The Financial Gazette

By Ray Ndlovu

11 July 2013

THE emergence of coalitions days after the Constitutional Court upheld President Robert Mugabe’s proclamation of July 31 as the election date suggests that cracks remain wide and the prospect of their differences being resolved before the elections are slim.

Even if the differences were to be set aside for a while ahead of the plebiscite, it remains evident that the party leaders make up for strange bedfellows and their unity would still be fragile post the ballot.

Prime Minister (PM) Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), Welshman Ncube of the smaller MDC formation, Dumiso Dabengwa of ZAPU, Simba Makoni of Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) and Reketayi Semwayo of ZANU-Ndonga announced alliances among themselves which they hoped would enhance their chances at the polls.Ncube’s MDC and Dabengwa’s ZAPU broke the ice first last week by announcing that they had entered into a coalition with each other.

Their coalition is premised on lending support to each other’s Parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the other party may not have representation.

From a distance, Ncube’s MDC appears to have an upper hand over ZAPU in this arrangement as it enjoys more representation of candidates. The MDC is vying for 200 Parliamentary seats in contrast to ZAPU, which only has 50 parliamentary candidates nationwide.

As a goodwill gesture, some candidates have even stepped down to make way for perceived stronger candidates, as is the case with ZAPU’s Roger Muhlwa who stepped down for the MDC’s David Coltart for  Bulawayo East constituency.

In what is largely seen by political observers as a veiled effort to pull the wool over the eyes of their supporters and maintain their endorsements at party level to run for the presidency, the MDC-ZAPU alliance allows for Ncube and Dabengwa to individually contest the presidency.

Misgivings have already been expressed by political observers who are wary that the MDC-ZAPU alliance, which does not include the MDC-T, could also threaten the dominance that has been enjoyed by PM Tsvangirai’s MDC-T in the three Matabele-land provinces in the past 10 years and take away crucial votes from him in the region.

On Monday, it was the PM’s turn to announce a coalition with Makoni’s MKD and ZANU-Ndonga, which left Ncube’s MDC and ZAPU out in the cold over what they said was “failure to agree” on issues.

Makoni and Semwayo will jointly back the premier for the presidency unlike Ncube and Dabengwa who are running for the presidency on separate tickets.

While backing PM Tsvangirai is meant to boost votes, the choice of Makoni and ZANU-Ndonga is widely perceived to be minuscule.

McDonald Lewanika, director of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said the fringe political parties were “unknowns” in terms of their electoral strengths. “Their coalescing with the two MDC formations separately does not have the kind of thunderous impact that the two MDCs coming together would have had,” said Lewanika.

Makoni’s MKD secured a small fraction of the votes in the last harmonised elections of 2008 and failed to win a single parliamentary seat.

Since the last election, MKD has been lacklustre on the political stage, re-emerging on the eve of the election.

On the other hand, ZANU-Ndonga has slipped from its heydays in the 1990’s of once being a formidable opposition party under the leadership of the late Ndabaningi Sithole and has not taken part in any electoral contest since the turn of the new millennium.

This has left many observers in doubt over its ability to adapt to the prevailing political environment after being absent for so long.

Trevor Maisiri, a senior analyst from the Johannesburg offices of the International Crisis Group, said Makoni had in his favour technocratic skills and experience in government, private sector and in the southern Africa region which could be used as a draw-card to “elites” and voters.

As the clock ticks towards elections, and parties roll out their election manifestos, the prospects of some sort of unity continues to fade at each turn.

Khanyile Mlotshwa, a political commentator, however, said a single coalition remained a possibility and all the parties could come together in the event of a run-off vote to back a single presidential candidate.

“Under the present circumstances none will get over 50 percent of the votes. It is possible that these two coalitions are strategic in order to surprise ZANU-PF, while giving voters an array of choices,” said Mlotshwa.
Rashweat Mukundu, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, is of the view that splitting of votes by groups opposing one dominant and entrench-ed political party and system is always suicidal as it essentially hands over victory to that party, in this case ZANU-PF.

In MDC-T strongholds that include Matabeleland, Manicaland and parts of Midlands, Mukundu said ZANU-PF could potentially make a comeback and pick some seats as a result of the split votes between the two MDCs.
“Personal egos are trumping common good when political parties with everything similar except personal names and addresses fail to agree on working together,” observed Mukundu.

Vivid Gwede, a political commentator, said the failure to form a single coalition to stand against President Mugabe would come back to haunt the opposition parties.

He said all over the world governing parties benefit from such lack of common purpose by the opposition.

“It is ideal that they unite and find common understanding before the election for another reason and that is if they do not do so it may be unavoidable that the country will have a hung Parliament,” said Gwede.

“Such a situation will still mean a coalition will still be needed to form a government. From the look of things, no matter how much the political leaders try to avoid it, ultimately there is no way out of working together.”

Bloomberg

By Brian Latham

11 July 2013

Five years ago Morgan Tsvangirai was leading Zimbabwe’s presidential vote and appeared set to end Robert Mugabe’s rule of the southern African nation before violence cut short the balloting. With new elections due July 31, he appears ever further from his goal.

While Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has been in government for the past four years, helping turnaround an economy that was in free fall, Mugabe, 89, wields the power with the police and military. The voters’ roll is filled with as many as a million people who are dead or have disappeared, and 29 percent of those 18 to 30 years of age aren’t registered, according to the independent Research and Advocacy Unit.

Tsvangirai, 61, wanted the election delayed. His MDC-T says Zimbabwe’s election machinery isn’t prepared to hold a vote and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front controls the state media. He quit the 2008 runoff election because of violence against his supporters.

“The MDC-T has little chance of victory on two main grounds: the lack of preparedness and the voters’ roll, which really can, it seems, be used for manipulation,” Susan Booysen, an analyst with the University of Witwatersrand, said by phone July 9 from Johannesburg. “There is also the threat of violence at Zanu-PF’s disposal, whether violence is used or not.”

Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the MDC-T’s concerns are unwarranted.

“We are very, very happy with the way the registration was done,” he said in an interview. “The MDC-T always complains. That is their mantra.”

The MDC-T points to its role in salvaging the economy. Following Mugabe’s decision to seize mainly white-owned farms starting in 2000, food production and exports plummeted, and inflation soared to as high as 500 billion percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. Gross domestic product shrank 39 percent in dollar terms between 2000 and 2008, the Washington-based lender’s data shows.

During the same years, Tsvangirai and Mugabe fought four elections, all of them marred by violence and electoral irregularities, according to observers including the European Union.

Regional neighbors in the 15-nation Southern African Development Community brokered a 2009 power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwe’s main political parties after it ruled presidential and parliamentary elections the previous year were void. Violence before and after the vote led to the deaths of about 200 MDC-T supporters, according to Tsvangirai.

The coalition government, in which the MDC-T controlled most economic ministries, turned the economy around.

Tendai Biti, the finance minister from the MDC-T, abolished the Zimbabwe dollar and instituted a multi-currency economy, using mainly the dollar and South African rand. The measure reduced inflation to single digits, where it remains today, and saw empty supermarket shelves being restocked. The economy has grown every year since 2009, with the IMF predicting a 5 percent expansion this year.

“What people forget is that the shops were literally empty,” George Chofamba, a roadside shopkeeper in Harare’s Zengeza suburb, said July 8. “Now the shops have everything and it is because Mugabe doesn’t control the country’s money.”

Zimbabwe has the world’s second-largest reserves of platinum and chrome after neighboring South Africa and significant gold, coal, diamond and iron-ore deposits, which attracted investment from companies such as Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group. Agricultural exports included tobacco, corn, soy, coffee, tea, fruit and vegetables.

The obstacles facing the MDC in the election include Zanu-PF’s grip on the state broadcaster, ZBC. It demanded $165,000 to provide live coverage of the MDC’-Ts election manifesto unveiling two days after broadcasting President Mugabe’s election campaign kick-off. The MDC-T declined to pay, according to spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

“It’s a matter of record that there are problems that militate against free and fair elections,” former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who’s backing Tsvangirai, said in an interview with Johannesburg’s PowerFM radio station yesterday. “We fear the specter of violence and intimidation. There is an uneven playing field in the media sector.”

When Zanu-PF held its primaries on June 25, Zimbabwe’s police officiated and the party commandeered schools across the country. Education Minister David Coltart, a senator and founder member of a faction of the MDC, called the action illegal.

Zimbabwe must still raise $130 million to pay for the election, Biti said yesterday.

The MDC-T is “doomed by its failure to end police support for Zanu-PF,” said Valentia Kaseke, a security guard in Harare’s northern Emerald Hill suburb. “All they can do is wait for Mugabe to die and then Zanu-PF will be in disarray.”

Mugabe and his party still have their supporters who credit them with bringing independence to Zimbabwe in 1980 after a guerrilla war forced the white-minority government of Rhodesia to negotiate a settlement.

“Zanu-PF will win the election because it is the people’s revolutionary party, it made Zimbabwe from scratch. Zanu-PF is Zimbabwe,” Farai Hove, a small-scale farmer from Ruwa, 20 miles east of Harare, said by phone. “People can’t vote for the MDC-T. It’s foreign.”

In some cases, the MDC-T has proved its own worst enemy. Allegations of corruption against MDC-T officials in three constituencies, Harare, Chitungwiza and Bindura, may hamper the party’s election prospects, even though Tsvangirai, a former labor union leader, fired officials named in an internal party report, Booysen said.

“The MDC-T lost moral ground in urban areas and its other constituencies and they’re no longer able to say they will win an election provided it’s free and fair,” she said.

The MDC-T wants to inspect the country’s voters’ roll, which it says is being manipulated by the registrar general’s office. Zimbabwe’s registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede, denied the accusation.

“The voters’ roll is open to inspection by the MDC-T, there are no secrets,” he said by phone from Harare July 8.

The run-up to Zimbabwe’s ballot has left people wary and scared, said Julius Nyikadzino, a pharmaceutical salesman.

“We’re dysfunctional, afflicted by post-traumatic stress disorder after the last 13 years of violence, poverty and uncertainty,” he said in an interview. “Everyone who doesn’t benefit from Zanu-PF’s looting knows how to vote, but everyone knows the likelihood of rigging is actually a certainty. It’s just the degree of rigging that counts.”

1. Despite Zimbabwe’s  massive economic potential our unemployment rate in the formal sector is very high and most children who graduate from school cannot hope to go onto tertiary education or to obtain employment in the formal sector.
2. Compounding  the situation are serious deficiencies in our education system. Although Zimbabwe has one of the best education systems in Africa, funding of the sector by government in real terms has dropped dramatically in the last two decades and tens of thousands of orphans and vulnerable children are forced to drop out of school every year. A further deficiency in the education system is that it is almost exclusively academically orientated with very little vocational  subjects offered. As a result many young people graduate from high school with subjects which  do not give them practical skills so that they can easily become self employed.
3. Zimbabwe along with many African countries school has an unacceptably high prevalence HIV/Aids and many Youth either have the disease themselves or have to look after family members who do have the disease. Youths are often  provided with very poor  examples of sexual morality by their elders which compounds this problem. In Zimbabwe  many men have what are called  euphemistically  “small houses”, namely mistresses with second families. Many young woman fall prey to so-called “sugar daddies”, older men, who use their money and status in society  to subvert these young women. In addition the advent of the internet, whilst welcome in almost every other respect, has caused an increase in the availability and spread of pornography, which in turn has lead to increase in promiscuity.
4. Zimbabwe has suffered from the emergence of very corrupt leaders in the last two decades.  During this period there has been a growing gulf between the super rich political and military elite and the general population. The recent massive discovery of diamonds has exacerbated this problem and increasingly young people in Zimbabwe are afflicted by what I term the “get rich quick syndrome”. Very poor role models are provided by senior political  and even church leaders who exploit their positions  often to become obscenely wealthy. The  accumulation of wealth becomes the be all and end all and provides a very unhealthy template for young people.
5. Sadly because of our violent past, as I have mentioned above, violence is now deeply ingrained in our political culture. Whilst by and large Zimbabwe has good ethnic and racial relations, ethnic and racial differences are sometimes exploited by politicians for political ends and our Youth  have been  subjected to a diet of hate speech and racial and ethnic intolerance.
6. The use  of  partisan youth brigades and propaganda has in the past resulted in partisanship taking precedence over national pride. This has sometimes resulted in Youth having a twisted notion of what it means to be patriotic with more attention being paid to preserving the political elite than serving the interests of the Zimbabwean people as a whole.

1. Zimbabwe  has a very fine education system but it is very poorly funded by government and accordingly the funding of education has to become a national priority again. A good education is the basis of hope and that can only be achieved if government invests heavily in education. For this to happen it is  inevitable that dramatic cut backs in government  spending in other sectors such as defence will have to be made. In addition the Zimbabwe curriculum needs to be dramatically revised to be made more skill and vocationally orientated than it is at present.
2. We will need to overhaul our concept of leadership if we are going to inspire our Youth in future. Zimbabwe is desperately in need of developing a culture of servant leadership. Public service needs to be seen as just that – service – not an opportunity to plunder national resources  for the purpose of self-enrichment.
3. We urgently need to honour and teach the concept of faithfulness. The Youth of today have been taught by our current generation of adults that unfaithfulness is acceptable and that has to change. The Youth of today need to be taught that  a strong nation can only be built, and strong leaders can only be raised, if young men and women  are faithful to their families, to their spouses, to their communities and ultimately to their nation. This entails putting families, spouses and national interests ahead of personal interests or partisan interests.
4. If the scourge of corruption is to be tackled when we need to teach the concepts of integrity, honesty, transparency and accountability to our young people. The rapid accumulation of wealth by illegal means needs to be viewed with disdain and disgust rather than envy. We need to teach our Youth  that it takes hard work, time, diligence and determination to succeed properly; that whilst the accumulation of wealth is is not per se bad it is far more beneficial if it is achieved through struggle and innovation rather than off the backs of innocent people. Tied to this is the need to train Youth  to work through problems rather than to work around them. In short we need to breed in our young people a zero tolerance towards corruption in our society.
5. Zimbabwe has  a desperate need to teach the principles of nonviolence to our young people. They have been given such a poor example by the previous generation who have resorted to violence immediately, persistently and consistently to address political problems. The role models of society need to be the Mahatma Gandhi’s and the Martin Luther King’s  and Jesus Christ himself rather than the Che Guevara’s. If we do not tackle the scourge of violence the cycle of violence which afflicts our nation still to this day will continue.
6. Finally we need to give our Youth a new vision of what our nation and indeed Africa as a whole is capable of. Africa has so much potential and Zimbabwe is no exception. Zimbabwe is a country with enormous assets; it has some of the most literate people on the continent; it is richly endowed with mineral resources, rich agricultural land and a plentiful  supply of water;  as is the case with so many African countries it is stunningly beautiful with a superb climate and some of the best tourist attractions in the world. In other words we have a desperate need to give our young people a more positive outlook on life; we need to encourage them to realise that if we  inculcate all the qualities I have just mentioned in the coming generation the great potential of our Nation we will be unlocked.
7. Another crucial part of achieving this vision will be the need to encourage innovation amongst our young people. We need them to tackle problems from a different perspective; to think out of the box if you like. We need to encourage them to recognise that simply because particular problems have always been approached in a certain way in the past that is not necessarily the best way. We need to teach them about new technologies which can radically and quickly transform our Nation For example in our agricultural sector we need to completely rethink the way in which we have conducted agriculture in the past. We need to move more towards using conservation agriculture, zero tillage practices combined with the use of drip irrigation and solar energy. If implemented these practices have the potential to dramatically increase Zimbabwe’s agricultural productivity and the same applies to virtually all sectors of our economy.

The Herald

By Farirai Machivenyika 

10 July 2013

THE West’s illegal economic sanctions regime has cost Zimbabwe at least US$42 billion since 2001, with negative effects on vulnerable groups that saw their livelihoods decline to pitiable levels.

 In its manifesto, dubbed “Taking back the Economy: Indigenise, Empower, Develop and Create Employment,” launched in Harare last Friday, Zanu-PF equated the illegal sanctions to a declaration of war.

“Apart from the debt burden, which threatens the goals of the people, there is also the very serious threat from the sanctions burden in terms of what they have cost the country in monetary terms.

“The illegal sanctions imposed by the West have been equivalent to a declaration of war on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

“Since 2001, the illegal sanctions have put the Zimbabwe economy under siege with negative downstream effects on vulnerable groups, communities and civil society.

“These sanctions manifested themselves as financial, trade, cultural, academic, sport embargoes, diplomatic isolation travel bans, freezing of financial accounts of the national leadership, influential individuals in the business community and strategic entities and generally worsening Zimbabwe’s sovereign risk,” the manifesto reads.

The US promulgated the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act in 2001, that has since been renamed Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, that cut all lines of credit from multilateral lending institutions prompting an assault on, and decimation of the Zimbabwe dollar.

Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF says, lost donor support amounting to approximately US$36 million annually since 2001, US$79 million in loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and African Development Bank, commercial loans of US$431 million and GDP reduction of US$3,4 billion.

“The negative publicity created an artificially induced negative national image which attracted high-risk premium on alternative sources of offshore lines of credit and killed the tourism market. It also scared away potential creditors and reduced commercial loans by US$431 million per annum during the 200s.

“Furthermore interruption of trade and constraints on manufacturing and general economic activities saw GDP almost halving from US$7,49 billion in 2000 to US$4 billion in 2010,” the manifesto reads.

The revolutionary party added that a number of NGO funded by the same countries that imposed the sanctions emerged in the same period as part of the wider regime change agenda as they were funded so that they could fill the gaps left by Government’s failure to fund social services.

“An obvious and unacceptable threat to the goals of the people is posed by the NGOs that roam the country to peddle influence and whose number of more than 3 000 is scandalously disproportionate to the country’s population.

“Virtually all these NGOs have been founded and funded by the same countries that have imposed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe for purposes of effecting illegal regime change outside the constitutional and democratic purposes,” the manifesto reads.

The EU and its allies who met in London recently under the banner of ‘Friends of Zimbabwe’ announced that they had poured at least US$2,6 billion into the MDC-T aligned NGOs during the lifespan of the inclusive Government under the guise of humanitarian assistance.

Zanu-PF also said as a result of the illegal sanctions the health and education sectors havd been “donorfied” by the ministries that are in the hands of the MDC-T.

“Over the last four years of the GPA Government, a cluster of regime-change donors have taken advantage of the fact that the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture and the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare fell under the opposition formations and they have been pouring funds into the two ministries through illegal parallel structures,” added the manifesto.

The party said illegal structured like the Education Transition Fund controlled by David Coltart had been established with the fund being used to undermine local publishing houses as books supplied were printed by foreign companies.

“Even more worrying is the fact that the donor-driven ETF has been specially targeting School Development Committees to transform them into political structures of opposition formations that run schools while also linking up with headmasters, teachers, school children and parents for purposes of political mobilisation at the grassroots level,” the manifesto reads.

While Zanu PF has exposed the cost of the illegal sanctions to the country, the MDC-T is however, silent on the issue in its manifesto that was launched on Sunday.

Its manifesto is a regurgitation of the widely discredited JUICE (Jobs, Upliftment, Investment Capital and Environment) policy with the party’s emphasis being on attracting Western funders to revive the economy and disbanding the command of the defence forces and boards of public media organisations.

While the GPA categorically condemned the sanctions US embassy diplomatic cables released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks revealed that the MDC-T secretly urged the US and its allies to maintain the sanctions regime.

In April MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai came under attack when he abused his Government website to run a poll asking Zimbabweans whether they wanted sanctions to go.

The “survey” was open to anyone including foreigners and at one showed that 59 percent of the respondents wanted sanctions to stay.

The US and its Western allies imposed the illegal sanctions at the turn of the century as a response to the land reform programme that is meant to correct historical imbalances in land ownership as a result of colonialism.

This was after the Western powers reneged on their promise to fund the resettlement of indigenous Zimbabweans during negotiations at Lancaster House in 1980.

Southern Eye

By Nduduzo Tshuma

10 July 2013

ZANU PF has threatened to sabotage the Education and Health Transition funds that it claims are being administered by Western donors who are pushing a regime-change agenda.

According to the party’s manifesto launched last Friday, non-governmental organisations had, during the life of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), poured $2,6 billion to support “nefarious activities”.

The party said the activities had “been camouflaged by the sanitised language of humanitarian and developmental assistance to cover up sinister regime-change intentions”.

“The $2,6 billion has been disbursed via opaque parallel budget channels that are not accountable and which have been used to damage national accounts and Treasury processes,” the party said.

Zanu PF said under the GPA, a cluster of regime-change donors took a sinister advantage that the ministries of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture and that of Health and Child Welfare fell under the progressive parties.

“. . . they (NGOs) have been pouring funds into the two ministries through illegal parallel structures,” the manifesto reads.

“One such parallel structure is called the Education Transition Fund (ETF) illegally controlled by David Coltart, which has since 2009 received over $200 million outside government accountability structures.”

The party alleged that the ETF has been used to undermine indigenisation and people’s empowerment in the book publishing industry for primary and secondary education by ensuring that setbooks are published and printed by foreigners outside the country.

“The ETF has been used to bribe and corrupt headmasters, teachers and provincial and district education officials, some who are now hostile to the established system of education in the country,” the manifesto continues.

“Even more worrying is the fact that the donor-led ETF has specifically targeted school development committees to transform them into political structures of opposition formations that run schools while also linking up with headmasters, teachers, schoolchildren and parents for purposes of political mobilisation at the grassroots level.”

The education and health delivery service delivery systems had literally collapsed during the Zanu PF reign and the transition. funds helped restore order in both sectors.

Southern Eye

By Southern Eye Reporter

9 July 2013

AS the curtain comes down on the inclusive government formed in 2009, it is important that we take stock of its achievements and failures.

This is necessary because the three parties — Zanu PF, MDC and MDC-T — are canvassing for our votes again.

To measure their performance we need to remind ourselves of the promises they made before they were given the mandate. Some of the promises have been repeated since 1980 and are yet to be fulfilled.

Our attention today is on education which President Robert Mugabe usually flaunts as his major achievement since coming into power at independence. There is no denying that there was a leap in education standards in the early years of independence, which was shown by Zimbabwe’s very high literacy rate that is among the highest in Africa.

However, as demonstrated by a story we carried yesterday about the sorry state of rural schools in the Midlands Province, those achievements are being reversed faster than they were attained.

Education minister David Coltart came face to face with the tragedy when he toured the rural schools recently. At some schools students sat as two different classes side by side as they learnt in the open despite the freezing temperatures. Silobela legislator Anadu Silulu revealed that there was hardly any learning at most of the schools during the rainy season because all students and teachers would be forced into single classrooms available in the schools, to hide from the rain.

Most of the schools, we reported, often record zero percent pass rates. We were also reminded of the sad story of former Gandavaroyi Primary School headmaster Peter Chihiya who wrote Grade 7 national examinations for 32 pupils at his Gokwe school in an attempt to have someone passing from his school. Chihiya was smoked out, arrested and found guilty of fraud. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Without trying to condone criminal activity, the former school head’s behaviour aptly demonstrates the level of desperation at these schools. Coltart has fought a lone battle during the tenure of the inclusive government trying to re-equip the schools with textbooks and other materials.

He mobilised several donors who chipped in with material and financial resources. But his efforts were not complemented by the inclusive government which continued to pay lip service to education, as the sector remained heavily underfunded.

The state of rural schools in the Midlands and other parts of the country will bear testimony to this inclusive government’s ineptitude and misplaced priorities.

To all the Residents of Khumalo Constituency,

Please remember that the Mobile Voter Registration is happening this week in Ward 4 at the following School:

Tennyson Primary School 06/07/13-09/07/13

Our country is our responsibility – go and get registered

News Day

By Veneranda Langa

8 July 2013

EDUCATION minister David Coltart yesterday left for South Korea where he will be involved in negotiations to hire mathematics and science teachers to beef up the local staff complement.

Speaking to NewsDay before his departure yesterday, Coltart said his initial target was to bring in six South Korean mathematics and science teachers as a pilot project, adding the deal was being facilitated by the Korean Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Kwang-chul Lew.

“I have been involved in negotiations with the Korean Ambassador this year to arrange for South Korean Maths and Science teachers to come and work in Zimbabwean schools as we have a desperate shortage of those in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, I am unable to give you the name of the Korean organisation that is to sponsor this initiative as I am not in the office and am preparing to catch a flight,” said Coltart.

“Initially, we are going to have a pilot project where we will be aiming to start with just six teachers to see how the project will work, and if it works we will then bring in more teachers,” he said.

“The salaries of these South Korean teachers will also be fully paid by the Koreans. We are in the process of identifying the schools where these teachers will be deployed. If the project works well, we will expand to other subjects. However, Zimbabwe’s greatest shortage is in Maths and Science teachers,” he said.

The minister said South Korean teachers were respected internationally for their prowess in teaching Maths and Science subjects.

The education sector is still recovering from a decade-long economic meltdown that saw most qualified teachers leaving for greener pastures in the Diaspora.

Southern Eye

By Blessed Mhlanga

8 July 2013

KWEKWE — Most students in rural schools are condemned to failure owing to the government’s neglect of schools and nonexistence of infrastructure to support learning in most of the institutions.

At Zibomvu Secondary School, with an enrolment of 198 students, only one classroom block stands as part of the learning infrastructure. There is a staff complement of just five teachers, some of them forced to take three subjects across all forms.

During a visit to the school by Education minister David Coltart, students in two different classes sat side by side as they learnt in the open despite freezing temperatures.

Silobela legislator Anadu Silulu said there was hardly any learning at the school during the rainy season because all the students and teachers would be forced into the single classroom at the school, to hide from the rain.

“Imagine having 198 students in one classroom taking shelter from the harsh weather! No learning would take place. Most of the time it rains it means we lose valuable time and would not be able to cover the syllabus on time,” he said.

The pass rate at the school is very low, in fact, only one pupil out of 20 manages to pass with the required five “O” Level subjects.

At Brooms Groove Primary School, a scenario that has become a common feature in most rural schools obtains. Teachers are forced to take three classes in one go.

Acting headmistress Fungai Mari has in her combined class 32 pupils from Grades 0, 1 and 2 all bundled in the same class, needing to learn different concepts from the same teacher at the same time. The school, which is 29km from Kwekwe, has a staff complement of just three teachers teaching Grades 1 to 7 between them.

“When I teach, I tell them that what I am saying now is for Grade 0 please listen. This will be after I give the other grades work to do,” she said.

Timpson Moyo from Silobela Ward 25 said there was a gap in the education system between rural and urban schools, which would take centuries to mend.

“Our children just go to school so that they learn the basics of reading and writing. We do not really expect them to pass because the conditions for passing are just not there,” he said. “Teachers do not want to stay at the school. Every year we have a new teacher or sometimes no teacher at all.”

Stanley Ndlovu said some of the students finished school without even grasping the basics of education.

“Some of these students cannot even read or write and to see these levels of ignorance in schools 33 years after independence is just shocking and disappointing,” he said. “We are trapped in a vicious circle, where we know our children will never escape this life of poverty. They go to school to fail and then become herd boys never escaping this life.”

The enduring story of former Gandavaroyi Primary School headmaster Peter Chihiya who wrote Grade 7 national examinations for 32 pupils at his Gokwe school, in an attempt to have someone passing from his school, made sad reading.

Chihiya was smoked out, arrested and found guilty of fraud. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Eight of those months were suspended on condition of good behaviour, while the other 12 months were set aside on condition he carried out 420 hours of community service.

In a letter of apology to the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec), which was presented in court as part of his mitigation, Chihiya apologised for his wayward behaviour saying he was only tempted into the offence with the hope of improving the pass rate at the school.

“First and foremost, I would like to apologise to Zimsec and the children of Gandavaroyi,” he wrote. “I am really sorry. I did not intend to do so, but I got tempted in an effort to improve the pass rate at the school. I blame no one but myself for these actions.”

Chihiya was embarrassed that the school always recorded 0% pass rates and he thought to avoid embarrassment, he should write the exams himself.

Coltart, while addressing teachers and villagers at Xavier Sibangani Primary School during a tour of Silobela and Zhombe rural schools, said the education system was littered with illiterate pupils who were just passing through the system. Coltart placed blame on his government for failing to provide adequate resources to schools and supporting infrastructure to uplift learning standards, especially in rural areas.

“This is reflected in the results of most of our secondary schools, especially in rural areas where conditions for teachers are deplorable and therefore, not attracting the best brains in the teaching field,” he said.

Politics has also been at the centre of disturbing education, with teachers viewed as MDC supporters being hounded out of schools during election time. Coltart said this should be stopped and teachers protected.

“Schools are not the place for politics. Party politics should stay away from our schools because they affect the education of our children,” he said.

The Education ministry in partnership with Unicef launched an education transition fund which in phase one saw the provision of textbooks in schools. The second phase saw an injection of $62 million towards rehabilitating and building new infrastructure in disadvantaged schools.

However, with elections set for July 31, many fear the transitional fund would evaporate if polls were to be disputed and most in the rural areas who hoped to see their children one day access quality education keep would just their fingers crossed.

Southern Eye

By Njabulo Ncube

7 July 2013

THE MDC and Zapu election pact unveiled on Friday has added impetus for a grand coalition against President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party ahead of the watershed June 31 elections.

Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa and his MDC counterpart Welshman Ncube told journalists in Bulawayo that the pact was a culmination of talks that began last December.

The pact will result in candidates from the two political parties working together and supporting each other during campaigns.

The two parties agreed that they would not discuss or enter into a pact or coalition with any other party other than with each other.

MDC and Zapu said despite the alliance, it remained the individual candidate’s prerogative to voluntarily withdraw from the harmonised elections and support a candidate from the other party.

Former Highlanders chairman Rodger Muhlwa, who was eyeing the Bulawayo East constituency on a Zapu ticket, was the first candidate to withdraw from the polls, making way for MDC’s candidate David Coltart.

Analysts yesterday said while the coalition was necessary to break Mugabe’s octopus-grip on power, Ncube and Dabengwa must rope in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who outpolled the 89-year-old Zanu PF leader in the March 2008 presidential election.

Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the runoff election by State-sponsored violence, which left more than 200 people dead and thousands displaced.

The analysts said the electoral pact would be all encompassing if it embraced the MDC-T.

But some analysts were quick to say Zimbabweans should be disabused of the notion that anything led by Ndebeles is tribal.

Dumisani Nkomo, the chief executive officer of Habakkuk Trust, who doubles up as political analyst, said a broader electoral pact including MDC-T would have been ideal.

“There is still a window of hope though slim, to include the MDC-T, which has been accused by some of being arrogant in its approach towards talks,” he said.

“A broader pact is still an option, but all parties should negotiate as equals and the big brother- small brother mentality has to stop as an alliance will be a win-win situation.”

He predicted that failure could result in a runoff as was the case in the last presidential polls, adding that this could be an opportunity for a pact on the presidential candidate.

“This time Ncube and Dabengwa would have more leverage as they hold the deciding vote.”

Effie Ncube, a Bulawayo-based analyst, said the coalition between MDC and Zapu was a step in the right direction, but doubted its impact.

“Whether the Ncube and Dabengwa pact will succeed, it is highly questionable,” he said.

“The one that will certainly do very well in the pending polls is the one where Tsvangirai will be involved.

“PM Tsvangirai is the real big deal as he is a major contributing factor to real change.”

Blessing Vava, an activist with the National Constitutional Assembly, said the pact was a strategic move to consolidate the Matabeleland vote ahead of the harmonised poll.

However, he was sceptical of its electoral chances if it did not involve Tsvangirai.

“It might be a warm-up to the grand coalition with the main MDC,” he said.

“The only way forward is for these parties to forge an alliance with Tsvangirai and support one candidate for the presidential vote if the coalition is going to mean anything. Otherwise this might be viewed as an ethnic coalition which might fail to get support in other parts of the country.”

He said as long as Tsvangirai was out of that coalition it would not get much support.

“Hate him or love him, Tsvangirai is an important player in any coalition to be formed against Mugabe, without him it’s as good as nothing,” Vava added.

“These two parties (MDC and Zapu) do not attract much support from across the country. They will only probably gain some percentages in Matabeleland largely because of the ethnic card.”

Paul Siwela, a 2002 losing presidential candidate, was dismissive of the coalition saying in had no chance of toppling Mugabe and Zanu PF.

“We have made it very clear that Mugabe is going to retain the presidency by hook or crook,” he said.

“These elections will be a farce, so this so-called coalition will not work. Mugabe is quite aware that he is dealing with political novices.”

Zapu pulled out of the 1987 unity accord with Zanu PF citing unfulfilled promises.