The Zimbabwe Independent

By Herbert Moyo

June 5 2015

EVELINE Girls High, a former Group A school situated in the heart of Bulawayo has, among a host of challenges, is reeling from a serious shortage of learning resources while the teachers’ morale, like elsewhere, especially at government schools, is low due to poor remuneration.

The situation has been exacerbated by Education minister Lazarus Dokora’s decision to ban monetary incentives.
Students share textbooks and in the case of the history department, it is common to see as many as 40 students sharing a single textbook.

For a government that prides itself for its victory in a protracted liberation war against the Rhodesian settlers of British origin, it is ironic that a good number of the books at the school are a throwback to the Rhodesian era — complete with the date stamps to prove it.

“We know very well that some of the books were inspired by the colonialist historiography and as such the information they contain may in some cases have been replaced by new thinking.

“Retaining such books is therefore unhelpful, especially in the context of the current demands of the Zimsec history syllabus,” said a Bulawayo teacher who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation.

“We need books and other learning materials.”

A similar situation prevails at Townsend Girls High and Luveve High — all government schools which date back to the colonial era which are, however, comparatively better resourced compared to the former Group B schools, especially those in the rural areas.

These are challenges which need the urgent intervention of Dokora’s ministry before they can even think of turning their attention to other initiatives such as introducing the teaching of a whole host of foreign languages in the country’s schools.

Dokora is fiddling while schools burn.

Schools such as Maqaqeni Primary School (40km north-east of Bulawayo in the Ntabazinduna area of Matabeleland North), Hope Fountain (where President Robert Mugabe taught before Independence, two kilometres from Bulawayo’s Waterford suburb) and Umguza (two kilometres outside Bulawayo) have dilapidated classrooms, staff and textbook shortages.

It is not uncommon to find a single teacher juggling the teaching of two grades in the same classroom.

“It is such challenges that need to be addressed before we can think of introducing these foreign languages. The truth is that we cannot afford such luxuries when we cannot even ensure that students have adequate as well as the right textbooks for the subjects that are already on offer. We are just spreading ourselves far too thin,” said another teacher.

In addition, there is the story of Binga (Matabeleland North)’s poor education infrastructure which has already been told many times before.

The infrastructure has remained unchanged over years for the district whose estimated population is 200 000 people but has 80 primary schools and less than 40 secondary ones.

Many of the teachers are untrained especially in primary schools, and the limited number of secondary schools vis-à-vis primary schools contributes to discontinued education for students who graduate from primary schools.

Thus many children are forced into exploitative labour and gender inequality despite strong advocacy against child exploitation by non-governmental organisations that include Unicef.

Against such a background, Dokora has announced plans for the compulsory teaching of Chinese, Swahili, French, and Portuguese in Zimbabwean schools.

“The draft framework for primary and secondary schools will guide learning and teaching during the next seven years and it will include expression to national efforts as reflected in ZimAsset (the country’s economic blueprint), the constitution, regional and international treaties to which the country is signatory,” Dokora said two weeks ago while announcing the decision.

One only has to set foot in a classroom at Eveline and experience first-hand the challenges teachers have in teaching the subjects already on offer in the Zimsec curriculum to realise that this new scheme is premature.

Apart from the personnel, infrastructure and resource challenges cited above, government appears to be biting more than it can chew as it still has to implement other recently adopted policies including the teaching of Tonga, Kalanga, Venda and other local languages besides Ndebele and Shona.

Little has been done to acquire resources and personnel to implement that decision save for recruiting a small number of students to train in the languages.

There are currently 250 students being trained at Great Zimbabwe University for the teaching of other local languages — but this figure is a drop in the ocean given the thousands of schools around the country which will require such personnel.

Moreover, the ministry is still faced with a huge challenge of serious shortages of both teachers and textbooks for the subjects that are already in the curriculum, to say nothing of the general poor infrastructure in schools.

Against this backdrop of more pressing needs in the education sector, many hope the decision on foreign languages was just posturing on the part of Dokora who appears to enjoy the media spotlight.

Dokora is the same minister who has already come under fire after removing teachers’ incentives which helped boost morale by cushioning against poor salaries.

Last year, he also made puzzling decisions to bar extra lessons for students and the results were there for all to see — a 13,23% drop in the 2014 June Ordinary ‘O’ Level school examinations pass rate when compared to the 2013 results.

As noted by Takavafira Zhou, president of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Dokora needs to consult more and actually implement recommendations at the proper time instead of acting unilaterally.

“Instead of steering the ship along the recovery path crafted by the previous Minister of Education, David Coltart, the new ministry regime erroneously believes that intelligence resides at Head Office and operates through unilateral policies formulated without teachers’ and stakeholders’ input, let alone consultation,” Zhou said.

Since 2000 Zimbabwe has had to grapple with multiple and complex challenges due to the country’s social and political instability amid economic implosion.

Reaching a meltdown in 2008, the meltdown left everything, including education, in tatters.

New Zimbabwe.com

May 19 2015

VICE PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is a “callous and intolerant man”, the opposition MDC-T has said.

Party’s spokesperson Obert Gutu was responding to media reports that quoted Mnangagwa telling a weekend rally in Kwekwe that the MDC-T is a “satanic organisation” whose members needed deliverance.

“It is very unfortunate that a person who is the country’s vice president would utter these kinds of irresponsible and inciting remarks about a political party that is a legitimate and lawful organization in Zimbabwe.

“Ours is an organization with millions of supporters and followers and such kinds of crude and irresponsible remarks are a direct cause for political intolerance and violence in the country.

What Mnangagwa said in Mbizo at the weekend is not the kind of statement one would expect from someone who is not only the country vice president but also Justice Minister,” said Gutu.

Gutu warned Mnangagwa to “watch his tongue” given his status in society.

“This kind of statement is a clear indication of the fact that Mnangagwa is an inherently violent man with a loose and irresponsible tongue.

As the MDC we are fully aware of his direct link to the Gukurahundi genocide in the 1980s and as such he is a callous man with a tainted political reputation. If anything it is him who is satanic and needs repentance. The people of Zimbabwe need to pray for this lost soul,” the MDC-T spokesperson said.

Gutu said Mnangagwa’s utterances were a continuation of the ethnic intolerance within the ruling party given President Mugabe’s recent “anti-Kalanga slur”.

“We also see a link between these irresponsible remarks with the recent anti-ethnic remarks regarding the Kalanga people by Mugabe and that is the reason why we have argued for years that the faction ridden Zanu PF party is a threat to national security,” said Gutu.

Mnangagwa, appointed vice president late last year, is seen as Mugabe’s heir apparent as the 91 year-old leader battles age and ill-health.

The VP is reported to have told thousands of Zanu PF supporters at a rally in the Midlands city of Kwekwe that they needed to confess their sins after voting the MDC-T in 2013

“I am happy that you have come here today to confess to God that you have sinned because of the unholy alliance of moving… with sinners in the MDC. If you are here supporting Zanu-PF, your sins have been cleansed,” the country’s number two reportedly said.

Former education minister David Coltart said in a tweet: “This is not the first time that [VP Emmerson] Mnangagwa has parodied the scriptures.”

The human rights lawyer said that Mnangagwa had also parodied the Bible around the time of the Gukurahundi killings in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when up to 20 000 Zimbabweans were killed. Mnangagwa was state security minister at the time.

A South African news agency quoted Jeffrey Smith of the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights in Washington saying that “For many years Zanu-PF leaders have relied on this kind of hateful rhetoric. It’s a tried-and-true strategy.

“It’s meant to get inside the psyche of the people and it’s clearly in violation of a number of SADC’s own principles meant to ensure free and fair elections.”

In 2011, Genocide Watch named Mnangagwa as a genocidist for his role in the Gukurahundi massacres which killed about 20 000 Ndebele speaking people in the 1980s.

News24

Correspondent

May 18 2015

Harare – Zimbabwe’s vice president has reportedly told rally-goers in the southern town of Kwekwe that they will be cleansed of their sins if they vote for President Robert Mugabe’s party.

Former education minister David Coltart said in a tweet: “This is not the first time that [VP Emmerson] Mnangagwa has parodied the scriptures.”

Coltart said that Mnangagwa had also parodied the Bible around the time of the Gukurahundi killings in Matabeleland in the 1980s, when up to 20 000 Zimbabweans were killed. Mnangagwa was state security minister at the time.

The privately-owned Standard newspaper on Sunday quoted Mnangagwa as saying in Kwekwe’s Mbizo suburb, where a parliamentary by-election would be held next month: “I am happy that you have come here today to confess to God that you have sinned because of the unholy alliance of moving… with sinners in the MDC.”

“If you are here supporting Zanu-PF, your sins have been cleansed,” the paper quoted Mnangagwa as saying.

Jeffrey Smith of the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights in Washington told a News24 correspondent on Monday: “For many years Zanu-PF leaders have relied on this kind of hateful rhetoric. It’s a tried-and-true strategy.

“It’s meant to get inside the psyche of the people and it’s clearly in violation of a number of SADC’s own principles meant to ensure free and fair elections,” Smith said in a telephone interview.

The ruling party is campaigning for by-elections in 17 constituencies on June 10. The independent Zimbabwe Peace Project says there has been “intensifying violence” in one of the constituencies, Hurungwe West.

Although the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is boycotting the polls, Zanu-PF still face a challenge from candidates supporting ousted vice president Joice Mujuru and others with links to the MDC who have opted to stand as independents.

Mnangagwa, 68, was only appointed vice president in December. He is rumoured now to be best-placed to succeed the ageing Mugabe.

But Mugabe has not confirmed this, and Zimbabwe’s information minister, Jonathan Moyo, said in a BBC interview broadcast on Monday: “He is an appointed vice president. [Mugabe] did not appoint him so he could succeed him.”

“Power in this country is acquired through a democratic election,” Moyo said.

On Twitter, Coltart quoted Mnangagwa as saying in 1983: “Blessed are they who follow the path of the government laws for their days on earth will be increased.”

The Standard

Opinion

May 17 2015

VICE-President Phelekezela Mphoko is quite a curious character who appears unable to live without stirring controversy.

Almost every time he opens his mouth in the discharge of duty as bearer of the second highest office on the land, Mphoko lands himself neck-deep in controversy.

What makes his behaviour disturbing is that his pronouncements cannot always be blamed on the slip of a tongue, as happened two days ago when he let go a boob, chanting a slogan exalting former Vice-President Joice Mujuru when he meant to sing praises for First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Mphoko is in the habit of making disturbing statements that have raised a lot of questions about his character and his suitability for office.

Last week, he repeated his controversial claim that the massacre of thousands of civilians by government forces in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces in the early 80s, was a “Western project”.

Mphoko said, without giving any supporting evidence that Mugabe who described Gukurahundi as “a moment of madness”, had nothing to do with the atrocities that were perpetrated by the North Korean trained 5 Brigade.

He piled blame on unnamed foreign powers without explaining what form the “Western conspiracy” took or how it led our own government to unleash terror and mayhem on its own people, including Mphoko’s former boss the late VP Joshua Nkomo.

Last week he also hogged the limelight for reminding an overzealous Pyschomotor minister Josaya Hungwe that he was not junior to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Hungwe had introduced him as second Vice-President.

As a diplomat, Mphoko should know the importance of keeping his mouth shut, even if he holds strong views about a certain subject. Denying that Gukurahundi ever happened in Zimbabwe is “historical revisionism at its worst,” former Education minister David Coltart observed recently. Such an unwarranted statement is an insult to victims and to families that lost their loved ones when an estimated 20 000 innocent people were killed. Mphoko’s denial can therefore never be helpful in a country that is desperate for national healing.

As Vice-President, Mphoko should strive to heal wounds rather than to rub salt to the injury. We expect him to show leadership rather than to be perpetually seized with matters that have a potential to divide Zimbabweans.

The Standard

By Richard Chidza

May 17 2015

Is dictatorship part of Zimbabwe’s political DNA? That is the question that emerged after former Education minister David Coltart used his Twitter account to accuse the ruling Zanu PF of “behaving like the Rhodesian Front”.

“I wonder if leaders in Zanu PF remember that they are acting precisely as the Rhodesian Front [RF] did from 1963 onwards. In fact they learnt it from them,” said Coltart.

Asked to elaborate on this, the ex-cabinet minister was unapologetic.

“It is not a trait confined to political parties alone; it is now a Zimbabwean trait that goes back to Cecil John Rhodes. I find it absurd that the country was named Rhodesia after a living human being. We treat our leaders as demigods. It is now part of the Zimbabwean DNA,” he said.

“Once Ian Smith took charge of the RF and subsequently government in 1965 as Prime Minister, it became hard, even unfathomable to think of anybody else as leader beyond him. There was reluctance within the white community at the time that any other leader would come to power and that is why he was effectively in power for 15 years from 1963 to 1978,” Coltart said.

“People would never countenance another leader. Once Tsvangirai [Morgan] became the leader of the MDC it became difficult to think of anyone after him. We could not accept that there can be change”.

Coltart, who worked closely with Tsvangirai before following then MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube after the 2005 break-up, said the RF used a variety of laws to imprison people who were legitimately raising issues against it.

“Now in the past 35 years we have seen the same from Zanu PF. There is a list of individuals who have opposed President Robert Mugabe and fallen foul of his regime, including the man who would become his deputy Joshua Nkomo who was at one time charged with treason for daring to challenge the dear leader,” said Coltart.

Axed Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, who is now part of the leadership of a group of the former liberation struggle stalwarts coalescing to oppose Mugabe, said Zimbabweans were democratic but were gripped by fear.

“Since the Smith regime, Zimbabweans have been conditioned to torture, imprisonments, murder and disappearances as a way to force them to comply with the existing authority at any given time. Smith used a security machinery to fight a war but unfortunately we inherited the same apparatus in a supposed democratic society,” Gumbo said.

“We have the Joint Operations Command [JOC] that has torture chambers in Goromonzi and other areas where people are tortured and killed and this does not make them natural dictators. We are like any other people who crave for true independence, freedom of speech, assembly and association, but we have been denied these fundamental rights.”

The JOC, a conglomeration of the country’s security apparatus seen as the nerve centre of Mugabe’s ability to control civilians and deal ruthlessly with opponents of his regime, has been accused of a litany of atrocities including the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s as well as the violence that rocked the country during the 2008 run-off elections boycotted by Tsvangirai.

Gumbo said Mugabe has abused the state machinery to entrench power, criminalising opposition to his rule in the process.
“You can remember the detention of the likes of Dumiso Dabengwa, Lookout Masuku, Joshua Nkomo fleeing the country, Tsvangirai, Ndabaningi Sithole and now it is Joice Mujuru, all accused of trying to remove Mugabe. This cannot however be turned around to say all Zimbabweans have dictatorial tendencies, but it is individual chancers who steal the people’s struggle to benefit from patronage,” he said.

Political analyst, Eldred Masunungure was more scathing, concluding that the current crop of opposition leaders and parties could not be trusted with the governance of the country.

“I subscribe to the thinking that the current opposition leaders should not be allowed anywhere near power. I am disappointed by the state of the opposition movement in the country,” Masunungure said.

“When people have tasted power, it is difficult to relinquish it because it is like money. The more you have it, the more you want it, to consolidate and expand it. The lust for power is unquenchable and those that have it want to keep it forever.”

He said the problem stemmed from a dearth of functional institution and the failure of constitutionalism.

“The MDC constitution was clandestinely changed and now we have a party with a ‘T’. The sad thing is we are actually happy to be associated with such a party,” Masunungure said.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist with critics accusing the veteran nationalist of mimicking lock-stock and barrel his erstwhile foe Smith, the last leader of colonial Rhodesia.

On the other hand, Tsvangirai has presided over the break-up of the opposition with two damaging splits inside 10 years under his watch. In the non-governmental sector, new political entrant Lovemore Madhuku, who turned former constitutional lobby group the NCA into a political party, stood on as leader way beyond his term limit despite opposition to his leadership.

News24

Correspondent

May 15 2015

Harare – A claim from Zimbabwe’s vice president ahead of crucial by-elections next month that President Robert Mugabe had nothing to do with the Gukurahundi killings in the 1980s is “totally appalling”, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said on Friday.

“It is an unmitigated insult to the victims and the survivors of the Gukurahundi genocide for [Vice President Phelekezela] Mphoko to falsely and heartlessly claim that Gukurahundi was a conspiracy by the West,” spokesperson Obert Gutu said in a statement.

Former education minister David Coltart said on Facebook that the comments from Mphoko on Thursday were “historical revisionism at its worst”.

Rights groups say that up to 20 000 people were killed in the Gukurahundi campaign in the southern Matabeleland provinces in Zimbabwe’s worst post-independence atrocity.

Gukurahundi means “the rains that sweep away the chaff”.

Mugabe has previously called the killings – carried out mostly by members of the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade – a “moment of madness” in what is widely seen as a token attempt at an apology.

The memory of the killings and of those brutally murdered is a deep scar on the nation’s psyche.

In comments carried by the official Herald and Chronicle newspapers on Friday, Mphoko insisted the killings were “a Western conspiracy bent on destabilising the newly independent Zimbabwean state”.

Mugabe could not be to blamed for the killings “because he always preached peace and reconciliation”, the Chronicle reported Mphoko as saying.

Voter intimidation

His words sparked immediate outrage.

“It is obvious that you are being used by your party to get support in Matabeleland and Midlands as a whole and I don’t think Zanu [PF – the ruling party] will get majority votes in these provinces,” political activist Sikhumbuzo Moyo wrote in an open letter published on www.bulawayo24.com.

Rights groups warn that tensions and voter intimidation are rising ahead of 17 parliamentary by-elections due on June 10, which Mugabe’s party is determined to win.

A boycott announced by the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC at first made it seem Zanu-PF’s victory was guaranteed in almost all of the seats. But more than 100 independent candidates – some of them previously linked to the MDC – have successfully filed papers to contest these polls.

Voting was already under way on Friday in a separate by-election in Wedza North constituency, in eastern Zimbabwe, the state ZBC broadcaster reported.

Gutu said: “The MDC-T understands that Mphoko is singing for his supper.”

Southern Eye

By Staff Reporter

May 15 2015

INFORMATION minister Jonathan Moyo yesterday resorted to mudslinging after he was asked about vote-buying ahead of by-elections in Tsholotsho North.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority has raised eyebrows by drilling 20 boreholes in Tsholotsho North on the eve of the June 10 polls.

Moyo has been showcasing the boreholes on social media this week provoking questions from his followers, but the minister has been taking no prisoners in his responses.

Former Education minister David Coltart bore the brunt of Moyo’s vitriolic attack after he dared question the government’s record in the 35 years since independence.

Coltart said he was pleased that boreholes were being drilled in Tsholotsho North, but pointed out that the constituency, coveted by Moyo, had in the past been neglected by the government.

“Whilst pleased the people of Tsholotsho are going to get 20 boreholes in anticipation of Jonathan Moyo’s campaign, I question why they were not dug before,” he said on micro-blogging site, Twitter.

Coltart said what Moyo was doing, drilling boreholes ahead of an election, was akin to abuse of office and vote-buying.

“Fact of the matter is that Zanu PF has brutalised and neglected people of Tsholotsho for 35 years and now seeks to win them over with 20 boreholes,” he said.

“We should be asking why it is that the road to Tsholotsho is still so poor, why there are so few ‘A’ Level schools there, why results are so bad.

“In the context of gross underdevelopment and shocking human rights abuse in Tsholotsho in the last 35 years, the promise of 20 boreholes is just a sop.”

But Moyo would have none of it, describing him as a Rhodie and a “bloody racist” who had not accepted “even one year of black rule”.

The Information minister said he did not hate Coltart, but “for an ex-BSAP (British South Africa Police) to say Zimbabwe has had 35 years of misrule is to racially insult black Zimbabweans”.

Moyo received both support and criticism in equal measure, with some asking why a question of governance had been construed to refer to racism.

“It’s how some of these views are expressed,” he shot back.

“To say Zimbabwe has had 35 years of misrule is unacceptable.

“Come on, 35 years of misrule is a definite insult to our whole Independence and I for one won’t accept that rubbish, the claim of 35 years of misrule in Zimbabwe is not a fact, but an opinion which in his case is racist.”

Coltart then accused Moyo, his former Cabinet colleague, of resorting to gutter tactics to avoid the question of misrule.

He said he had also represented a number of nationalists in court, but Moyo cheekily said Coltart had made a lot of money “(mis)representing” them.

There’s no love lost between the two, who almost on a daily basis engage in heated arguments on Twitter.

News24

Correspondent

May 15 2015

Harare – Hours after he urged graduating police officers to step up the fight against white-collar crime, President Robert Mugabe left Zimbabwe again on yet another foreign trip, this time to Mali, the state Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported.

Mugabe, 91, only returned from Russia on Tuesday.

The longtime leader has made 10 trips outside the country since mid-January, at a cost estimated by the privately-owned Standard newspaper on Sunday to be $50m.

Some Zimbabweans have dubbed him the “Visiting Leader”.

Thursday’s trip will see Mugabe attend the signing of a peace deal on Friday between Mali’s Tuareg-led rebels and the government in Bamako, ZBC said.

Reports from Mali said that although a preliminary peace agreement was signed on Thursday, it was not clear if all groups in the rebel Coordination of Azawad Movements alliance will sign the final deal on Friday.

‘Cut down’

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says Mugabe should cut down on his foreign trips. But the ruling Zanu-PF party says the trips are part of his work as current head of the African Union and the regional SADC grouping.

Former education minister David Coltart tweeted this week: “Currently we are spending more on presidential travel than we are on running schools = falling maths & science skills.”

Earlier on Thursday, Mugabe told nearly 700 police officers at a pass-out parade in Harare: “Police training should include advanced computer forensic and other advanced investigative and analytical techniques.”

His comments were screened on the main evening TV news bulletin.

The president was also reported to have said police should investigate “any cases of corruption and abuse of office”.

Top opposition official Elton Mangoma was arrested this week on charges of flouting tender procedures when he was energy minister in a coalition government more than three years ago.

His party believes the charges are politically-motivated.

Financial Gazette

May 14 2015

Despite being rated highly across the region for their contribution to the country’s high literacy rate, Zimbabwean teachers in government institutions are still among the lowly-paid in the region.
Zimbabwean teachers earn around US$400 per month, which ranks them among the lowest paid civil servants in the country.

This is well below the breadline estimate of about US$540 according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe.
The US$540 breadline applies to an average family of five.

This is not the case with Zimbabwe’s neighbours

In South Africa, for instance, the average annual salary for a high school teacher is R153,000 (US$12 000).
South African teachers with less than four years experience earn between R60 000 and R198 000 per year, while teachers with five to nine years experience earn between R80 000 and R230 000 per month.
Experienced professionals with more than 10 years of experience earn up to R280 000 per year in South Africa which is nearly US$23 000 annually.
The Botswana government recently embarked on a recruitment of experienced Zimbabwean science teachers by dangling a monthly salary almost triple what they currently earn here.
Botswana is luring them with an entry level pay ranging from P80 112 (about US$9 228) to P95 748 (about US$11 030) per annum.This translates to between US$769 and US$919 per month excluding allowances. Last year, the Namibian government also did the same, offering Zimbabwean teachers nearly US$1 000 for their services.

David Coltart, former primary and secondary education minister, said the primary aim for government should be to improve teachers’ remuneration.
“Teachers’ salaries are very critical. We have to pay the teachers better salaries and I am glad that the government is aware of this. We need to have attractive salaries for teachers and that should be the principal aim of the government,” said Coltart.

Before independence in 1980, teachers used to be idolised in society because of their status.

But the past three decades have seen the erosion of their status in society.In fact, many of them are wallowing in poverty as the cash-strapped government is struggling to improve their livelihoods.
Teaching used to be a respectable profession where those in it were revered in society because of their status and were the envy of many as their employer was capable of handsomely paying its workers.
Things took a turn for the worst in the early 1990s and since then the profession has become a laughing stock.

Once ranked among the most developed on the continent, the country’s education continues to suffer from a contemporary decline in public funding linked to hyperinflation and economic mismanagement.
Low salaries and poor conditions of service have de-motivated teachers thereby compromising the quality of education.

Since 1999, following the advent of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the strongest opposition to emerge in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, teachers, who make up the bulk of the civil service, have endured the brunt of government’s non-commitment to offering good salaries.

Besides receiving low income, some teachers have been assaulted and others killed especially in rural areas for being percieved followers of the opposition MDC.
Because many of them cannot make ends meet, those who can escape the situation have skipped the country in search for greener pastures.
During the last decade, Zimbabwe has lost an estimated 45 000 teachers to neighbouring countries because of poor salaries and unfavorable conditions of service.
The most painful part is that teachers in the private sector are making a killing, earning almost twice their counterparts in government who hold the same qualifications.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe believes that government is not prioritising the issue of teacher salaries and conditions of service.
“If countries like Lesotho and Swaziland that are producing nothing are affording to pay their teachers up to US$1 000, why can’t Zimbabwe pay salaries in excess of US$540,” he said.
Majongwe accused government of having perfected the art of turning a deaf ear to teachers’ plea.
“We talked of none monetary incentives for teachers which include land for us to build houses. The conditions of service for those in rural areas are bad, they are living like goats and no one is recognising them,” added Majongwe.

Negotiations between government and teacher representative unions have yielded very little results and the welfare of teachers continues to deteriorate.
To augment their poor income, teachers have resorted to carrying out extra lessons for which some charge an average of US$25 per subject for high school students per month while most primary school teachers charge an average of US$30 a month for the four examinable subjects.

Reports have indicated that some teachers are concentrating more on students who attend extra lessons at the expense of those who cannot afford them.
This, some educationists believe, has resulted in a poor pass rate that has been experienced in the country over the years.
Many fear that the obtaining situation could result in the country being overtaken by those African states which used to trail Zimbabwe in so far as education standards are concerned.
Zimbabwe leads Africa in having an adult literacy rate of over 90 percent, which compares favourably to Tunisia’s 87 percent.

New Zimbabwe.com

By Professor Ken Mufuka

May 11 2015

My instructions were very clear; “Please, Professor, write a nonpartisan analysis of the Zimbabwe elections.” When I started writing my story, before the instructions came, my title was; The end of the road. I have decided to keep that title as it fits the story very well.

The first rule of politics is that there are no rules. Cheating is permissible to the extent that the cheater must not be reckless as to endanger the prize, which is power. For this reason, all politicians employ surrogates, who cheat for them. President Ronald Reagan employed William Casey who carried a bag full of money and smoothed Reagan’s way with cash as they went along. Casey was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1982, thus scaring all those who wanted to see him in a jailhouse.

The presidential election of 2001 went to George Bush as a result of cheating in Florida. His brother Jebb was governor. Sixty thousand black votes unfavourable to Bush were deemed unreadable. The Supreme Court, largely appointed by Bush’s father, however, allowed 500 favourable votes in his favour. That action alone changed the history of the United States. Political parties are supposed to prevent cheating before it occurs; otherwise there is no legal system that can prevent a cheating winner from assuming power. In 2011, there was widespread cheating in the Republic of the Congo, but the cheating was regarded by observers as not sufficient to annul the election of Laurent Kabila.

The point I am making here is that we know that Zanu PF was liable to cheat, and we can document that. But it is still the responsibility of the opposition to win the election, and to make sure that cheating is nipped in the bud. In the case of the MDC-T, the opposition was caught napping, a situation which was exacerbated by the gullibility of the leadership in the MDC-T.
Here are two examples of their naivety. Morgan Tsvangirai is on record for praising President Robert Mugabe. “President Mugabe does not make any decision without consulting first,” he said. Yet all the election decisions were made without any consultations, as we shall show below. Brother Tendai Biti is on record as saying that President Mugabe is a “fountain of experience, knowledge and, most importantly, of stability. There are lots of horrible things that would have happened in this country if he had not said NO. History will prove the correctness of this statement.”
Any first-year under-graduate lawyer will bring these statements before the Constitutional Court to prove the veracity of President Mugabe’s conduct towards the opposition party. President Mugabe is a student of politics and there is a manual that describes this outwardly kindly disposition towards one’s opponents by the Roman historian Plutarch. In the book, Lysander, Plutarch describes this dissembling discourse by which Brothers Tsvangirai and Biti were completely beguiled. “By his conduct, in their daily intercourse together, especially by the submissiveness of his conversation, he (President Mugabe) won the affection of the young princes, and desired them (Tsvangirai and Biti) not to refuse him their goodwill.”

We in the Diaspora developed a great love for our white Brother David Coltart. Through his good services, we set up different organizations to help Zimbabwean students acquire books and scholarships from the US. Coltart, however, was also caught up in the love fest for President Mugabe, whom he described as sincere and passionate in his love for Zimbabwe. I have before me a long letter by Coltart to the head of the Southern African Development Community observer mission to Zimbabwe. President Mugabe made an illegal proclamation of the election date, without concurrence of the Cabinet, or the three principals as stipulated in the Global Political Agreement (GPA), Section 31H. Among other things, Coltart says that “the Registrar General and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have very cynically and deliberately breached this provision of the Electoral Act and the motivation for doing so is clear — it is designed to ensure that serious anomalies in the voters’ roll are not brought to light prior to the election.”

That a ghost voters’ roll existed is not in dispute. That an intensive voter registration 30 days after the announcement of the date was not done is not in dispute. But Zanu PF can answer the charge by saying that while one million voters were left out in the cities, rural areas suffered a loss of 640,000, an indication that the breach by the Registrar General was not political, but due to insufficient resources allocated to him by an intransigent Treasurer, none other than Biti himself. When Biti released the funds, it was too late in the day for the funds to be effectively used.

The question was asked, if President Mugabe had committed so many breaches of the GPA, why then did he, Coltart and the two MDC formations take part in the election? This is the gist of my thesis. From the beginning, the MDC-T failed to learn the lesson of ZAPU, that while President Mugabe may appear sincere and affectionate in his dealings with opposition parties, his only aim is their total destruction. Read Plutarch above.

There are two referees in this game, the Constitutional Court chaired by Brother Godfrey Chidyausiku and the Electoral Commission, chaired by Sister Rita Makarau. A further argument which Coltart himself brings forward is that of incompetence. Incompetence is not criminal. Having accepted to play the game under these two referees, the court and the commission, I doubt very much that these complaints can meet strict scrutiny before these two authorities.

There are two further difficulties. Biti was able to document Zanu PF stalwarts bussed from Manicaland. These stalwarts were instructed to vote in his constituency, far away from their own homelands. Even if these scoundrels are prosecuted and jailed, they are small fish. Zanu PF will deny any responsibility except the stalwarts’ own zealousness. That is why Reagan employed Casey to do his dirty work. The theory is that Reagan would deny any complicity and Casey was willing to go to jail until pardoned by his superior. In any case, the Biti case can be regarded as unusual and outside the norm.

The second difficulty is that all ballot boxes were sealed and opened in the presence of witnesses. The accusation here is that Zanu PF voters used an ink-eraser which enabled them to vote three or more times. It is not in the interests of Zanu PF to watch out for zealous stalwarts cheating on its behalf. It is the MDC-T’s responsibility.

The MDC-T and Brother Tsvangirai gave it all they could. There is a law of nature that says opportunities for greatness come only once. He missed his opportunity in 2008 when Zanu PF clearly lost the election and he ran away to Botswana. In the meantime, Zanu PF learned its lesson and took all measures necessary, by any means necessary to win the election. The fact that there is subdued silence is immaterial. But as Bush intimated to his adversaries, a win is a win, by whatever means. For Tsvangirai it is the end of the road. Biti may tarry for a while, but he too has come to the end of his road.

The support which the MDC-T received from the imperialist powers has also come to an end. I wrote to my friends in the MDC-T before the election that the US and the European Union (EU) are ready to make peace with President Mugabe. For the West, this too is the end of their love for the MDC-T. The fatal error does not belong to Tsvangirai alone. We all trusted that outsiders, the US, the EU and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa would fight our battles.