The Standard

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

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

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

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

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.

The Standard

May 10 2015

Education minister Lazarus Dokora is one man whose affinity for controversy will be hard to match. In fact, in the two or so years that he has been in government, the hitherto little-known minister has become a household name — for controversy.

Since his appointment by President Robert Mugabe to government in the aftermath of the 2013 elections, Dokora’s name shot to prominence for his knack for sparking all sorts of controversy over various prickly issues.

It appears the education ministry may be jinxed to have ministers who are in a league of their own when it comes to intellectual innovation.

The only other minister that quickly comes to mind in the search for any other person that could give Dokora a run for his money in terms of curious policy suggestions is his own predecessor, Aeneas Chigwedere. Remember that historian-cum headman from Wedza who, during his tenure as education minister, presented to cabinet a suggestion to introduce one school uniform for every pupil in the country! He was publicly berated by Mugabe, but he had given the nation quite a hearty laugh.

Now Dokora, the peculiarly bearded former rabbi, has stolen the limelight from politics and the economy through his introduction of some of the most contentious policies ever heard in government. They include the banning of extra lessons in schools, scrapping of teachers’ incentives and the banning of age-old Civvies Day practice in schools.

Perhaps one of the most controversial of decisions Dokora made was the banning of entrance tests for pupils looking for Form One places — a decision for which he was lampooned left, right and centre by angry parents who found themselves traversing the four corners of the country looking for places for their children. There were others though that thought the decision was the best he had ever made in his career as government minister.

It was also under his watch at the education portfolio that the issue of whether or not to allow schoolchildren to carry condoms to school found space in parliamentary debates — just as did the argument over permitting pupils to carry mobile phones to school, a suggestion that minister Dokora says he supports without apology.

But that is not all. Dokora has found himself confronted by some of the worst examination results to come from our schools coupled with unprecedented leakage of examination papers, resulting in legislatures and other citizens calling for his resignation. Needless to say, he saw no reason to leave. He believes he is not to blame for the high failure rate or the exam leakages threatening the credibility of the country’s education system.

More lately, Dokora threw himself back into the limelight by increasing examination fees for secondary public examinations and suggesting the introduction of same for Grade 7 examinations.

But, even as the public was still seething with rage, Dokora was at it again; this time with what could be the mother of all controversies. The minister now wants all Ordinary Level students to go for industrial internship in order to be considered to have completed that vital level of education!

How such an idea got into the minister’s head is indeed a curious paradox. Besides Dokora being a primary and secondary education minister who does not preside over the placement of students into industry on attachment — a prerogative of his tertiary education counterpart — it would be interesting to know how the minister’s imagination allowed him to see the several hundred thousand Form Four pupils around the country being compulsorily absorbed into the handful of factories and offices that are still open in Zimbabwe.

Minister Dokora must know very well that it is already very difficult, if not impossible, to get internship places for the thousands of students at our universities and other tertiary institutions. What then makes him think that a Form Four pupil from Kanyemba or Binga or Mwenezi or Dotito would find attachment in Harare?
Maybe the internship he means is to provide free labour for our cash-strapped new farmers — or rekindling that Border Gezi Greenbomber outfit.

Shouldn’t Dokora be worrying himself with the sorry state of classrooms in the country’s remote areas and resettlement areas where tobacco barns have been transformed into classrooms where pupils sit on bricks without books, pens or qualified teachers?
Should Dokora not be busying himself with campaigning for funding to build schools, to buy books and to modernise ancient pole and dagga structures that his ministry has registered as formal schools?

Instead of these kinds of mindless experiments, Dokora — like his predecessor, David Coltart — who resurrected the sector from the throes of death, should be concentrating on finding foreign funding for mass provision of learning material into the education sector which, like the rest of the country, is struggling to stay alive.

Dokora may be a politician who, like his peers, understandably owes his position to patronage, but the legacy he leaves in the wake of some of his dubious policies will be indelibly marked in the history annals of this country.
His name will forever be associated with that era when education was ruined by people that put politics before children and the future of this beautiful country.

Daily News

May 3 2015

Electricity supply and rolling blackouts may be an issue in the early hours of Sunday — to an extent that it may “knock out” the Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, and Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao bout from our screens — but Zimbabweans are still looking forward to this epic contest.

From Environment minister Saviour Kasukuwere to the ordinary man in the street, Zimbabweans are joining the rest of the world to tune into ‘The Fight of the Century’ that is taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, United States.

While the two fighters are expected to share a $300 million purse, locals on premium satellite television are likely to be keenly following the 0300HRS bout on Sunday.

Kasukuwere, who was nicknamed ‘Tyson’ after the former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, said he will be rooting for Mayweather.

“Everyone is aware of that fight and I’m one of the persons, who will wake up early in the morning to watch it,” the Zanu FP political commissar told the Daily News.

“There is no way I’ll support Pacquiao when he’s fighting against a black man. Mayweather is one of us (mwanawevhu), he’s from the motherland.

“Mayweather is going to finish that fight in the second round so we can go back to bed. He’s someone, who gets the job done and done quickly.”

Prominent Harare banker, Desmond Ali, who is also a boxing enthusiast, said he will also be waking up early to watch ‘The Fight of the Century’.

“I’m definitely not going to miss any of the action during this big fight. I’ll make sure that the generator at home is in perfect working condition in case of any power blackouts,” Ali said.

“Those guys are very good boxers and it’s going to be an interesting fight. Pacquiao has got the speed while Mayweather has a very good defence.

“Pacquiao is one boxer, who tries to adopt during a fight and in so doing he ends up walking into a punch. That’s what happened when he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez a couple of years ago.

“This will be his biggest weakness in this fight. Mayweather fights a very calculated bout and he gets the job done. He is similar to Chelsea, he’s not worried about how the fight goes but at the end, he gets the result.

“Mayweather will definitely win this fight. It will go all the way and he will win it on points because of his well calculated game plan.”

Gilbert Munetsi, a former Zimbabwe Boxing Board of Control secretary, said he was also looking forward to the fight.

“This fight is like the World Cup for boxing enthusiasts like me and there is now way I’m going to miss any of the action,” he said..

“Predicting the winner of this super fight will be like trying to predict whether it’s going to rain or not by looking at the clouds. It’s too close to call.

“They are both recognised world boxing champions for their respective unions and that tells you a lot.”

Munesti, however, admitted that Mayweather has an edge over the Filipino.

“Pacman goes into this fight with the underdog tag after having lost five fights before and he has got nothing to lose,” he said.

“All the pressure will be on Mayweather because he is undefeated in 47 fights. But the main advantage he has is that the fight will be staged in his home country.

“The home crowd will be behind Mayweather and in boxing that’s a big advantage because it can influence the judges. The fight will go to the last round and Mayweather will win it on points.”

Patrick Tamson, an official with local betting shop, Moors World Of Sport, said most of the bets they have handled were in favour for Mayweather.

“The trend (betting) is for Mayweather to win on points. This is undoubtedly the fight of the decade. Expects predicts a win for Mayweather because of his technical superiority. The public support is for Pacquiao maybe because of his humble background.”

Former Sports minister David Coltart is going against popular opinion and is looking forward to a Pacquiao win though.

“What intrigues me about this fight is the contrasting personalities of the two fighters. By all accounts Pacquiao is a good guy. He puts money back into his community and is very down to earth,” said the Bulawayo-based lawyer.

“On the other hand, Mayweather is arrogant and brash but I guess it has something to do with boxing because you need such a character to be successful in that sport.

“I’ll not be waking up early to watch the fight but the first thing I’m going to do on Sunday morning is look for the result and the highlights. I must admit, that I’m looking forward to a Pacquiao win.”

News 24

April 30 2015

Harare – Many Zimbabweans reacted angrily on Thursday to reports that President Robert Mugabe had called members of the Kalanga tribe uneducated crooks at a SADC summit this week.

Video footage of the 91-year-old president on Wednesday saying that Kalangas were widely regarded in the past to have engaged in petty criminal activities in South Africa is being circulated widely in Zimbabwe.

Many Kalangas live in Zimbabwe’s south-western Matabeleland provinces, where rates of migration to South Africa are highest.

Responding to questions from journalists on the xenophobic attacks that hit South Africa this month, Mugabe said: “The Kalangas were very notorious in South Africa.” He said Kalangas were reputed to have been crooks and weren’t “educated enough to assume … jobs.”

Twitter user @MariaZest1 said: “Anyone who’s still believes Mugabe is a unifier is deluded. I’m offended #PartKalanga #PartShona #PartNdebele.”

User @PRONKOMO said: “Mugabe has showed his tribalistic side… he is not well informed about Matabeleland people… people he supposedly governs.”

Some Zimbabweans have pointed out that a number of Mugabe’s ministers may have Kalanga roots. Common surnames that can indicate Kalanga heritage include Moyo, Mpofu, Ngwenya, Dube, Gumbo and Sibanda.

“Wonder how SK, a big Kalanga, feels after the boss said Kalangas are uneducated tsotsis,” asked Ncube Njabulo. SK is Simon Khaya Moyo, a former Zanu-PF chairperson and ambassador to South Africa who is now the ruling party’s spokesperson.

A Facebook user, identifying herself as Zimbabwean socialite Nomathemba Primrose Ndebele, posted: “Did the president truly say those of my tribe are uneducated (KALANGA)… my uncle was the Attoney General ka… my aunt is the police commissioner… I’m educated”.

Mugabe’s criticism of those who flock to South Africa – he complained that migrants saw it as “heaven on earth” – has rankled many in Zimbabwe. There are at least one million Zimbabweans in South Africa: Only 900 agreed to board state-provided buses home in the wake of the attacks in Durban and Gauteng.

The Zimbabwean president told heads of state and delegates at Wednesday’s summit that foreign nationals in South Africa were there “voluntarily”. But critics of the Zimbabwe government, including former education minister David Coltart, claim that thousands more Zimbabweans left as a direct result of Mugabe’s controversial policies during the economic and political crisis years after 2000.

@ZimMediaReview accused the official Herald newspaper, which is the voice of Mugabe’s government, of trying to “sanitise… with little success” the president’s Kalanga jibe. The newspaper said Mugabe cited Matabeleland South “as one area where there was emigration to South Africa.”

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo launched an attack on a Twitter user who said Mugabe had called Kalangas uneducated “idiots”.

“The uneducated ‘idiot’ bit is of course your creation & [you] should be ashamed but then you’re shameless!” Moyo tweeted.

When asked whether he had Kalanga blood, the minister did not reply.

Other Zimbabweans argued that Mugabe was merely sharing his memories of how Kalangas were perceived in the past.