afrol News / The Zimbabwean, 15 November - The commanders of Zimbabwe's joint forces have confronted President Robert Mugabe about his succession plans - but once again the wily politician has evaded the issue. Generals told President Mugabe he should stick to his plan to step down in 2008, and that he should pick a successor within the country's military leadership.

Authoritative sources said the top generals, under the umbrella of the Joint Operation Command (JOC), met Zimbabwean President Mugabe in one of their regular briefings ahead of the ruling ZANU-PF party conference scheduled in two weeks time.

They told him frankly that he should act now on his promise to step down in 2008 and appoint a successor in order to "to preserve his legacy" it was learnt this week. Sources said the commanders were particularly concerned to find out from Mr Mugabe himself whether he intends to remain Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces after March 2008.

"The JOC heads told the President that they wanted to preserve his legacy, and they were amenable to the idea of any serving or retired army general coming in as his successor. They also emphasised that any change of civilian government should be done constitutionally," said a source close to the meeting.

The JOC comprises General Constantine Chiwenga, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Phillip Valerio Sibanda, Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, Air Marshall Perence Shiri of the Airforce, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Happyton Bonyongwe, Director-General of the spy agency, Central Intelligence Organisation.

The generals have been largely silent on their preferred alternative to President Mugabe, and did not propose any particular candidate during the meeting.

They however told the President that the absence of a clear succession plan was fuelling apprehension. This could be quelled by the appointment of a popular candidate who could unite the warring factions within the ruling party that have resulted in its dwindling national support base in recent months.

Other sources said the generals' feelings were shared by a number of senior ZANU-PF officials who had clandestinely lobbied them to confront the 82-year-old leader and challenge him on whether he would back up his retirement words with deeds in the interest of peace.

However, top ruling party sources said the succession issue was not even on the provisional agenda.

Although President Mugabe has permitted debate on the succession, he has at the same time moved swiftly to destroy politically anyone who has declared an ambition to succeed him. He recently castigated his cabinet colleagues for consulting n'angas - traditional medicine men - in an effort to gain favour.

He is also well known for saying one thing and doing another. He characteristically ducked the issues raised by the generals saying supporters should be urged to rally behind the ruling party.

There is a strong element with ZANU-PF that wants him to extend his stay until 2010, thus synchronising the general and presidential elections every five years. But analysts say the President no longer has the stamina nor the appeal to woo a restless and angry electorate, reeling from record inflation and unemployment.

According to the highly placed sources, it was pointed out to Mr Mugabe in the meeting that his support base in former ZANU-PF strongholds such as Masvingo, the Midlands and Manicaland had dwindled and that he could only bank on the vote in the Zimbabwean province of Mashonaland.

Some analysts said the Harare cabinet had also been weakened by divisions as powerful military and business factions tried to influence its economic decisions and jockey for favourable positions in the nearing post-Mugabe era.

By Gift Phiri

© afrol News / The Zimbabwean

Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:14 PM GMT

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - One fire lit more than a century ago by British colonialists burns on in southern Africa not as a scorching reminder of oppression but as a torch lighting a path.

The legacy of colonial and mission education remains strong even in Zimbabwe, locked in a bitter battle with its former colonial master and suffering economic meltdown.

Zambia and Malawi, the other, very different members of the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, share the trend.

Regional experts say that after independence, African nationalists expanded a system in which they either taught or studied, believing education was key to black advancement.

"There is a common heritage in the school system that has worked well for the region," said Eldred Masunungure of the University of Zimbabwe. "The education torch is burning brightly but in other areas, the light is just flickering."

Radicals in the three countries, which for 10 years to 1963 were tied together in a forced political marriage as British colonies, have at times agitated for an overhaul.

But they have only won only slight changes from bureaucrats wary of tinkering with success and more public schools have been opened more private and Christian-run mission colleges allowed.

"There are problems of course, but compared to other countries and regions, the level of investment in education is quite commendable and the results are evident," a regional (British Council) education official said.

Those results are a mixed blessing for the countries themselves as many well-educated, English-speaking professionals head overseas.

EDUCATED BUT UNEMPLOYED

Zimbabwe is a case in point.

President Robert Mugabe, a Jesuit-educated teacher who acquired half a dozen degrees while in detention for 10 years up to 1974, is credited even by his critics with investing heavily in education at independence in 1980.

Thousands of schools were built, and primary and basic secondary education were practically made compulsory.

Its secondary education is now rated among the top three in Africa after Tunisia and Kenya in the latest U.N. survey, but many say this is threatened by the economic slide.

With the economy shrunk by more than a third in eight years in a crisis blamed on Mugabe's policies and unemployment at 80 percent, an army of educated and trained students are jobless.

An average 200,000 school leavers join the job market yearly but a quarter of Zimbabwe's 12 million people -- including many skilled workers -- have been forced to seek a living abroad.

In Zambia, experts say steady investment in education over the years is producing a fair number of trained professionals who, along those from Zimbabwe and Malawi, often seek work in richer neighbouring economies such as South Africa and Botswana.

While Zambia's economy has been growing at an average 5.1 percent over the last five years, critics say the state now has to back up its drive to improve primary education by pouring resources into higher education.

Embarrassingly, Zambia's last public secondary school was built in 1970, and the country has only two universities -- the University of Zambia in Lusaka and another on the Copperbelt.

"In comparison to other African countries, we have a good base and we are fairly competitive. But there is a lot more to do," says former Zambian Education Minister Brian Chituwo.

"We have to bridge the growing gap in teacher training, to work hard to maintain and to improve standards," he added.

"ETON OF AFRICA"

Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe have three types of schools -- public, private and mission -- with local boards to run exams and sometimes offer highly-respected Cambridge Education examinations and certificates.

Their universities also manage their own courses along the traditional British system and many have exchange programmes with colleges in the former colonial power.

But while the British education legacy survives in many forms today, former Malawian strongman Hastings Kamuzu Banda went one step further in the 1980s.

Banda, the official Life President of Malawi, which he ruled for 30 years until 1994, carved an elite school in middle of one of the world's poorest countries, a move seen by his critics as a reflection of a stiff and eccentric character.

The Kamuzu Academy, predominantly staffed by tutors from Britain, offered studies in classics because the "Ngwazi," or Saviour as Banda was known, believed no person was truly educated unless had studied Latin and Greek.

The academy's immaculate buildings set in green lawns and a landscaped garden were dubbed the "Eton of Africa" by Banda's admirers. Its stature declined with his loss of power and the government recently formed a trust to maintain standards.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe says despite the economic slide, his government is determined to build on its heritage, noting he and former white Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith both benefited from an education trust founded by Cecil John Rhodes who led British colonialism in southern Africa in the 1890s.

"We share Rhodes in that respect," he said.