ZCU: 'Target of conspiracy'
06/08/2004 16:16 - (SA)
Harare - The large travelling
expenses of Zimbabwe cricket officials were justified on Friday as the cost
of the networking needed to offset a conspiracy to disrupt the game here, a
top official said on Friday.
"Had it not been for the
networking process that has taken place during the course of the last few
months, we would not have achieved the successes which have kept us alive,"
Ahmed Ebrahim, vice-chairperson of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), told the
annual meeting here.
"This is despite devious, undercover
activities that have been going on by some people behind the scenes designed
to undermine the very fabric and structure of Test cricket here that people
like (ZCU chairperson) Peter Chingoka and others have struggled to keep
afloat.
"We were told that cricket would be finished in this
country by September or October. But we were able to make sure we will still
have Test cricket in place next year."
Ebrahim was
responding to criticism of the union's board of directors' expenses and fees,
which reached around $80 000 in the last financial year.
Chairperson Peter Chingoka explained the high costs away to trips to meetings
with the International Cricket Council and with executives of other Test
countries, in London, Dubai and elsewhere, in a bid to save the future of
Test cricket for Zimbabwe.
No debate on
stand-off
There was no debate at all about the ongoing
stand-off between the ZCU and senior players after the sacking of Heath
Streak in April and the dismissal of 14 other players after they went on
strike demanding his reinstatement.
Only one comment was
made on the union-player dispute from the floor. Chingoka was requested that
the ZCU re-examine its hardline approach to the question "because it is sad
to see Zimbabwe cricket in its present state, its Test matches replaced by
"A" games."
The speaker asked ZCU to "free itself from
acrimony." Chingoka said the remarks were noted.
Nine of
the 12 directors retained their posts on the ZCU board. Their three
replacements maintained the racial balance of four white, four black and four
Asian.
President Robert Mugabe was re-elected patron for a
tenth year.
Go back to work, ministry orders Zimpapers
strikers
Herald Reporter The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare yesterday ordered striking workers at Zimbabwe Newspapers to
show cause why they should continue with the industrial action and ordering
them back to work within 24 hours.
Zimpapers group chief executive Mr
Justin Mutasa said the workers' committee was issued with the show cause
order to stop the strike.
He said the company would ask the Labour Court
on Thursday next week for a disposal order so it could deal with the workers
in terms of the company's code of conduct.
"The most important thing
is that the strike has been declared as illegal by the labour ministry and
hence has been called off immediately," said Mr Mutasa.
He said the
strike was confined to Harare Branch only. It was business as usual at the
other branches.
Mr Mutasa said he wanted to make it abundantly clear to
the group's stakeholders that Zimpapers employs about 1 115 workers and only
105 employees from Harare Branch were on strike.
"I would like on
behalf of the management to thank those who showed loyalty and dedication and
following the grievance procedures of the company's code of conduct," he
said.
Since the striking employees had been served with the show cause
order and the management would be going to the Labour Court on Thursday at 10
am for a disposal order.
The disposal order will enable the management
to take a decisive action against the 105 employees who were engaged in the
illegal strike.
Mr Mutasa said the illegal strike by some of the
company's workers was based on falsehoods and management would not condone
employees who go on strike hiding behind falsehoods.
"Management shall
never accept or give in to demands that do not emanate from the laid-down
procedures in the Zimpapers code of conduct."
He said no amount of
sloganeering and intimidation would make the management change their position
as the procedures to follow in articulating grievances were clearly set out
in the company's code of conduct.
Those who do not follow the company
procedures to solve their grievances face disciplinary action, Mr Mutasa
said.
The company applied for the show cause order on Tuesday.
ICFTU ONLINE... Zimbabwe: President Mugabe urged to release top trade union
leaders from jail 6/8/2004
Brussels, 6 August 2004 (ICFTU OnLine). The
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) today demanded that
Zimbabwe authorities immediately release four trade union leaders, held since
yesterday (5 August 2004) under public security charges after being arrested
during a trade union workshop in the central city of Gweru. Together with its
Nairobi-based African regional Organisation (ICFTU-AFRO), the ICFTU also
demanded that the charges be dropped.
The four leaders of the
ICFTU-affiliated Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Wellington
Chibebe, Secretary General, Lucia Matibenga, Vice President, Sam Machinda,
Central Region Vice Chairperson and Timothy Kondo, Advocacy Coordinator, were
held under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) Section 19, Subsection 1B
on conducting a riot, or instigating disorder or intolerance. The POSA,
enacted by President Mugabe in 2002, makes it illegal to hold political
gatherings without police approval, and is regularly used against ZCTU
leaders and members.
The ZCTU leaders were attending a union workshop
devoted to the impact of high taxation levels on workers, HIV-AIDS, the
National Social Security Authority (NSSA), as well as to the outcome of this
year's session of the International Labour Conference, the annual meeting of
the International Labour Organisation (ILO). During the ILO Conference, held
in Geneva last June, senior Zimbabwe diplomats had launched violent verbal
attacks against the ZCTU and its Secretary General, Wellington
Chibebe.
According to the ZCTU, its leaders were initially accused of
holding the workshop without police clearance but charges were changed later
during the day. The organisation said trade unions are among organisations
which are exempted from seeking police clearance when holding meetings, in
accordance with section 46(j) of POSA. The four leaders were fingerprinted
after their arrest.
The ZCTU added that "the police action was a
deliberate attack on the rule of law they are supposed to protect".
In
its protest message to President Mugabe,the ICFTU echoed calls by ICFTU-AFRO,
urging him to order that authorities drop charges for demonstrating against
high level of taxes brought on 18 November 2003 against Mr Gideon Shoko,
General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railwaymen's Union (ZARU) and
eight other activists from Bulawayo be dropped. The nine unionists were
summoned to answer the charges in a Bulawayo court today, 6th
August.
The ICFTU represents 151 million workers through its 233
affiliated national trade union centres in 152 countries and territories.
ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org
For
more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0232
or +32 476 621 018.
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2004 5:06 PM Subject: inflation and education
don't mix
Dear Family and Friends, We have just come to the end of
a very tense three months in Zimbabwe's educational calendar as schools
closed for the summer break this week. When I popped into the school office
on the last day of term it wasn't to get my son's report but to ask if we
would still have a school to come back to in September. Zimbabwe's schools
have been teetering on the edge of collapse for the last three months since
our Minister of Education declared that private schools were too expensive
and stipulated that schools could only charge what his Ministry decided was
an acceptable fee - regardless of what we, the parent body thought, decided,
voted for or agreed to with our School Associations and
Boards.
Despite the fact that inflation is at almost 400%, the Minister
of Education refused to back down on his ruling about school fees.
During this school term, postage and telephone costs have risen by over
400%. Talking in percentages tends to be meaningless and I find myself
turning to the actual dollars and cents. Last term when my son's school
needed to send me an important letter (one that wouldn't get buried at the
bottom of his suitcase), it cost $500. Now it costs $2300 for just the stamp
and says nothing of the price of the paper, the envelope, the computer ink
and the wages of the person who writes the letter. I punched a few
numbers into my calculator this morning and worked out that if each parent at
my son's school were to get just one posted letter a month from the
school, the cost of the stamps alone would consume 1.2 million dollars.
The Minister of Education has stipulated that this school cannot charge
more than 1.4 million dollars per child per term. So one students entire
school fees for a three month term, gives each parent just one letter a
month from the school.
Last term when my son got sick and the school
had to phone me, the call cost $120. This term that same three minute call
costs $585. Last term when my son got sick I knew that the school would give
him ear drops, a bandage or a pain killer. This term I know that none of
those things are guaranteed anymore. When you extrapolate the dollars and
cents of the most basic services into the number of students at an average
small private school, it is horrific and physically impossible for the
schools to run on the fees the Minister of Education has
stipulated.
No one really knows why Zimbabwe's Minister of Education has
decided to do what he is doing to our private schools. The Minister continues
to shout about racism in the 1960's and the privileged white elite, but he
still chooses to ignore the fact that the enrolment at all Zimbabwe's
private schools in 2004 is comprised of at least 80% black children. The
Minister is adamant that no private schools may increase their fees again in
2004, completing ignoring the existence of 394.6% inflation. It is almost as
if the Minister has just decided that inflation and education don't mix,
and that's the end of it.
For three months schools have been
struggling on, depending on donations from parents and staggering from one
week to the next, hoping that sanity would surface or sense would prevail. It
has not and already the obvious repercussions have begun. Last week one
private school, established in 1911, has declared its necessity to go into
provisional liquidation as it simply cannot pay its bills anymore.
Everything in Zimbabwe is now directly affected by the politics and
governance of our ruling party and I mean everything. Until next week, love
cathy.Copyright cathy buckle 7th August 2004. http://africantears.netfirms.com My
books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are available outside Africa from: orders@africabookcentre.com
; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com
Rebels to continue legal struggle, says
Streak Sat 7 August, 2004 12:05
DURBAN, Aug 7 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's 15 rebel players had resigned themselves to settling their dispute
with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) through arbitration after the
re-election of two members of the board, former captain Heath Streak has
said.
Ozias Bvute and Max Ebrahim, who have been at the centre of
the rebel player's complaints, retained their seats on the board at the ZCU's
annual meeting on Friday, with Bvute appointed head of marketing and Ebrahim
made convenor of selectors.
The International Cricket Council
(ICC) has agreed to arbitrate the impasse, and Streak said Friday's meeting
had not persuaded him the rebels should call off their protest.
"I'm not surprised that Bvute and Ebrahim are still on the board," former
Zimbabwe captain Streak told Reuters from Birmingham on Saturday. "It doesn't
change my view in terms of what I think needs to be done.
"For us,
it's about going through that process and getting the best possible
resolution to our problems.
"That's the only way we're going to
solve things."
The players, all white, were sacked after refusing
to play for Zimbabwe after the removal of Streak as captain in a dispute over
selection policies, which they viewed as racially based.
The
rebels have demanded Streak's reinstatement and a new
selection panel.
Zimbabwe were forced to select an inexperienced
squad who lost 10 consecutive matches to Sri Lanka and Australia before the
ICC suspended Zimbabwe's test programme until the end of the year.