Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 4:36 PM
Subject:
Nsingo
Phillip Nsingo
That name will mean nothing to you,
but Phillip died on Tuesday morning in
Bulawayo General Hospital. He was the
builder in my small group of companies
and had worked for me for 10 years. He
was 35 years old.
What concerns me is that his story is so typical of the
life that ordinary,
hardworking, Zimbabweans experience every day. His story
is totally
anonymous and will never be reported on in any publication or in
any of the
electronic media. But to us he was a friend, an honest and
reliable employee
and a character in many ways.
He was an Ndebele; his
forefathers came to this part of the continent in
1820 as refugees fleeing
the might and wrath of Shaka Zulu and the Mfecane
in South Africa. He was a
tall angular man who in a different time would
have made a superb Ndebele
soldier with a cow hide shield as tall as himself
and the classical short
stabbing spear and perhaps a few fighting sticks.
With his Impi he would have
made up a formidable fighting force capable of
running many miles in a day
and completely fearless when confronted with an
enemy or a predator. Philip's
ancestors terrorized the whole of central
Africa until the white man arrived
in significant numbers in 1890.
In those days Phillip would have joined
an Impi when he turned 15, become a
man when he had bloodied his spear and
married when his Impi had served the
King in a manner that earned them the
right to marry. He would have probably
been dead by the age of 35 at the very
outside.
But Phillip was born in the Rhodesian era and lived through
independence in
1980 and finished school and then went to train as a
bricklayer. He obtained
a certificate when he was just turning 22 and went to
work as a builder.
Eventually he went on his own and specialized in general
jobbing. He could
turn his hand to anything.
He married when he had
enough money to pay Lobola and he and his wife had
two children - he was a
devoted father, drank to excess on a Friday night
but other than that he
looked after his family and that included his mother
in the South East of the
country in a rural village.
Then the first tragedy struck. I do not know
when it happened, perhaps on a
Friday night at a job away from his family,
but Phillip contracted HIV. He
communicated it to his young wife and for a
few years they knew little of
what was now in their lives. Then his wife fell
ill. Nothing serious
initially but she never seemed to fully
recover.
Phillip spent everything he earned on doctors, hospitals and
then
traditional healers. It made no difference. She gradually
deteriorated
until she could no longer look after the children and had to be
taken home
to her rural village where her own mother cared for her until she
died at
the age of 30 years.
Phillip then moved the two children to
his own Mother's kraal and he paid a
substantial sum to the family of his
wife for this right - otherwise they
might have taken the children
themselves. Phillip then returned to his job
as a builder.
On
Christmas eve we took Phillip to the bus station in Bulawayo so that he
could
go home with a large quantity of food and some gifts for his family
and the
two small children. He was well dressed and looked fit and well. He
was to
have two weeks off and was then expected back in Bulawayo to start a
new
project.
On Saturday he fell ill - we do not know the details but his
family took him
to the local clinic. It was Christmas day and the staff at
the Clinic sent
them away saying they "were on holiday". They then put a very
sick Phillip
into a donkey cart and rode 27 kilometers to the district
hospital. There he
was admitted and spent the night before the staff (one
qualified Nurse and
an orderly) told the family they could not help Phillip -
there was no
doctor and no medicines. They suggested they take him to
Bulawayo General
some 200 kilometers away.
No ambulance so the family
- now armed with a letter of referral from the
District Hospital, put Phillip
on a bus and then carried him from the side
of the road in Bulawayo to the
main hospital complex. It was Monday
afternoon; Phillip could not speak or
stand. He was admitted and on Tuesday
a doctor saw him at about 09.00 hrs. He
died just afterwards.
I was called and took his brother to the hospital
with his identity number.
A death certificate was issued and a burial order
made out. The cause of
death "unknown." I said to the nurse on duty that this
in my view was a
"sudden death" and therefore should be the subject of an
autopsy. They
shrugged this off and said they had no time or staff for such
procedures.
We bought a coffin from a local Co-operative and hired a
truck to carry his
body home. He was buried in an unmarked grave on
Wednesday, 6 days after he
had left us to go home for Christmas. The children
are with the grandmother
who must be in her 70's. What lies ahead for just
another two small orphan
kids, whose mother died of Aids and whose father
died at Christmas time in
2004.
We now have a million orphans in
Zimbabwe. In some schools 50 per cent of
the students in grade one are
orphans. Over 1000 people a day are dying in
Zimbabwe - three quarters of
them from diseases and other problems that we
thought we had beaten in the
60's. Now nearly 90 people a day die from
Malaria. 200 a day are diagnosed
with Tuberculosis. 700 women die in
childbirth every week and our average
life expectancy is lower than it would
have been for Phillip Nsingo's great
Grandfather in the 1850's.
For ordinary hard working, honest people like
Phillip, life in Zimbabwe has
become hell on earth and is most often short
and nasty. We mourn Phillip's
death today - the last day of 2004 and we
wonder what 2005 will offer. We
mourn for what we have lost in Zimbabwe and
that which has created the
conditions that have made life so difficult for
all of us. Only a complete
change of leadership and policies can give us any
hope of a better tomorrow.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 31st December
2004
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 10:16 PM
Subject: Looking for
reasons
Dear Family and Friends,
As 2005 begins, I thought I would
look back over the last year and as I
did, I wondered which of the highlights
I found for each month, would
inspire Zimbabweans to put Zanu PF back into
power in the approaching
elections.
January 2004 saw inflation hit
622% and international aid organisations
saying that seven and a half million
Zimbabweans would need food aid
during the year.
In February 100
people were arrested after demonstrating in Harare for a
new constitution and
the only daily independent newspaper, The Daily News
closed down permanently
following a Supreme Court ruling.
67 alleged mercenaries were arrested at
Harare airport in March and this
story swamped almost all other news during
the month. The Zimbabwe
Institute in Cape Town reported that more than 90% of
MDC MP's had been
arrested by the present government ; 25% had survived
assasination
attempts; 16% had been tortured in police custody and in 616
incidents
recorded, not one perpetrator had been arrested, charged or
imprisoned.
In April the UN Human Rights Commission again adopted a No
Action Motion
when it came to discussing abuses in Zimbabwe and in that same
month 1500
workers and their families were left squatting in the bush after
the
government seized Kondozi Farm in Odzi.
May saw Zimbabwe's
Minister of Finance being arrested; the Minister of
Education closing 45
private schools and the Minister of Social Welfare
declaring that the country
was no longer in need of world food aid.
In June the country's email
providers were told they would have to sign
contracts allowing tracing
facilities for what the government called
"malicious mails". Vice President
Nkomo announced that all farm land was
to be nationalized and parliament
passed a Bill allowing the State to
compulsorily acquire farm equipment and
material - regardless of whether
or not the owner wanted to sell his personal
private property.
July saw the government closing the Tribune newspaper
and parliament
passing new detention laws allowing a person to be held by
police for 23
days with no rights to either a court appearance or bail
appeal.
In August figures were released of 8871 human rights violations
that had
been reported and documented in Zimbabwe in the last two
years.
September saw 14 people being shot at the Marondera Agricultural
Show when
the army staged a mock battle and somehow live bullets were used.
During
the month telephone costs increased by 485% and countrywide
peasant
farmers were thrown off farms to make way for what the government
called
A2 farmers.
In October the South African Trade Union
organization COSATU were deported
from Zimbabwe in the middle of the night
and dumped at the Beitbridge
border post. 50 WOZA women were arrested for
walking 440 kms to protest
the impending NGO BIll.
Life expectancy in
Zimbabwe dropped to just 35 years in November 2004 and
the government pushed
the NGO Bill into its final stages.
In December, just weeks before the
next elections, the new budget was
presented and it awarded just over one
billion dollars a day to the
country's secret police. In December 2004, just
two days after an
earthquake and Tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed over 125
000 people this
Christmas, President Mugabe, his wife and their two children
left for
Malaysia on their annual holiday.
The thoughts, prayers and
condolences of Zimbabweans are with all those
who have experienced such
devastating loss. Until next week, love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle, 1st
January 2005.
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"African
Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Editorial: Africa's
challenge / A new year is rife with the same old
conflicts
Sunday,
January 02, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
First in an
occasional series.
America's involvement in the world is likely to
become even more
intense in 2005 than in 2004. The outsourcing of American
jobs was a
presidential campaign issue last year. So was America's
increasing reliance
on foreigners' purchases of U.S. treasury bonds to
finance its budget
deficit. Our annual examination of the issues of the
chief regions of the
world could help at this point.
Africa
presents more problems than successes at the beginning of the
year, the
worst of them carry-overs from 2004. The Darfur region of western
Sudan is
the worst, or at least the most visible, because relief
organizations are
bringing the problem to the attention of the world. It is
first and foremost
a civil war, a low-intensity conflict that has killed
perhaps 50,000 and
uprooted another million.
Darfur, like two other African conflicts,
the Democratic Republic of
Congo and the Ivory Coast, resists solution:
Parties to the conflict are
numerous and the area covered is huge; a few
African Union and/or United
Nations peacekeepers won't do the trick. Nobody
is willing to put in the
troops or resources to bring the Darfur conflict to
a close. Ironically, the
other Sudanese conflict, the one between north and
south, may be near
completion; an agreement is scheduled to be signed this
month.
Fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo dating from
1996 has
resumed, or has continued, depending on one's perspective. Claims
by relief
organizations of casualties numbering in the millions are wildly
speculative, but are prompted by the sincere horror the war there prompts.
This conflict resists resolution because of the number of parties involved,
including the Congo's neighbors led by Rwanda, and the area and numbers
involved. Congo's population is 50 million, as large as the part of the
United States east of the Mississippi.
The Ivory Coast, once a
showpiece of development and stability in
former French West Africa,
proceeded in 2004 down a tragic road of
disintegration that began with a
military coup d'etat in 1999. Ivory Coast
is now split between Muslims and
Christians, north and south, with the
French standing uncomfortably between
them. This conflict, too, has
unleashed waves of refugees into also troubled
neighboring countries such as
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
It wasn't all bad in Africa in 2004. A dozen or so African countries,
including Ghana, Mozambique and Botswana held peaceful, democratic
elections. It may be no accident that those three countries also showed
economic progress in 2004, likely to be sustained in 2005. The year's new
crisis may be in Zimbabwe, scheduled to hold parliamentary elections in
March. ZANU-PF, the ruling party of President Robert Mugabe, 80, has dragged
the country deep into a mire of economic decrepitude, civil rights abuse and
international outcast status. ZANU-PF expects to win again.
On
the positive side, the continent's two giants, South Africa and
Nigeria,
were able to hold themselves together and work through the
framework of the
new African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's
Development to try to
resolve problems and encourage development in other
more troubled countries.
Conflicts may be reaching an end in Senegal and
Uganda, as negotiations with
rebel groups, including the notoriously vicious
Lord's Resistance Army may
be reaching a positive conclusion. The specters
of HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases continue to stalk the continent, but
there is still some
reason for hope in all areas.
America continues to play a minimal
role in Africa, except to buy
about 20 percent of U.S. imported oil from its
producing countries. Other
than sending some relief aid and encouraging
negotiations, the United States
plays no meaningful role in the Sudan, Congo
or Ivory Coast conflicts, nor
in heading off the growing storm in Zimbabwe.
Although Africans remain
hopeful, this state of affairs is unlikely to
change in 2005.
New Zimbabwe
MASOLA WA DABUDABU HOPEWELL
Tsholotsho's
Robin Hood remains an enigma
Last updated: 01/02/2005 12:19:52
ONCE upon a ZANU-PF time, there lived the nuttiest of all professors.
His
name was Jonathan Moyo. He lived his short political life by the sword,
lived his political fortunes by the sword, married his political affairs by
the sword and eventually died from his political relevance by the
sword.
Born in the impoverished district of Tsholotsho in
Matabeleland North,
Jonathan Moyo had a flirtation with anti-Mugabe politics
on his days as a
young lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. During his
tenure as a
venomous critic of the full-time dictator from Zvimba, Jonathan
Moyo penned
several articles lamenting Mugabe's dictatorship. The professor
was eloquent
and soundly gifted in the use of written English to convey the
displeasures
on behalf of the voiceless millions through the pen. He was a
great icon of
the new freedom that was beckoning from the
horizon.
When Mugabe's regime ran short of the requisite brains to
put together
a new constitution for the country Mugabe plucked Jonathan Moyo
from the
oblivion of lectureship at a university in South Africa. Moyo
accepted the
appointment, worked with zeal and diligence and his trademark
verbosity
slowly found its way into the State-controlled radio stations and
newspapers. When the government sponsored constitutional reform referendum
was held, Moyo's ego was bruised as he suffered defeat at the hands of the
people who were against the final draft.
What Moyo said after
the government lost on the constitutional
referendum catapulted him into the
loving and longing arms of Robert Mugabe.
Moyo spoke so condescendingly
about the people's folly in voting against his
draft constitution. The
people thought it was daft to consider that draft
constitution for adoption
as the country's constitution, yet Moyo saw it as
a rejection of an
intelligent piece of work from a collection of Zimbabwe's
think tanks with
him obviously being the shiniest of them all. On all the
interviews he held,
Moyo started singing the political hymns as composed by
Zanu PF and went
about preaching the political gospel as offered by Zanu PF
HQ.
"Using an endless reservoir of cash, Moyo started
buying his way
into the hearts of the people of Tsholotsho; a clinic here, a
hospital
there, a bank yonder the hills, a school replete with electricity
and
computers hither and a tarred road thither!"
MASOLA WA
DABUDABU
It was not long before Moyo's eloquence and assertiveness was
exploited by Mugabe. He was drafted into the Zanu PF campaign team for the
2000 Parliamentary elections and the face of politics was never the same! He
attacked everything that stood on the way of Zanu PF with the shock and awe
never seen before. Never the less, Zanu PF won narrowly and Moyo was invited
to the cabinet as Information Minister via a non-constituency MP platter
from Mugabe's gift drawer. True to his wisdom on the power of a free press,
Moyo went around muzzling the independent voices with a magnitude never
envisaged before.
At one time, he was spotted literally razing
to the ground the
antennae of Capitol Radio, a pirate radio station that had
been set up as a
probe on the government's tolerance on independent voices.
Moyo set himself
on a warpath against the independence of the press. He left
his opponents
bruised as he topped-up his performance by promulgating the
repressive press
law whose acronym is AIPPA. His best-known scalp after the
enactment of
AIPPA was the Daily News whose issue is still haunting both the
government
and its owners!
Tsholotsho was to be Moyo's spring
board for his political career
which seemed to have been brought to
prominence by Mugabe, the man he had
loathed during his colourful
lectureship days at university. He started
concentrating his efforts on
winning the hearts of the mournful people of
Tsholotsho. He had to deal with
the rough political terrain curved out for
the people of Tsholotsho by the
evil Gukurahundi, a killer brigade unleashed
on the people by his party Zanu
PF during the dissident era.
Using an endless reservoir of cash,
Moyo started buying his way into
the hearts of the people of Tsholotsho; a
clinic here, a hospital there, a
bank yonder the hills, a school replete
with electricity and computers
hither and a tarred road thither! He even had
the luxury to organise a
lavish beauty contests featuring lasses clad in
scanty attire.
Those who live in Tsholotsho shall die in
Tsholotsho, or is it those
who live by the sword? Moyo was only happy to
promote his remote Tsholotsho
home area by arranging a high-powered
delegation of Zanu PF bigwigs to visit
his bastion of power to-be. People
who had previously sent killer soldiers
to kill the people of Tsholotsho
sent representatives to Moyo's Indaba at
Tsholotsho. They came, they saw and
they were fired! Moyo's political
comfort zone was never the same. He was
denied the standing ovation he
commanded in Zanu PF gatherings. His stature
was reduced to size. He was
left out in the bitter cold by
Mugabe.
Perhaps Moyo was misunderstood from the beginning. May be
he lived
like the worm in an apple, eating away the core; unseen and
unsuspected.
Maybe he had a mission to shake the empire from within. He is
certainly one
person who will remain an enigma. Perhaps he is one person who
would laugh
last with the rest of the people of Zimbabwe when unfettered
democracy
comes. Maybe he will tell the free world that his agenda was to
destroy Zanu
PF from within. We can only wait for his verbose memoirs to hit
the news
stalls and hit the establishment where it pains most. The people of
Tsholotsho may have lost Robin Hood though!
The sword of
Damocles remains hanging above Tsholotsho!
CONTACT MASOLA: hopemasola@hotmail.com
SOKWANELE
Enough
is Enough
Zimbabwe
PROMOTING
NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE
DEMOCRACY
We have a fundamental
right to freedom of expression!
(www.sokwanele.com)
Seventh
Day of Christmas: Hunger in the City
Sokwanele
Reporter: 1 January
2005
The Friday feeding scheme at the City Church began some years
ago. The hungry come from far and wide;
some from the neighbourhood, others from a squatter camp many kilometres away;
still others from the high density suburbs.
They come... men and women, young, old and middle-aged, mostly black,
but, yes, a few whites too. They hold a
“ticket” – a piece of card stamped with the Church stamp, a number in large
figures and their name. The names and
numbers are recorded in a book and each week the numbers are called out. On production of their tickets, they are
given about 1 kg of mealie meal (maize meal), and either 100g of kapenta fish,
or 500g of dried beans or 100g of mopani worms.
The latter are seasonal – they look repulsive, but are considered a great
delicacy. The names are ticked off once
they have received their ration, but even so some try to collect
twice!
These people live by
their wits. They have to! There are frequent stories of tickets “lost”
or “stolen” or destroyed by fire, flood or other means. Often the team running the feeding scheme
will replace the “lost” ticket, but two people arriving with the same number is
not unknown. Who is the rightful
owner? The job calls for the wisdom of
Solomon – and the patience of Job. On one occasion, just around the corner and
out of sight of the Church, the weekly
ration was extracted from the recipient as payment of a lost
bet.
On average, food is given
to about 150 people each week. They
don’t all come personally. Some are too
old or frail to make the journey and their tickets are brought by children or
friends. Others are lazy and save
themselves the trouble by getting someone else to collect for them...but they
then have to persuade the recipient to hand it over!
Who are these
people? Let’s meet a few of them at
random.
There is Priscilla, a
young mother, probably in her twenties.
She has a toddler clinging to her skirt.
He looks about two but is actually four.
She also has twin babies whom she struggles to carry, one on her back and
the other on her hip. They look less
than a year old, but are nearly two now, their growth retarded as a result of
malnutrition.
Then there is the
gentleman who shares the same name as one of Zimbabwe’s more notorious
politicians in the bureau of state propaganda.
The contrast could hardly be greater.
The politician sports a Saville Row suit, a new Mercedes and the latest
cell phone... and throws his weight around.
His namesake is a real African gentleman, gracious, courteous and
helpful. His clothes are shabby, his
shoes worn, but he is always ready to intervene if some of the young men become
a bit obstreperous.
Violet is employed as a
domestic worker nearby. Why does she
come? Well, her monthly wage is about
Z$100000 (under ten pounds), several of her own children have died of AIDS and
she is now trying to support 5 grandchildren.
Her employer will soon move into a retirement village and Violet’s
services will no longer be required.
What will she do then? She is not
alone – there are many others in a similar situation.
Patrick is one of the few
poor whites who come. He and his common
law coloured “wife” look as though they are well into their sixties, but they
probably appear older than they really are.
They live in the car park at the local shops, eking out a living from
begging and existing as best they can with a cooking pot and a few blankets
between them. It’s hard when it
rains!
Biziwell is the
professional con man, but the organizers are wise to him now. They used to believe every sob story he came
up with, but having been taken in many times, now they make sure that he gets
his food ration and nothing more .. no money for bus fares home, or medicine, or
anything else. Hard? Yes, but one learns
not to be too gullible.
Then there is the one
called “Peter” because that’s the name on the card, though in fact Peter is his
grandfather. “Peter” is a little boy and
should be in school, but even in term time he comes to collect the food. There’s probably no money for school fees
anyway.
Emma is mentally
disabled, but she attends a little school for teenagers who are “academically
disadvantaged.” Her number is 145 but
she usually pushes to the front of the queue so that she won’t be too late for
school. Who knows who pays her
fees?
Then we have Thomas, who
is blind, and Joseph and Margaret and Daisy and Kunda and a hundred others, each
with his or her own story of hardship and suffering. They are amazingly cheerful in spite of it
all.
Some people come
regularly and then suddenly they are seen no more. What has happened? No doubt many of the younger ones have made
their way across the border to “greener pastures” in Botswana or South Africa,
only to discover that life is bleak there too.
Months later they might reappear, with a vague story about “going home.”
Many are HIV positive, and the word goes around, “so-and-so is too sick to
come.” Some just disappear and eventually their number is allocated to
another. There is never any shortage of
would-be recipients.
Will it ever end? All the indications are that the situation
will get worse before it improves, if it ever does. Does this Church’s small contribution make
any difference? There is the story of the old man and the boy who were walking
along a beach cluttered with stranded starfish after a storm. The boy picked up a starfish from the sand
and threw it back in the ocean, then another and another. The old man chided him, “What difference can
you make? There are thousands of these
stranded up and down the beach!” The
child picked up another starfish, tossed it in the ocean and replied, “I made a
difference to that one.” (Told by Joni
Eareckson in ‘The God I love.”)
Day 8: 2
January 2005
Our article
for the eighth day of Christmas describes how the ZANU-PF government has done
everything possible to control all aspects of food supply, culminating in their
latest efforts to restrict the activities of NGOs.
SOKWANELE
Enough
is Enough
Zimbabwe
PROMOTING
NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE
DEMOCRACY
We have a fundamental
right to freedom of expression!
(www.sokwanele.com)
Eighth Day of Christmas: Voting on an Empty
stomach
Sokwanele Reporter: 2
January 2005
Most governments are grateful when their own
citizens, or foreign organisations, offer assistance when natural or
human-induced disasters result in food deficits. They accept that they need
help and are glad to receive it. Not so in Zimbabwe. The government knows that
if they do not control the distribution of food, they cannot make use of it to
consolidate their political domination. Sad to say, ZANU PF has realised that
it is in their interest to keep the Zimbabwean population starving or near
starvation; in that way they can use their ability to supply food to buy
compliance.
Government wants to be the sole distributor of
food, and the sole purveyor of knowledge about food supplies. The organisations
providing relief, including major international NGOs and churches, are anxious
to ensure that Zimbabweans are able to eat and do not have to buy survival at
the price of political subservience. Thus the past four years has seen a tug of
war between government and non-government humanitarian organisations, both
foreign and local, over the supply of food, as well as information about how
much food is being produced and is available for consumption
Government is in a sense in a weaker position.
Their own resources and distribution networks which were brought into play in
earlier years have all but collapsed, but in any case were never adequate to
feed on the massive scale which is now required. The World Food Programme and
other large donors are in a position to import food, employ both foreign and
local personnel on the ground, and carry out their own distribution. They work
with the communities to identify the families in need, and distribute the food
themselves.
However, this subverts ZANU PF’s strategy of giving
food only to their own supporters. So they have become increasingly vocal in
criticising donors, accusing them of assisting the opposition. Under a barrage
of invective, NGOs and churches were required to sign agreements, known as
Memorandums of Understanding, with the local authorities, to be allowed to
distribute food aid. Credit goes to hundreds of patient NGO administrators who
persevered through many hours negotiating with demigods at local level, whether
party bosses, war vets, local administrators, or army personnel, in order to
satisfy everyone before they could be allowed to bring food to the people. They
were not everywhere successful, and there were areas where food aid was blocked
at the behest of angry war vets or others who wanted to punish people for
supporting the opposition. In areas such as Binga in 2003 when the Save the
Children Fund UK was prevented from giving food to the people for several
months, reports of deaths from starvation predictably followed. Government
ultimately determined who could distribute food and who could not.
In 2004 the government changed tactic, keeping
donors out by pretending that their aid was not needed. While it was obvious to
anyone who was working on the ground in Zimbabwe that the 2004 harvest would be
pathetically inadequate to feed the nation, government tried to prevent access
to reliable information. A UN crop assessment team was unceremoniously thrown
out of the country, and Mugabe announced that there would be a bumper harvest.
By perpetrating the lie that there was no need for food aid, government could
reject all assistance and attempt to import maize secretly for distribution
under their sole control, to use as they liked to influence voters. And then
they cynically declared the Parliamentary election for March, the height of the
hungry period, before any harvest would come in. Constitutionally the election
does not need to be held before June, when, if the harvest has been good,
granaries will be full.
After July 2004 government prevented humanitarian
agencies from distributing food except to the very vulnerable people, estimated
at about 500,000, and for those who were allowed to receive it, the amounts were
reduced. Thousands of tonnes were locked up in warehouses. By September,
governors of some provinces where there was a poor harvest this year were
sending requests to government to allow food distribution by NGOs and churches.
Although the pleas came from senior ZANU PF officials, central government would
not budge, and some feeding programmes run by churches were forcibly
discontinued. Recently, a governor of one of the traditional breadbasket
provinces appealed direct to an NGO to bring them food because their people are
desperate. But most NGOs do not have food in storage. They will need import
licences to bring food into the country, and of course this is controlled by
central government. Even if they get the licences, there is a lead period of at
least 4 weeks before the food can reach the needy people. Meanwhile people
suffer; many may die while government prevaricates, afraid of losing their
ability to buy votes.
To prevent others from helping hungry people so
that you can continue to hold power represents the ultimate in depravity. Do
ZANU PF not realise that this cannot continue for ever? Do they not understand
that they are going to incur the hatred, not the support of the people, in all
parts of the country? Do they not fear the consequences of condemning thousands
of their own people to death? Apparently not. They are prepared to perpetrate
the greatest injustice, the greatest evil, for their own personal gain. In
short, they care nothing for the suffering of their people.
Day 9: 3 January
2005
Tomorrow’s article takes a closer look how at how the HIV/AIDS pandemic
poses one of the greatest risks to Zimbabwe’s food
security.
Daily News online edition
Year when wheels came off Zanu PF
vehicle
Date: 3-Jan, 2005
OPPONENTS of the ruling
Zanu PF must have washed their hands in
invisible water as the wheels seemed
to come off the party's seemingly
sturdily-built vehicle, for the first time
since the 2000 parliamentary
election.
In that year, the
party which dominated Parliament with nearly all but
three MPs being
non-Zanu PF since 1980, lost 57 seats, literally, in the
twinkling of an
eye.
Perhaps for the first time, there was real panic in Zanu
PF: it was
staring defeat in the face, if it didn't mount a remedial
strategy urgently.
It did, introducing a swathe of legislation which would
inhibit all
opposition activity.
But last year, there was
panic generated from within, the key player
being the political greenhorn
Jonathan Moyo. The so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration didn't have the impact
of the Communist Manifesto, but it shook
the party to its very
foundations.
For the first time, neutralists spoke of the
probability of rifts of
an unprecedented proportion occurring in the party.
But the, analysts were
amazed that there was no violence in the aftermath of
the sacking of the
provincial chairpersons who attended the meeting in
Tsholotsho.
One potent reason could be that the proponents of
the so-called
declaration did not excite ordinary Zanu PF members and even
ordinary
citizens in a manner to inspire confidence in their vision - if
there was
such a vision.
As of now, it is not clear if
Moyo, his comrades-in-arms, Patrick
Chinamasa and Joseph Made will remain in
the cabinet. Moyo's future will be
of particular interest to the journalism
fraternity.
He blew in like a hurricane in 2000, virtually
destroying a number of
newspapers and television stations. Before he came
in, there had existence
in media circles a feeling that the government had
decided to be even-handed
in its handling of non-government
media.
After Moyo took over the reins, the media was
immediately placed on
notice: they would dance to his tune or there would be
no place for them in
the arena.
What damage this Stalinist
stance inflicted on Zimbabwe's reputation
worldwide was incalculable. It
will be some time before any foreign
journalists can speak of coming to
Zimbabwe without fearing for their
safety, perhaps even their
lives.
But the most evil act for which Moyo will be remembered
is his
introduction of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act
(AIPPA) in 2002.
A year later, it had closed down The
Daily News and The Daily News on
Sunday. This year it closed down The
Tribune, owned by a Zanu PF Member of
Parliament.
In the
next few years, all other independent newspapers would have
been banned as
well. So, 2004 was definitely the year when Zanu PF displayed
a
vulnerability which must frighten not only its ordinary members, but even
ordinary citizens.
This is a party which has repudiated its
original contract with the
people: restore their dignity, restore their
faith in the true independence
of their country. - Editorial
Daily News online edition
People should be the government*s top
priority
Date: 3-Jan, 2005
IF all the feverish
activity in which Gideon Gono has been involved
since last year was aimed at
improving people's fractured lives - and not
winning awards for himself -
there was scant evidence of this during and
after the festive
season.
The most poignant reminder was the sight of long queues
at one
commercial bank in Harare last Tuesday. People were furious with the
bank
for not giving them their money because the Reserve Bank had closed it
down
just before Christmas.
Only a few depositors were able
to access their salaries from the
bank. Most went home empty-handed, as they
did before the holidays. This
scenario has been repeated many times over
since the tough approach was
adopted towards recalcitrant financial
institutions as part of the economic
turnaround strategy.
Even accepting that there is no gain without pain - that it will be
difficult for us all in the interim, but will be beautiful in the end -
there is something awry here.
It doesn't seem as if the
turnaround programme was originally aimed
primarily at ending a crisis of
the government's own creation which resulted
in the near-collapse of the
dollar and the almost zero-value of the workers'
disposable
incomes.
To many people, there was a public relations element
in the exercise
which is only now beginning to emerge as its centrepiece.
There is a lot of
noise signifying absolutely nothing.
Inflation may have gone down, but the effects on the disposable income
of
the worker is not going to be felt in the short term. So the prices of
basic
commodities in the supermarkets remain as high as they were and a
postage
stamp from Point A to Point B in the Harare central business
district still
costs $6 500.
The turnaround programme may be a roaring success
in the government
news media, but the reality is far less
rosy.
Zimbabweans are resourceful and innovative in times of
deprivation.
But even their talents are limited: most of them spent the
worst Christmas
holiday of their lives this year and they can, with some
justification,
blame it all on the government.
What Gono
and his supporters, including President Robert Mugabe, now
holidaying in
sunny Malaysia, must appreciate is that if this turnaround
strategy has no
impact at all on the people's cost of living it is
meaningless.
If the people decide to penalise Mugabe, Gono,
Zanu PF and the
government for this misery, at the elections in March, they
would be wise
not to accuse their usual suspects - Tony Blair, George W
Bush, the IMF or
the World Bank.
Daily News online edition
Why despots, racists, can claim to be
godly
Date: 3-Jan, 2005
By Munodii
Kunzwa
BENITO Mussolini was a Catholic. Being Italian, it must
be assumed he
could not help being born Catholic.
Adolf
Hitler? All we can assume is that he was a baptised Christian.
Whether he
practised it is something else, though. In the bunker in Berlin,
during
their last moments together, who married Hitler and Eva Broun? Not an
imam
or a rabbi - that's for sure.
Certainly, Hitler was not a
Buddhist or a Muslim. But Osama bin Laden
is a Muslim - some would say a mad
Muslim, but a Muslim nonetheless, from
the country which gave the world
Mohammed the Prophet.
Idi Amin was a Muslim, as bad an example
of that faith as you are ever
likely to find this side of Mecca and Medina.
Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin
denounced religion, one of them calling it "the
opium of the masses".
But both may have been baptised into
their parents' religions -
Judaism for Marx and Russian Orthodox for
Lenin.
Mao was an atheist, but there are many Christians in
China today,
although the country is atheist, as is the Democratic People's
Republic of
Korea, founded by Kim Il Sung, a Mao-wannabe.
Cuba was colonised by Spain, so must have started off as a
predominantly
Catholic country. Fulgencio Batista, the dictator who
hightailed out of
there as Fidel Castro's guerrillas neared Havana, had to
be
Catholic.
Today, Cuba is predominantly atheist, as was its
former mentor, the
late Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.
Similarly afflicted or blessed - depending on your
point of view - was
most of Eastern Europe, after the Second World War, and
Winston Churchill's
warning of an Iron Curtain.
What killed
Communism? Its promotion of atheism? Did the people
eventually cotton on to
the probability that some of the most magnificent
events in the world could
not have occurred in the absence of some Supreme
Being?
And
that this Being was God or Allah? Did they finally accept that
even the
overthrow of the cruel feudalistic regimes of the Czars could not
have
occurred if Some Supreme Entity had not decreed that the poverty,
suffering
and subjugation of the people were evil and had to be ended once
and for
all?
Perhaps they looked closely at the dismantling of
colonialism in what,
for the so-called Dark Continent, began as The Scramble
for Africa. The
Europeans, all practising Christians, carved up the
continent among
themselves for the purpose of plundering it for its wealth
and expanding
their empires.
They even brought with them
their religion, Christianity. Some said
they used the Bible to dupe the
Africans into accepting colonialism. But did
a Supreme Being see through
this ruse and display His outrage at this by
arming the Africans with the
courage, determination, if not the arms, to
overthrow the evil
colonialists?
It took some time and the end-result was not
always the glorious
release from bondage that the people hoped for. In many
instances, the
result surpassed the barbarous excesses of colonialism, to
the extent that
the people secretly wished the colonialists would
return.
That, of course, is a weird notion, as weird as the
proposition that
all the post-colonial upheavals in Africa were authored by
the former
colonialists.
Recently, a well-known atheist
went public with the amazing
declaration that he had repudiated his faith in
the non-existence of God. He
said he was now convinced that there was
Someone In Charge of Things - or
words to that effect - because it was
unlikely they happened by accident or
of their own
volition.
This declaration wasn't trumpeted by Christendom as a
victory for the
faith. Islam didn't boast about it either, perhaps, for
different reasons.
What would Al Qaeda make of such a
statement?
How many suicide bombers would be unleashed
on....someone? My thesis
is the triumph of Good over Evil. It's neither a
starry-eyed belief in
Someone acting for the underdog without the underdog
acting, nor a
fatalistic faith in Someone Supreme not allowing the underdog
to be ground
into dust, even if they make him dirt.
It's
just this strange notion that no human being is created without
the
instinctive desire to want to matter, to have dignity, to be respected,
to
be acknowledged as someone to whom the unthinkable should not be done,
without anticipating the consequences of that action.
Quite
simply, it boils down to cutting someone's wrist with a knife
and not
expecting blood to start oozing out of the wound. Unless they are
bloodless
or a complete imbecile, they would cry out, hit out or bite
someone. If they
just sat there, numb with fear, then they would deserve to
be left to
perish. But this Someone Supreme would not create such people,
would He -
even if it was a She? That He cannot be seen is probably why
people like
Hitler and Mussolini and the others hoped they could get away
with what they
did. But even if He is unseen, what does the massive evidence
of Good
triumphing over Evil suggest? That this Unseen Supreme Being can be
as
merciful as He can be ruthless, if provoked. And right now, there are so
many who are provoking him in Zimbabwe, and believing they can get away with
it. Pray for them, before it's too late. Meanwhile, a belated Merry
Christmas and a Happy Year, better than the last one.
New Zealand Herald
Racing: Du Plessis says farewell, but not
goodbye
03.01.05
By MIKE DILLON
Mark Du Plessis might
be leaving New Zealand tomorrow, but he'll never
regret coming
here.
Bazelle's $350,000 New Zealand Herald Auckland Cup-winning rider
has taken
up another lengthy Singapore riding contract, but says he will
always call
New Zealand his home.
The Zimbabwean jockey has no such
thoughts about his homeland.
His brother-in-law Laurence Erasmus is now
farming in New Zealand after
leaving Zimbabwe with nothing after the
government confiscated his farm.
New Zealand has been good to Du Plessis
and in return he has proved to be a
talented rider.
He spent nearly
three lucrative years riding in Singapore, relocated briefly
to Macau then
returned to New Zealand last year.
He said he could only imagine that his
original attempt to be re-licensed in
Singapore was turned down because
officials had been upset at his shift to
Macau.
"I understand my
contract is for as long as I'm happy to ride in Singapore.
I'll be back here
one day to live. These sort of opportunities are too
lucrative to turn
down."
He'll be missed.
His ride on Bazelle was exactly what
trainer Paul Jenkins had asked for.
When the pair discussed tactics, Jenkins
asked Du Plessis to lead on the
Zabeel mare.
"That was fine until
Opie Bosson came around on Bel Air."
Bazelle trailed Bel Air, sat outside
the leader half a length back for a
while and exploded when Du Plessis
pressed the button at the top of the home
straight.
"She did exactly
what Paul said she would do."
A four-length break halfway down was
reduced to not much more than one by
the home-straight sprint from Melbourne
stayer Bondy, but the winners were
never in danger.
It was Du
Plessis' sixth group one victory.
The punch in the air with the left hand
on the line told the story.
New Zimbabwe
Zimbabweans in UK student visa scam
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 01/03/2005 03:35:52
THOUSANDS of bogus foreign
students -- including Zimbabweans and South
Africans -- are staying in
Britain by extending their visas as part of a
major immigration
scam.
Analysis of official figures suggests that posing as a student is a
major
back-door entry route into the United Kingdom, and raises questions
about
the government's control of immigration.
It is believed that
tens of thousands of people are arriving as ordinary
tourists and then
enrolling at bogus colleges, paying hundreds of pounds in
exchange for the
paperwork they need to get a student visa.
An investigation earlier last
year found that 250 fake colleges were
operating as fronts for highly
profitable immigration scams.
The report, by independent thinktank
Migrationwatch, compares figures for
student visas granted to new arrivals
with the number of extensions granted
to foreign nationals already in the
UK.
The most dramatic example was Jamaica. Last year, 425 Jamaicans were
allowed
into Britain as students. Government figures showed there were 780
Jamaicans
studying in UK higher-educational institutions, yet 13 220 student
visa
extensions were granted.
Figures for Zimbabwe are also striking,
with 10 535 extensions granted last
year compared to 790 student visas for
new arrivals, and an official figure
of 2 850 students already in the
country.
In future, foreigners wanting to switch to student visas will
need a place
on a university degree course.
Most tourist visas only
allow foreign nationals to stay in Britain for up to
six months, so long as
they don't work.
Having a student visa means they can stay for up to
three years, then apply
for repeated extensions and work legally while in
the UK. - Star
New Zimbabwe
Herald, Chronicle accused of 'zealous advocacy' for
Moyo
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 01/03/2005 01:03:12
ZIMBABWE'S
two main State-controlled daily newspapers have been censured by
the Office
of the President and Cabinet for "unwarranted editorialising" in
stories
published on Saturday rebutting reports that Information Minister
Jonathan
Moyo had resigned.
In a further sign that Moyo's star is waning within
government and the
ruling Zanu PF party, his subordinate George Charamba who
is the permanent
secretary in the Department of Information and Publicity,
accused the two
papers of "zealous advocacy" and "being aggrieved on behalf
of a private
party member".
What appears to have stung Charamba and
his superiors was reference in the
Herald and Chronicle's stories to the
provincial elections to elect central
committee members in which Moyo was
nominated by Tsholotsho, comprehensively
beating challenger Cain Mathema by
73 to 23 votes.However, he was later
dropped by President Robert Mugabe as
part of disciplinary measures over
claims Moyo planned to engineer a
coup.
"The latest onslaught against Prof Moyo comes against the
background of a
concerted campaign to discredit the Minister," the Herald
and the Chronicle
reported Saturday. "Trouble for Prof Moyo started after a
speech and prize
giving day ceremony at Dinyane Secondary School in
Tsholotsho which was
attended by several senior Government and Zanu PF
officials, which his
enemies took as an opportunity to bring him
down."
In a strongly-worded statement issued Saturday, Charamba said the
two papers'
stories refuting the alleged resignation were "disrespectful to
the
Presidency and the Zanu-PF Politburo".
"To date, the minister
himself has not registered any public rejection of
the disciplinary action
meted out against him by his party, and on the basis
of which sentiments
expressed in the article (Herald and Chronicle story)
might have been
justified," said Charamba.
"What the editors have done in the story
amounts to being aggrieved on
behalf of a private party member. This is
untoward, partisan and quite
overboard given that the matter is between a
party and its member who, in
the present circumstances, can only be assumed
to have submitted himself to
his party's actions of censure and
sanction.
"The report itself is a straight story falling outside an
editorial comment,
and based solely on unnamed sources. It thus, amounts to
unwarranted
editorialising, itself quite unprofessional," blasted
Charamba.
He added: "Until Professor Moyo, strictly as a member of his
party,
expressed public dissatisfaction with decisions of his party,
newspapers had
no right or reason to invent a grievance for
him."
"Overall, therefore, the piece smacked of zealous advocacy made all
the more
odd by the fact that it appeared in two leading national newspapers
which
should be better informed about party and Government matters," said
Charamba.
Moyo who is currently in Kenya on holiday with his family
has filed a
complaint with the media watchdog -- the Media and Information
Commission
over a story carried by the weekly Financial Gazette which said
he had
resigned.
The Financial Gazette claimed on Friday that Moyo
had tendered his
resignation to Acting President Joyce Mujuru on Tuesday,
but had been
advised to wait for the return of President Mugabe who is on
holiday in
Malaysia.
"The Honourable Minister is away on holiday and
is expected to resume his
State duties by the second week of January,"
Charamba said in an earlier
statement released on Friday.
The
Financial Gazette, quoting "impeccable sources", reported that Moyo had
resigned "following a sharp twist in his political fortunes".
The
Chronicle and the Herald reported Saturday that Moyo had also instructed
his
lawyers Muzangaza, Mandaza and Tomana to "institute legal action against
the
Financial Gazette over the false story".
"He (Moyo) has also lodged a
complaint with the Media and Information
Commission (MIC) over the
fictitious story," the Herald reported. The MIC
can instigate the police to
arrest journalists for writing "falsehoods", and
convicted journalists face
up to 2 years in jail.
The Chronicle said the Financial Gazette report
was "a desperate attempt by
Prof Moyo's detractors to confuse the nation".
The paper said there was also
"a clear indication of the involvement of
imperialist forces".
The Scotsman
Cabinet Ministers Suspected of
Spying
"PA"
At least two Cabinet ministers in Zimbabwe are
suspected of passing official
secrets to Western intelligence agencies
seeking to spy on President Robert
Mugabe's government, the state Sunday
Mail reported.
The newspaper, a main government mouthpiece, said security
authorities were
closing in on several top ruling-party and government
officials believed to
have divulged confidential information to "hostile
intelligence agencies,"
including the US Central Intelligence Agency and
Britain's MI5.
It said Zimbabwe security authorities were investigating
at least two
Cabinet ministers and another lawmaker who had access to
high-level
government and ruling-party meetings and who may have given
information to
foreign-based Zimbabwean officials, who sold it.
"The
officials would receive handsome payments from enemy agencies," the
Sunday
Mail said.
The paper said Erasmus Moyo, a diplomat at the Zimbabwe
embassy in Geneva,
disappeared after the arrest last month of a prominent
ruling-party
politician and four others on allegations of spying.
It
said Moyo, who was being recalled to Harare, checked in for a homeward
bound
flight but then slipped away from colleagues escorting him to Geneva
airport.
Philip Chiyangwa, a prominent lawmaker; Godfrey Dzvairo, the
country's
ambassador-designate to neighbouring Mozambique; and three other
ruling-party officials were charged last week in a Harare court under the
Official Secrets Act.
The men face a fine or a maximum 20 years in
prison.
Chiyangwa is a legislator for the parliamentary district of
Chinhoyi, 75
miles north-west of Harare, and one of 10 ruling-party
provincial chairmen.
Chiyangwa, a wealthy businessman known for his
flamboyant lifestyle amid an
economic crisis that has left 80% of the
population in poverty, was detained
in March on corruption and perjury
allegations.
He was acquitted on those charges.
Zimbabwe has
repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of backing
Mugabe's
opponents and working toward his ouster through "regime change."
The
ruling party suffered deep divisions last year over Mugabe's autocratic
style of rule.
Sunday Mail - Zimbabwe
Festive season death toll reaches 58
Sunday
Mail Reporter
THE road accident death toll during the festive season had by
yesterday
afternoon reached a total of 58, a slight decrease from 63 deaths
recorded
during the corresponding period last year.
According to
police spokes-person Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, there was
an increase
in road accidents, with 847 accidents recorded countrywide while
634 people
were injured.
A total of 605 accidents, 63 deaths and 485 injuries were
recorded during
the same period last year.
Harare recorded the
highest number of deaths with 12, closely followed by
Manicaland and
Mashonaland East both with 10, while Matabeleland South had
nine.
Mashonaland Central recorded six deaths, while Masvingo and Midlands
both
recorded three fatalities. Mashonaland West and Bulawayo recorded two
and
one death respectively.
Harare also had the highest number of accidents
with 332, followed by
Bulawayo (106) while Mashonaland East had 83.
Manicaland had 69 accidents,
Midlands 59, Matabeleland North 53,
Matabeleland South 48 while Mashonaland
West had 44.
Masvingo and
Mashonaland Central recorded 33 and 20 accidents respectively.
The
highest number of people injured in road accidents was in Harare with
143,
followed by Mashonaland East with 84, Masvingo 69, Matabeleland North
62,
while Mashonaland West had 59.
Manicaland recorded 56 injuries, Bulawayo
46, Mashonaland Central 43,
Midlands 42 and Matabeleland South
30.
Supt Mandipaka attributed most of the accidents to inattention,
vehicle
defects, misjudgment and tyre bursts.
"Some accidents have
been caused by stray domestic and wild animals, while a
few were caused by
driving under the influence of alcohol," he said.
He urged the motoring
public to exercise caution on the road to avoid more
fatalities and
injuries.
Meanwhile, police in Harare have collected over $430 million in
revenue over
the past week from errant motorists and commuter omnibus
operators.
The officer commanding traffic, Harare District, Chief
Superintendent Enoch
Marisa, said the revenue was from the operations
conducted from December 21
to last Wednesday.
He said during the
period a total of 3 453 tickets were issued and revenue
amounting to $430
million was realised.
"We have made 3 453 arrests since last week and we
will continue arresting
errant commuter operators and other motorists until
bad practices are
eradicated.
"It is sad that many motorists resort
to negligent driving at a time when
they should be respecting their lives
and others," he said.
Supt Marisa said the revenue collected was for
various offenses, including
spot fines spanning from overcharging, driving
without licences, driving
whilst drunk, driving unroadworthy vehicles and
overloading.
"The culprits were fined for contravening various sections
of the Traffic
Offences Act.
"Overcharging commuter omnibus operators
were fined $25 000 per every
overcharged passenger. The same amount was
charged for failing to stop at
red robots and for picking up and dropping
off passengers at dangerous
spots.
Overloading attracted a fine of
$25 000 per extra passenger,"said Supt
Marisa.
He also said police
were targeting commuter omnibus operators who were
travelling outside their
designated routes and those drivers who did not
have medical endorsements
and defensive driving certificates and 222
vehicles were impounded for
having defects.
"We would also like to urge the public to report on any
corrupt officers on
the roads as well as overcharging incidents," Supt
Marisa said.
Sunday Mail - Zimbabwe
Tuition fees pegged at $8,5m
Sunday Mail
Reporter
WITH schools opening for the first term next week, the Government is
once
again on a collision course with some private schools after it pegged
the
maximum tuition fees that the schools should charge at $8,5
million.
The Acting Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Cde Chris
Bowora, told
The Sunday Mail in an interview on Friday that the school fee
ceiling was
set following recent deliberations in Cabinet.
He said
Cabinet was concerned with the prevailing situation under which the
ministry
was locked in protracted wrangles with private schools over the
tuition fees
that they should charge.
In another twist to the impasse, the High Court
last week reportedly
directed 15 schools that had appealed against the
setting of fees by the
ministry to adhere to this structure pending the
outcome of the court case.
The schools lodged the appeal some two weeks
ago, arguing the ministry's
prescribed fees were not viable. They, among
other aspects of the appeal,
sought to bar the ministry from closing or
interfering with schools that
chose to implement different tuition
fees.
"Cabinet approved $8,5 million as the maximum that any school could
be paid
after the minister took the issue to Cabinet for consideration,"
said Mr
Bowora. "We would like to make it categorically clear that those who
flout
the stipulations will be prosecuted."
According to Mr Bowora,
the ministry some time last year wrote to schools
countrywide requesting
them to submit school fee increase proposals for the
2004 first term before
the end of October.
But the proposals that some of the schools made were
outrageous, he said.
Hillcrest College in Mutare proposed to increase its
fees to $26 million,
Falcon College in Esigodini near Bulawayo $24 million,
Whitestone Primary
School $21 million, Peter House Boys College in Marondera
$28 million and
Peterhouse Girls' College $20 million.
Watershed
College in Marondera had proposed to charge $20 million, Lomagundi
College
in Chinhoyi $20 million while Chisipite Senior School and Arundel
School in
Harare wanted to charge $16 million each.
It is understood the ministry
had previously pegged next term's maximum fees
at $6,5 million but
aggressive approaches by the schools to have the fees
reviewed compelled the
minister, Cde Aeneas Chigwedere, to seek a way
forward from
Cabinet.
The schools cited, among other issues, rising labour, stationery
and basic
commodity costs as justifications for the proposed tuition charge
increases.
"What we, however, realised is that the majority of these
schools intended
to use a huge chunk of the millions (of dollars) to pay
their teachers,"
said Mr Bowora.
"What should be realised is that it
is not the parents' duty to pay
teachers. Each school has a quota for civil
service teachers and the
Government will always provide salaries for
these.
"It has emerged that these schools have more teachers than the
recommended
numbers in an apparent bid to generate employment for their
friends and
relatives. We have done research and never in the world have we
seen a
teacher to student ratio such as that in these schools."
It is
also understood that some schools have "officially" accepted
Government-stipulated fees but are now requesting parents to pay "donations"
for next term.
A parent whose child attends St Ignatius College in
Chishawasha said though
next term's fees were about $3 million, the school
has since dispatched
invoices to parents requesting them to pay $1,4 million
in "donations".
The parent said because they had in previous terms failed
to pay the
"donations" the school had requested, the arrears were staggered
and now has
to pay a cumulative $7 million next term.
The school
authorities say the "donation" is not compulsory and yet they
make vigorous
follow-ups until the amount is paid, said the concerned parent
who has since
alerted the ministry.
Mr Bowora confirmed he had received a similar
report involving "one
province". Although he could not be drawn to reveal
the names of the
school(s) he said the practice was an offence that called
for prosecution.
Despite previous efforts by the Ministry of Education,
Sport and Culture to
contain fee increases, the saga has raged on unabated,
casting doubts to
whether a lasting solution to the problem could be
found.
The on-going fiasco, which saw the police intervening at the
ministry's
instigation, has stirred mixed feelings among parents. While some
have since
thrown their full weight behind schools demanding higher fees,
others,
especially those in the low to medium-income bracket, continue to
raise
concern over the situation. Some parents who spoke to The Sunday Mail
alleged that those advocating fee increases do not bear the brunt of high
education expenses since their employers cater for their children's tuition
fee payments.
Said one parent: "Although as the parents we are
supposed to collectively
propose fee increases, it is those among us whose
children's fees are paid
by companies that advocate hefty hikes.
"I
propose that a lasting solution to the problem be urgently found because
some of us will in due course fail to pay for our children's
education."
Sunday Mail - Zimbabwe
'New paper to blame for high failure
rate'
Sunday Mail Reporter
THE introduction of a second paper, which
is a written narrative in the
Grade Seven examinations, has been blamed for
the high failure rate this
year.
The second paper in all four
subjects was introduced last year by the
Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture following criticism that Grade
Seven pupils were being inadequately
tested through the multiple choice
questions.
This has put several
secondary school heads who depend on these results for
recruiting Form Ones
in a quandary as they have been forced to revise the
maximum number of units
required for entry qualification.
Some prospective pupils at St David's
Bonda Girls' High in Manicaland told
this paper that they had written and
passed the school's entrance test and
had secured Form One places but
subject to them getting not more than eight
units.
Four of these
girls had 10 and 12 units, with three getting 14 units. They
said they had
now lost their places because the school insisted that they
should have
obtained eight units and below.
The headmistress of the school could not
be reached for comment.
The headmaster of Goromonzi High School, Mr
Abisha Mujeni, said the low pass
rate had forced his school to move from the
traditional four units enrolment
to nine units.
"When we started
recruiting there was only one boy with four units while the
girls started at
five units. The majority of the boys had nine units and we
had to
accommodate them. This could have been caused by the introduction of
a
written composition paper which both the teachers and pupils are not quite
familiar with.
"Grade Seven teachers have to be re-trained on how to
handle this paper if
we are to avert this high failure rate," said Mr
Mujeni.
Howard High School in Mashonaland Central was also forced to
accommodate
pupils with as high as 15 units.
A teacher at the school
told The Sunday Mail that the school usually
reserved a special class for
four unit pupils from Barwick School, a private
weekly boarding school in
Concession, but this was not to be this year.
"As far as I know no pupil
at Barwick got four units. And the best pupil we
have recruited here at
Howard had seven units. Only Umvukwes and Amandas
schools had a pupil each
who obtained four units," said the teacher.
Brother Chirombe, the
principal at Nyanga High School, also known as Marist
Brothers Nyanga, said
they had recruited pupils on the basis of an entrance
test set at the school
and so were not worried about the poor results.
"We have faith in our
entrance tests. Our recruitment in August is final.
Even if pupils who
passed our test did not do well in the Grade Seven
examinations, we are not
worried because we believe that if they passed our
test, they make the
grade," said Brother Chirombe.
Several senior education officials
interviewed by The Sunday Mail confirmed
that pupils in their regions
performed badly in the Grade Seven national
examinations that were written
in October.
Although the regional director of Mashonaland Central, Mr
Mutsvangwa, could
not be reached for comment, a senior education official in
his office who
preferred anonymity confirmed that only two pupils in the
whole province
managed to score four units.
"For the second year
running, pupils' performance in the Grade Seven
examinations has been poor.
Although we have not yet analysed reasons for
this poor performance, we
suspect the introduction of the written narrative
paper has significantly
contributed to the high failure rate," said the
official.
The
regional director for Mashonaland East, Mr Samuel Mutomba, also
confirmed
that Grade Seven results in his region were appalling and he, too,
attributed this to the introduction of the written narrative paper now
commonly referred to as Paper II.
The deputy provincial education
director (Quality Assurance) for the same
province, Mr Edson Mutuwira, said
the general projections in Mashona-land
East showed that there was a poor
performance in Mathematics and that pupils
did better in
English.
"The general performance of the province this year was poorer
than last year's.
I think we have to organise more training workshops for
our teachers so that
they improve their performance. I also think with the
new teachers coming
out of the colleges following the directive that only
those with O-level
Mathematics could be accepted for training, the
performance of pupils in
Mathematics will improve," said Mr
Mutuwira.
The deputy regional director for Harare, Mr Calvin Mazula, said
it was too
early to give a fair analysis of his region's
performance.
No comments could be elicited from Matabeleland North
province while the
deputy regional director for Matabeleland South, Mr
Tofara Moyo, said there
was a drop in performance in his
province.
"Compared to last year the drop was significant in Mathematics
and English.
In some schools the failure rate is just too high and we are
getting
concerned with these developments," said Mr Moyo.
In
Manicaland, officials in the regional director's office confirmed that
pupils who sat for the Grade Seven papers this year did badly and this has
led to schools like St Augustine's High to lower their cut-off points to 12
units, according to a teacher at the school who declined to be
identified.
Sunday Mirror, Zimbabwe
Old guard to bounce back into cabinet
Kuda
Chikwanda
. . . As more women could become ministers
ZANU PF young
turks, long viewed as the future of the ruling party at a time
when most of
the party's founders and stalwarts ponder retirement, are
likely to be
elbowed out of the running for cabinet posts next year, in a
move that could
see a cabinet dominated by the Zanu PF old guard and women.
According to
highly placed sources within the ruling party, the young turks
had come
under scrutiny owing to a number of misdemeanours they had
committed that
had sown elements of mistrust amongst the old guard on the
intentions of the
younger generation vis-à-vis the future of the 41-year-old
revolutionary
party.
"They are not trustworthy anymore. Cabinet positions will most
likely revert
to the old guard who are trusted more by President (Robert)
Mugabe. The
majority of the so-called young turks will be shown the exit
when cabinet is
announced," said one highly placed source within the ruling
party.
The source added that it was highly probable that next year's
cabinet would
also constitute more women than the current.
The ruling
party's "young turks" are the new breed of politicians - valued
for being
technocrats with innovative ideas and also treasured for their
links with
the business community.
Former Zanu PF Secretary-General Edgar Tekere
lent his weight to the
decision to sideline certain young turks - whom he
described as the "young
blood" - who had riled the Zanu PF top
leadership.
"They should not disrespect their elders in the party in the
manner that
Jonathan Moyo did. Rather they should learn to mingle and learn
from the old
guard better known as the founding fathers. While the Zanu PF
elders should
not stand in the way of new ideas, the young blood should be
respectful of
the old timers in the party," said Tekere.
Tekere said
it was highly probable that most young turks would fail to make
it to
cabinet following the decision to drop most of the youthful Zanu PF
politicians from the Central Committee and Politburo.
Chief amongst
the transgressions committed by the young turks was the
Tsholotsho debacle
that saw a number of influential Zanu PF politicians and
cabinet ministers
allegedly attempting to rout the nomination of Joyce
Mujuru to the Zanu PF
presidium.
The Tsholotsho fiasco already claimed the scalps of mercurial
Information
and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo and incumbent Justice,
Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa who attended the
infamous
Tsholotsho meeting.
Moyo was thrown out of both the Central
Committee and Politburo making his
chances of becoming Member of Parliament
and minister almost nil, whilst
Chinamasa managed to scrape through the
Central Committee nominations but
lost his Politburo post of Secretary for
Legal Affairs.
Energy Minister July Moyo was suspended as Midlands
provincial chairman for
his role in the Tsholotsho misadventure, whose
invitations were extended to
quite a sizeable number of young turks in the
ruling party believed to be
more business-oriented than political
actors.
Five other provincial chairmen who include Tele-Access chief,
Daniel Shumba
received their suspension orders from the party, ruling out
their
participation from next year's parliamentary polls, and subsequent
exclusion
from cabinet posts.
Other Zanu PF young blood members
invited to Tsholotsho include Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made, Transport
Minister Chris Mushohwe and Mashonaland West
provincial chairman Phillip
Chiyangwa.
All three failed to attend the iniquitous meeting on the day
in question.
President Mugabe declared a couple of months ago that he
would not appoint
to ministerial status anyone who was not elected to
parliament. Furthermore
the ruling party Political Commissar Elliot Manyika
announced last week that
Zanu PF had set new guidelines that clearly spell
out that only those in the
Central Committee, National Consultative Assembly
and Provincial Executives
were eligible for the party's primary elections
that would be used to select
candidates to represent Zanu PF in the March
elections. The sources also
pointed out that the ruling party had also taken
note of the involvement of
young turks in numerous scandals such as multiple
farm ownership, disrespect
for elders in the party, and economic crimes that
have had debilitating
effects for the economy, and in addition, tarnished
the public's perception
of the ruling party.
"While senior party
officials were also implicated in such scandals, you
should admit that the
majority of implicated individuals are the same
so-called young turks. The
party needs rejuvenation but not at the hands of
some of these individuals.
They simply pose a threat to the party," said the
source.
Moyo,
Mushohwe, Made and Chinamasa were issued with withdrawal letters over
five
months ago for being multiple farm owners; charges they sought to get
around
by declaring that they were not in possession of the farms in
question, but
rather that the farms had been allocated to close family
relatives.
This led to arguments that the fingered ministers were
controlling the farms
through proxy.
However another source, who
refused to be identified for fear of backlash in
the ruling party circles,
stipulated that while most young turks would not
make it to cabinet, those
whose performances as ministers were noteworthy
and those who were not
implicated in any acts of indiscipline in the party
would be retained as
ministers.
In addition, it was highlighted that members of the old guard
with known
records of non-performance were likely to be sidelined in the
process making
way for Zanu PF senior politicians known to tolerate no
nonsense at a time
when Zanu PF is desperate to make sure Zimbabwe's
economic recovery is
guaranteed.
Sunday Mirror, Zimbabwe
Zanu PF masters of violence: MDC
Staff
Writer
In spite of the current rhetoric about government's commitment to
curbing
political violence ahead of next year's parliamentary elections, the
phenomenon is likely to persist because government lacks the political will
to decisively deal with the issue, an MDC official said
recently.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror on Wednesday, Paul Themba Nyathi
said
government is reluctant to deal with violence because it has profited
from
it. "I don't believe this government has the political will to deal
with
political violence. We would be very happy to participate in an
election,
which is free of violence, but the ruling party is bent on using
violence
because it has proved an effective tool that it has used to retain
power,"
he said. Nyathi said the recent arrests of two ruling party
legislators over
allegations of inciting intra-party violence is mere
posturing on the part
of government.
"Don't be fooled. There is
factionalism in Zanu PF, and the two MPs were
just unfortunate in that they
belong to the factions that are not
influential, hence they were used as
scapegoats. If you take the case of
(Kindness) Paradza, for instance, why
was he arrested and (Leo) Mugabe left
out?" Nyathi queried.
Paradza
was arrested last Sunday after violent clashes erupted between his
supporters and those loyal to Mugabe, his opponent in Zanu PF primary
elections that will be held on January 15.
Phone Madiro another
ruling party legislator for Hurungwe is also out on
$500 000 bail, on
charges of inciting violence in his constituency.
President Robert Mugabe
and police commissioner Augustine Chihuri recently
said the government and
police will not tolerate any political violence
during next year's elections
and added that everything was in place to deal
with the problem.
Both
the ruling party and MDC have in the past traded accusations and
counter-accusations over who instigates inter-party political violence. On
one hand government has alleged that the opposition is used by the west to
foment violence in order to portray lack of good governance and rule of law
as an ostensible reason to subvert the country's sovereignty and effect
regime change.
The MDC has however, argued that the ruling party has
sanctioned political
violence through the use of state machinery and youths
from the national
youth training centres against its opponents to keep its
stranglehold on
power. Nyathi maintained that his party has been at the
receiving end of
most of the inter-party political violence that the country
has witnessed.
"It is a simple and straightforward issue. If you look at
the statistics,
you will see that since 2000, it is the MDC that has had the
most victims.
Thousands have been tortured, maimed and some have even been
killed. "The
saddest thing is that although the perpetrators are known, not
a single
conviction has been made on the cases. All over the world, it's the
duty of
government to protect its citizens. The police might have the
capacity to
deal with violence, but for as long as they remain partisan they
will not be
able to deal with it effectively," Nyathi said. Contacted for
comment police
spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka denied that the police were
partisan and said
that they would deal with political violence wherever it
occurred regardless
of who would have caused it.
Asked about reports
that some war veterans had declared certain places no-go
areas for the
opposition and whether this was not likely to lead to violence
Mandipaka
said he had only heard of such reports in the press. Pressed to
say whether
the police had the capacity to ensure that political violence in
next year's
election would not reach the levels witnessed in the 2000
parliamentary and
2002 presidential polls, Mandipaka reiterated that the
police were ready for
any eventualities.
With parliamentary elections a few months away there
have been fears of a
resurgence of political violence.
However, some
observers have said political violence in the forthcoming
election is not
likely to reach the heights reached in the 2000 and 2002
polls as the
opposition, which posed the most serious challenge to the
ruling party since
independence, no longer appears to enjoy the same support
it did at its
inception.