.15% of GDP. However, it could impact on South Africa’s cost of funding. This year the South African government will be going to market to raise R185-billion. Given the scarcity of capital globally, any additional borrowing could increase the total costs of South Africa’s funding needs. “South Africa can afford this loan; the question is whether this will be a continual drain,” says Lings.

Efficient Group economist Dawie Roodt says that for Zimbabwe to recover, the country would need a significant injection of cash and that South Africa could not go this route alone. “Others will have to chip in as well, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and even the International Monetary Fund [IMF],” says Roodt, who adds that this will only happen if the political solution is accepted.

The US and Europe have already stated that they would want further evidence that the rule of law and democracy are in place. With the Zimbabwean government using a constitutional loophole to keep MDC politician and deputy agricultural minister designate Roy Bennett in jail after being granted bail, it is yet to demonstrate a respect for the law.

Although details of what Zimbabwe has requested from South Africa are not official, reports have suggested that the R6-billion request would be used to cover the Zimbabwean government’s obligations to civil servants and other essential items for the next six months. If R6-billion would only stave off the bills for six months, the magnitude of financial assistance will be far greater. Tsvangirai said before his meeting last Friday with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel that Zimbabwe would need in the region of $5-billion to help fund the economy’s recovery. Donor organisations estimate that figure to be closer to$10-billion.

Roodt says that follow-up loans will be needed and it is these loans that would start to impact on South Africa’s credit rating and financial stability.
•

Lings says that a normal channel for a small country requiring financial assistance would be the IMF, but Zimbabwe probably sees its African neighbour as a friendlier creditor. “There would be financial and political conditions attached to an IMF loan,” says Lings, who adds these would include regular report-backs and visits by IMF teams to ensure compliance. “At this stage these conditions may be too onerous for Zimbabwe.” South Africa as a soft touch will not go down well with South African citizens, who would rather see the money spent at home to deal with our own unemployment and poverty crisis.

It is clear that a more detailed and fully comprehensive package, which includes other lenders, would have to be in place before it would be financially sensible for South Africa to sign off on any financial assistance, yet there may be political pressure for the South African government to show its support and legitimise the Zimbabwean unity government by putting our money where its mouth is.

During his budget address earlier this month Manuel said South Africa stood ready to coordinate financial support for Zimbabwe once Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister. Manuel made it clear that South Africa would use its influence to co-opt other countries into a rescue package.

According to Reuters, Manuel said: “There are a number of countries that stand ready to assist; we have to lean on them to help the Zimbabweans deal with the worst ravages.” He also added that he had raised the issue with some of the G7 countries and hoped to put together a larger financial package. This week the treasury declined to comment on a financial package, stating that it would require firm proposals to be put to the national treasury.

Apart from political pressure, South Africa has a vested economic interest in the recovery of Zimbabwe. Most of the products and service would be sourced from South Africa, such as fertiliser and plant equipment. South African firms would be involved in the re-building of infrastructure.

But South Africa will have to tread this path very carefully. Already questions have been raised about the misuse of the R300-million agricultural aid package South Africa gave to Zimbabwe last year. Zimbabwe should not make the mistake of thinking that South Africa will hand over money unless there are guarantees that these funds will be used in a proper manner and not to buy Mercedes-Benzes for ministers, as has already happened this week.

Going into an election year, government will have to convince South Africans that taxpayers’ money is better spent in Zimbabwe than on our own poverty alleviation needs. The rise in xenophobic violence would suggest that many South Africans will have little sympathy for Zimbabwe’s woes, although the hope that millions of Zimbabweans would return to their country, if it stabilised, could provide the government with an angle to sell the deal.

More ministers than offices
Last week Zimbabwe swore in its biggest government ever. When fully constituted, the new government will have 71 members.

This week, new ministers received new Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans and Nissan SUVs. Government officials refuse to reveal how much will be spent on the ministers. Further spending is also planned on vehicles for 300 members of Parliament.

The ministers know first-hand how deep in the red Zimbabwe is — they arrived at government complexes to take up their posts to find there was not enough office space for all of them. Those who did get offices had no furniture, stationery or staff.

A senior Western diplomat in Harare said aid to Zimbabwe’s new unity government is on condition that reserve bank Governor Gideon Gono is sacked and more substantial political reforms are made.

Sweden’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Sten Rylander, on Tuesday said donors wanted Gono replaced first as they could not trust him with aid. Rylander claims Gono “diverted” $400 000 his country had given to Save the Children for humanitarian work in northern Zimbabwe. He also accuses Gono of having misappropriated funding from the Global Fund for HIV/Aids.

“We cannot just release funds; we are waiting for sound policy changes, the rule of law and sound macroeconomic policies,” he said.

“We are waiting for policy change; we cannot rush in with aid. The government has to deal with the leadership in the central bank and that has to be done urgently.”

Under Zimbabwean law, only President Robert Mugabe can fire a central bank chief.

Other diplomats who spoke to the Mail & Guardian are also concerned about the bloated size of the new government, which at 71 is the biggest Zimbabwe has ever had. Donors also want to see an independent anti-corruption commission set up to check graft before any substantial financial aid is granted.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai appeared at the weekend to be addressing these concerns, saying on Sunday: “I wish to announce it today and now that our government will not tolerate any form of corruption. Corrupt and unscrupulous business people will be sought out and will be prosecuted in their numbers.”

On Western scepticism of the new government, Tsvangirai said they should “accept that Zimbabweans have a right to choose and they have decided that the inclusive government is the only way out”.

Tsvangirai has estimated the long-term cost of rebuilding Zimbabwe at up to $5-billion. A coalition of Western donors, set up two years ago to prepare for a transition, estimates that Zimbabwe needs up to $10-billion to stabilise its economy. This includes funding for reinvestment in infrastructure, restoring farm production and supporting its currency.

There is no concrete information from the Zimbabwe government itself on what aid has been pledged in total and how much of it has already been received. Gono says the country has secured $500-million in credit lines from international financiers, who he has declined to name.

Gono has said, however, that the financiers are worried by apparent conflicting signals on policy from leaders of the coalition government. He said the credit lines had been extended after Zimbabwe instituted the currency and economic reforms announced in January.

Patrick Chinamasa, who as acting finance minister last month presented a $1.9-billion national budget for 2009, said Zimbabwe had received $200-million in budgetary support from “international cooperating partners”, whom he also did not identify.

Since January, Zimbabwe has allowed the use of foreign currencies across the economy, authorising US dollar trade on the stock market and in the informal economy. Controls on the repatriation of earnings by foreign investors have been lifted as have restrictions on the sale of farm produce and gold.

Although there has been some support for these reforms from donors, there has not been enough to encourage real aid to start flowing.

Donors are, however, more open to direct support to humanitarian sectors such as health and education. David Coltart, the education minister, told the M&G that he needs urgent support of $438-million for the next six months. But he concedes that “in the current economic climate and in the context of world recession, that is a completely unattainable figure”. He was confident, however, of raising $80-million to pay teachers.

There is little support from either Zanu-PF or the MDC for adoption of the rand. Leaders are wary of having to cede economic policy and political independence to South Africa. A senior Mugabe aide said adopting the rand would turn Zimbabwe into “a giant supermarket of South Africa, the way many countries in the rand zone are currently”.

Tsvangirai himself has said he supports the existing policy allowing the circulation of multiple currencies over adoption of the rand. — Jason Moyo

The Herald
27 February 2009

THE Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture has ordered schools not to turn away children for failing to pay fees while awaiting a Cabinet decision next week on recommendations on a new fee structure.

In an interview yesterday, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart confirmed the development.

“I met with senior management in the ministry and we agreed on a proposal to be presented to Cabinet on Tuesday,” he said.

Asked on the nature of the proposal, Minister Coltart said: “Suffice to say it seeks to strike a balance on the need to raise money for schools and the need to cater for the disadvantaged members of society.”

He said he hoped Cabinet would accept his ministry’s recommendations and resolve the issue of school fees as a matter of urgency.

The minister said Government’s policy on school fees was clear.

“Our policy is clear. We do not want children turned away from school because of non-payment of fees at this juncture.”

Schools have demanded huge amounts, in hard currency, from parents as fees for the first term.

The amounts vary, with some as high as US$2 500 a term.

Many parents have since transferred their children from such schools after failing to raise the amounts demanded while others have sued the schools concerned.

Last week, Government struck a deal with teachers’ organisations for their members to return to work by March 2 to allow the resumption of normal classes for the 2009 school calen- dar.

According to the agreement, all schools should be fully functional by March 9.

Minister Coltart is expected to make recommendations to the Ministry of Public Service for the granting of amnesty to teachers who absconded from service over the past two years for economic reasons.