Zim Online
by Nqobizitha Khumalo Wednesday 14 November
2007
BULAWAYO – An alarming 25 000 Zimbabwean school teachers
have left the
country since January, unhappy over poor pay and working
conditions, a
teachers union said on Tuesday.
The Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), which said it is carrying
out an audit of
teachers in the country, said out of that total 10 000
teachers had left in
the last three months alone despite the government
hiking teachers’ and
other civil servants’ salaries in October.
The union said its survey had
also revealed that the exodus was no longer
limited to mostly junior to
middle–ranking teachers, with senior and more
experienced educationists such
as district education officers and provincial
directors also
leaving.
“By August 15 000 teachers had left the country. This number is
now 25 000
according to a survey we are conducting nationwide,” said PTUZ
secretary
general Raymond Majongwe.
Teachers earn Z$17 million per
month, far less than the $21 million an
average family of five is estimated
to require for basic goods and services
per month.
Majongwe said the
majority of teachers who quit had been absorbed in
neighbouring countries
such as Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, with many
working as labourers
at construction sites in South Africa, which is
preparing to host the 2010
Soccer World Cup tournament.
Both Minister of Education Aeneas Chigwedere
and his permanent secretary
Stephen Mahere were not immediately available
for comment on the matter.
However, Chigwedere last week told Parliament
that Harare would approach its
southern African neighbours to ask them to
stop taking Zimbabwe's teachers.
Thousands of skilled workers - including
doctors, nurses, engineers and
teachers - have been forced abroad by an
acute economic recession, critics
blame on repression and wrong policies by
President Robert Mugabe’s
government.
Zimbabwe employs about 108 000
teachers but educationists say the country
requires about 120 000 fully
qualified teachers to ensure effective learning
in schools.
All in
all, about three million Zimbabweans or a quarter of the country’s 12
million people live abroad after fleeing home because of political violence
and an economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation of nearly 8
000 percent, rising unemployment and food shortages.
Mugabe, in power
since Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence from Britain and seeking
another
five-year term in polls next year, denies ruining the economy and
instead
blames his country’s troubles on sabotage by his Western enemies. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Wilfred Nyamayaro Wednesday 14 November
2007
HARARE - Six-year old Henry Phiri runs to his mother's
side as the convoy of
vehicles draws near the plastic shack that they call
home.
The vehicles are belching red dust which immediately changes the
colour of
the black plastic roofs in this shanty settlement of over 5 000
families in
Hatcliffe Extension, 20 kilometres north of Harare.
Other
children scurry for cover while men and women in tattered clothes look
in
awe as the vehicles screech to an abrupt halt near a shack.
Upon catching
a glimpse of opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the men and
women break
into song and dance, chanting opposition slogans with a din that
disturbs
the tranquil afternoon atmosphere of this wretched settlement.
Not far
from the gathering crowd, a soldier who is guarding an unfinished
school
chuckles at the sight of Tsvangirai.
Several months ago, the soldier
would probably have hurried to his radio, to
call upon reinforcements to
come and "deal" with Tsvangirai and his
entourage.
Maybe times are
changing after all!
Even soldiers are feeling the pinch of a national
crisis that has seen
massive brain drain and disgruntlement in the civil
services sector as the
government fails to pay a decent wage to its
employees.
"Our president has come. The people's president has come," a
man shouts as
he rushes to shake Tsvangirai's hand.
The opposition
leader was on tour of Hatcliffe Extension, one of the shanty
settlements
where the government dumped thousands of people during a
clean-up operation
of so-called "illegal settlements" in mid-2005.
The clean-up codenamed
Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Remove Filth) and
condemned as inhumane
by a United Nations envoy, displaced 700 000 people
and indirectly affected
another 2.4 million people.
A government publication later revealed that
Operation Murambatsvina was
meant to displace the urban population where the
opposition enjoys massive
support in a bid to forestall possible civil
uprising following the flawed
Parliamentary election held in March
2005.
Some of the displaced families returned to the villages from where
they had
come in the first place. However, thousands of families who had no
rural
homes to return to were dumped at places like Hatcliffe Extension,
where the
government promised to build them new houses.
Two years
down the line, President Robert Mugabe's government is still to
honour its
promise to build homes these families out of squalor.
Here at Hatcliffe,
the government has only built 15 small huts - and even
these are yet to be
completed. The people have no access to clean water and
survive on shallow
wells dug next to their makeshift latrines.
"We are always suffering from
diarrhoea," said Johannes Ranjisi, a widower
who lives with his four
children in a one-roomed shack.
"Our children had every reason to run
away from your vehicles because the
last time such a vehicle came, it had
government officials who came and lied
to us that they would provide decent
housing," he added.
Tsvangirai, who was accompanied by his party's
spokesman Nelson Chamisa,
moved from hut to hut, listening to heart-rending
tales of the daily
struggle that is life in one of the poorest spots in
strife-torn Zimbabwe.
At one such shack, Tsvangirai was invited into the
"house" only to be told
when he was already inside that the gaping hole he
had used to enter was
actually not the door but a "wall" of the house that
just needed some
repairs.
"We have no school here. They said that
they would provide everything but it
was just lies," another woman shouted
as Tsvangirai toured the area.
"We know more lies are in store for us.
They will be coming again soon to
seek our votes but we will not be fooled
again," said Martin Gezi, who said
he lived with his brother, a security
guard.
Addressing journalists after the tour, Tsvangirai slammed the
government for
taking people for a ride and promised that if elected, his
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party would fight to provide jobs,
shelter and other
basic human needs.
"Two years after they destroyed
people's houses, they still have not
delivered on their promise of providing
shelter to the people," Tsvangirai
said.
"In the new Zimbabwe, never
again should a government get away with lying to
the people. We believe that
democracy begins with a decent roof over one's
head. We are committed to
giving people jobs, food, shelter, schools and
medicines," he
added.
Zimbabwe holds joint presidential and parliamentary elections next
year.
Tsvangirai and his MDC party nearly ousted Mugabe and ZANU PF in
elections
in 2000 and 2002 but this time round the party is seen as weaker
after it
split into two rival parties in 2005.
The Tsvangirai faction
of the MDC and the other camp of the opposition party
led by academic Arthur
Mutambara are expected to field separate candidates
in the polls, a move
analysts say could only split and weaken the opposition
vote.
Back at
Hatcliffe Extension residents broke into song and cheering again as
they
waved goodbye to Tsvangirai as he drove out of the settlement.
Yet a few
others stood and gazed indifferently as the opposition leader
drove away,
probably wondering whether he too would not let them down - just
as Mugabe
has done - were they to give him power next year. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Ntando Ncube Wednesday 14 November
2007
JOHANNESBURG - A coalition of Zimbabwean civic
groups says southern
African states should grant temporary residence permits
to displaced
Zimbabweans until the political crisis in their country is
resolved.
The Zimbabwe Diaspora Civic Society Organisations Forum
(Zimcos), said
at least 60 percent of displaced Zimbabweans have been
harassed and
discriminated against in neighbouring states where they have
sought refuge.
In a petition submitted to the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana this week,
the Forum said regional
leaders must help stop discrimination against
Zimbabweans in their
countries.
"Our petition is that SADC
countries (should) grant temporary
residence permits to Zimbabweans who have
sought refuge in their countries,
until the crisis in Zimbabwe is
over.
We petition SADC to allow Zimbabweans whether political or
economic
refugees, to settle where they are but without necessarily changing
their
citizenship.
"When the crisis is over (we are certain
that) they will go back,"
read part of the petition.
At least
three million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the country's 12
million population,
are estimated to have fled hunger and political
repression at home into
neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa
and Botswana.
The Zimbabweans have however in the past complained of harassment by
the
police and immigration officials in SADC countries who accuse them of
fanning criminal activities in their host countries.
The Forum
said SADC countries should halt the chronic arrests,
deportation and
detention of displaced Zimbabweans saying the majority of
Zimbabweans were
willing to return home if the economic and political
situation
stabilises.
The call by the Forum comes hardly a week after the
United
States-based Refugees International urged the United Nations to play
a
greater role in providing for the needs of the growing number of
Zimbabwean
refugees in southern Africa.
The group said South
Africa, Zambia and Botswana should stop deporting
Zimbabweans flocking to
their countries but should instead develop new legal
framework to provide
fresh solutions to the refugee problem. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
13
November 2007
Officials of the faction of Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change led by MDC founder Morgan
Tsvangirai said authorities in Manicaland
Province arrested six members of
the party Tuesday Chipinge South for
challenging local authorities who
denied them the right to purchase maize
from a Grain Marketing Board
depot.
Faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa said violence broke out between
the MDC
members and individuals believed to be members of the local ZANU-PF
ruling
party when they questioned the basis on which they were denied access
to
maize.
The Grain Marketing Board, a government cereals monopoly,
controls
distribution of much of the grain produced in the country or
purchased by
the government in foreign markets, such as nearby Malawi or
neighboring
South Africa. The opposition and civic groups allege that the
GMB in rural
areas excludes opposition supporters.
Chamisa said he
did not have all the names of the arrested, but he believed
one was the
organizing secretary for the faction in Chipinge, Caleb
Muchakotama. He said
no charges had been brought as yet in the matter to his
knowledge.
Chamisa told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe the
incident reflected the government's systematic use of food
for political
advantage.
In a similar incident, the MDC reported that
members were denied the
opportunity to buy maize at a GMB depot in
Chimanimani, also in Manicaland.
The opposition said officials denied maize
to those could not prove
membership in the ruling party.
Officials at
GMB headquarters could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Spokesman
Fambai Ngirande of the National Association of Non-governmental
Organizations said the political use of food is increasing as elections
near.
The government has called local elections in January 2008
followed by
parliamentary and presidential elections in March of next
year.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu and Carole Gombakomba
Washington
13 November 2007
The British parliament
and Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change are urging London
to investigate Barclays Bank for possibly violating
European Union targeted
financial sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite.
The Sunday Times of
London reported this week that Barclays lent 750 million
pounds to at least
five Zimbabwean cabinet ministers in the first half of
this year alone
through a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe program called the
Agriculture Sector
Productivity Enhancement Facility intended to stimulate
recovery in the
moribund sector.
Among the beneficiaries, according to the Sunday Times,
were State Security
and Land Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa, Policy
Implementation
Minister Webster Shamu, Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, Agriculture
Minister Rugare Gumbo and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa.
All five are subject to European Union sanctions intended to
cut them off
from funds or other economic resources under the control of EU
nations.
President Robert Mugabe recently boasted, however, that his
government was
getting around the sanctions.
A government
representative to the House of Lords, Baroness Royall of
Blaisdon, told
peers Monday that an investigation is under way to determine
whether the
loans reported by the Sunday Times represent a breach of the EU
sanctions.
Secretary General Tendai Biti of the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change faction led by MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai condemned
Barclays and
urged the international community to launch a probe. An
official at Barclays
corporate headquarters in London refused to comment on
the matter.
Attorney Otto Saki of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that it is
morally wrong for
Barclays Bank to fund the farm operations of ministers who
have used
violence to seize land since 2000.
The EU said, meanwhile
that it will expand humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe. EU
funding to Zimbabwe in
2006 totaled more than US$125 million - over US$282
million including
bilateral contributions from EU members - the European
Commission
said.
European ambassadors who recently visited EU projects in Zimbabwe
said they
would like to fund water and sanitation programs in
Bulawayo.
Members of the British upper house also asked the government
what it is
doing to ensure Zimbabwe is discussed at the upcoming meeting of
heads of
government of the Commonwealth of nations set to open in Uganda
next week.
Speaking for the government, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
responded that as
Zimbabwe is no longer a commonwealth member, it would not
be on the formal
agenda but would be discussed on the margins of the
meeting.
That meeting on the sidelines next Wednesday is being organized
by the Royal
Commonwealth Society of London, whose director general, Stuart
Mole, told
reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
there is much
the Commonwealth can do to help to end the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Since 2003 a Commonwealth committee headed by Jamaica has been
seeking ways
to bring Zimbabwe back into the organization following
President Mugabe’s
decision to pull out of the group of mostly former
British colonies.
Senior Programs Officer Phillip Pasirayi of the Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
said that while Zimbabwe isn’t likely to rejoin the
Commonwealth soon, such
interventions are beneficial.
Nehanda Radio
By Innocent Gonese (MP)
The recent arrest of the
Attorney General, Sobusa Gula Ndebele, on
allegations of Contravening
Section 174 (1) of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act Chapter
9:23 has once again shown the ZANU
(PF) regime's lack of appreciation and
understanding of the concepts of the
rule of law, separation of powers and
independence of the Attorney
General's office. The action shows a contempt
and disdain for constitutional
principles and is symptomatic of a regime
that has lost its way and
direction.
While we hold no brief for Mr.
Gula Ndebele and we express no opinion on the
correctness or otherwise of
the decision he is alleged to have made in
relation to Mr. Mushore, our
concern as the Movement Democratic Change is
that the behavior of the Police
undermines the remaining vestiges of the
public's confidence in the justice
delivery system. Over the years we have
witnessed the battering that the
rule of law has received at the hands of
the ZANU (PF) regime and this
latest incident simply reinforces the point
that we must return to
constitutionalism and respect of our institutions.
While our constitution
is defective and needs a complete overhaul, it does
give some independence
to the judiciary and the Attorney General and in this
regard Section 76(7)
of the constitution is clear and unambiguous in that it
gives unfettered
powers to the Attorney General and it states that he or she
"shall not be
subject to the direction and control of any person or
authority". One would
therefore have expected that in the exercise of his
duties the Attorney
General is vested with discretionary powers in matters
relating to
prosecutions.
In any civilized society, there are ways of dealing with
issues and if it
was felt that the Attorney General had exceeded the bonds
of the powers
vested in him, then the proper procedures would be to
institute proceedings
for his removal instead of hauling him before the
Police as
a common criminal.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe is neither a
civilized nor a democratic country and
it would be too much to expect the
ZANU (PF) regime to pay any regard to
legal nicecities and Zimbabwean
citizens have over the years been victims of
this high handed approach only
for the cases to collapse due to lack of
evidence.
It is not only
members of the opposition and civil society who have been
arrested on
trumped up charges and the arrest of the Attorney General comes
in the wake
of the acquittal of Levison Chikafu, the Manicaland Area Public
Prosecutor.
Mr. Chikafu was not even placed on his defence and he was
cleared of all
five charges he was facing after being discharged at the
close of the state
case. He made allegations that his prosecution was
politically motivated
because he had the courage to prosecute some high
profile
individuals.
The ZANU (PF) regime has shown in the past that it is not
comfortable with
people who execute their duties in a professional way and
it has a long
history of ignoring legal advise given to it. It was not
comfortable with
the previous Attorney General and one hopes that we
are
not witnessing a situation where this is persecution and harassment
related
to political differences. We have noted that the Attorney General's
Office
Bill which went through its first reading and received a non adverse
report
from the Parliamentary Legal Committee has not seen the light of day
and is
gathering some dust in some office somewhere and one wonders whether
there
is a link between the latest incident and the Bill.
As the
Movement for Democratic Change, we believe that Zimbabwe can only
move
forward when we have a government which derives its mandate from the
people
through elections which are held freely and fairly under a democratic
people
driven constitution. It is only such a government which can observe
democratic norms and standards and respect its institutions, the rule of law
and democracy. Expecting ZANU (PF) to do so is to live in world cuckooland
and expect that a leopard can change its spots.
Hon. Innocent Gonese
(MP)
Secretary for Justice Legal And Parliamentary Affairs
12 November
2007
VOA
By Ntungamili Nkomo
Washington DC
13
November 2007
Human rights activists said Tuesday they will present
resolutions on
Zimbabwe to the African Commission on Human and People’s
Rights when it
convenes on Wednesday in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic
of the Congo.
The rights organizations meeting under the auspices of the
African NGO Forum
said they want the African Union to take a more active
role resolving
Zimbabwe's crisis and to engage the opposition as well as the
ruling party.
They demanded that Harare halt what they allege is torture of
human rights
campaigners and opposition figures.
Meanwhile, the
Commission deferred to May the case of human rights lawyer
Gabriel Shumba,
who has sued the Zimbabwean government for his alleged
torture. AU officials
said Zimbabwe did not submit a response to the
allegations.
Shumba
told reporter Ntungamili Nkomo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the NGO
resolutions will be submitted to the African Commission on
Wednesday.
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
13
November 2007
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria said Tuesday it had
rejected proposals from Zimbabwe’s for
further grants to combat TB and
malaria.
Global Fund Communications
Officer Nicolas Demey said grant proposals
submitted by Zimbabwe seeking a
total of US$48.5 million for malaria and
US$25.5 million for tuberculosis
over a five year period were turned down
for technical weaknesses.
He
said he could not determine whether Zimbabwe had also applied for another
grant to fight AIDS, noting that proposals go through stages before reaching
a technical review panel which recommends successful proposals to the Fund's
board.
Neither Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa nor any
other senior
official in the national health system could be reached
immediately for
comment.
To date the Global Fund has turned down
Zimbabwean proposals in five of
seven funding rounds. However, to date the
Fund has disbursed around US$35
million with approximately US$50 million
more pending disbursement to
Harare.
So far in 2007 the Global Fund
has approved 73 new grants for a total of
US$1.1 billion, the highest in any
single year since its creation in 2002.
To date the Fund has made grants
totaling some US$10 billion to the benefit
of 136 countries.
Fund
Executive Director David Kazatchkine said the billion-dollar mark
attained
this year reflected "high-quality demand for resources," a trend to
be
encouraged.
Fund figures show AIDS and malaria accounting for 48% and
42%, respectively,
of the funding approved, with tuberculosis grants
accounting for 10%.
Demey rejected the charge which has often been
leveled against the Fund that
its rejection of the latest Zimbabwean
applications was political, given the
significant declines in Zimbabwe’s HIV
prevalence rate in recent years.
He told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the Fund encouraged Harare reapply to the
next round to run in March-June
2008.
OhMyNews
Teachers troop out in search of money
Masimba Biriwasha
Published 2007-11-14 06:20
(KST)
Zimbabwe's eight-year long political, social and
economic turmoil is
undoing all the successes that the country had recorded
since it attained
independence from British colonial rule in
1980.
Now it threatens to destroy its future too, as hordes of
disgruntled
teachers are opting to abandon pupils in search of greener
pastures anywhere
outside the borders of their
homeland.
In September 2007, Maidei Madu, 27, a
primary school teacher in
eastern Zimbabwe, finally packed her bags and
headed to neighboring South
Africa, as many had done before
her.
She took a three-month leave from her job on the pretext that
she was
going to see her husband who had emigrated to South Africa three
months
earlier. But the truth was she had no intention of coming back to her
beleaguered homeland. She was going for good to find a job in South
Africa.
Thousand of teachers across Zimbabwe are deserting their
jobs over
poor pay and working conditions, leaving pupils unattended.
Teachers
currently earn US$17 a month, a paltry figure, which cannot help
them to
cope with the country's hyperinflation.
Consequently,
hordes of teachers are leaving. Zimbabwe has lost many
of its skilled and
highly educated professionals over the past decade to
both neighboring and
far-flung countries.
When teachers like Madu choose to go look for
jobs elsewhere, they do
not give any notice of resignation or retirement.
They simply abscond,
making it difficult for the government to keep track in
order to find
replacements.
According to Zimbabwean Ministry of
Education officials, finding
replacements for absconding teachers is nearly
impossible as the country is
facing a shortage of teachers.
"We
are working on raising teachers' salaries to curb this exodus and
something
will be done soon. We do not like it either, so very soon things
will be
better in the education sector. We know the plight of our teachers,"
said
Zimbabwe's Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere.
"What is happening
is that teachers are being poached by our
neighboring countries. I even have
advertisements in the papers from the
neighboring countries advertising for
our science and mathematics teachers
and this is why they are
absconding."
The high levels of education and training of
Zimbabwean teachers (as
well as other professionals) make them attractive in
many countries around
the world.
With inflation hovering above
8,000 percent and rising, it is clear
that the government will not be able
to meet the ever-growing salary demands
of teachers.
Apart from
that, food and fuel shortages, electricity cuts, and lack
of teaching
materials have all but left teachers, and many other
professionals, in a
place where they cannot properly execute their roles.
As a way to
curb the exodus of teachers, President Robert Mugabe's
government recently
announced that it would ask its Southern African
neighbors to stop poaching
Zimbabwean teachers.
The Zimbabwean government also recently
resolved to bond newly
qualified teachers and now requires neighboring
countries to approach it
before employing Zimbabwean teachers as part of
measures to mitigate the
brain drain in the education sector.
Whatever the case, it is Zimbabwe's future that stands to lose the
most, and
urgent action is required to stop the bleeding of a
once-prosperous
nation.
The Times
November 14, 2007
Peter
Tatchell: Thunderer
Uganda is drifting towards dictatorship, just like
Zimbabwe a decade ago.
The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, is a new
Robert Mugabe in the
making, a budding tyrant who is subverting democracy
and human rights
(according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch)
through voter
intimidation, hounding opposition politicians, detention
without trial,
torture, extrajudicial killings, media censorship,
corruption, suppression
of protests, homophobic witch-hunts, and crackdowns
on universities and
trade unions.
And how is he rewarded for these
abuses? By being given the honour of
hosting the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala in
two weeks' time.
The Queen
and Gordon Brown will accept the hospitality of a despot who has
abolished
limits on presidential terms in an attempt to ensure that he
remains
president for life; framed the opposition leader Kizza Besigye on
charges of
rape and treason; and who is implicated in massacres in the
Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) and northern Uganda.
While thousands of
Ugandans are searching for loved ones held without trial
in Museveni's
secret detention centres, the Commonwealth Secretariat is
fussing obscenely
over hotel standards for delegates and whether Kampala's
upgraded mobile
phone and internet connections will be ready in time for
CHOGM.
Museveni was once Uganda's great democratic hope. He now heads
an often
lawless, criminal state. Last month the East African Court of
Justice found
Uganda guilty of violating the rule of law and the rights of
its citizens.
Previously, in 2005, the East Africa Court of Justice ruled
that Uganda must
pay the DRC up to £5.6 billion in compensation for its war
of aggression,
plundering of resources and killing of civilians.
Similar
abuses have been happening in the civil war in northern Uganda. More
than
1.5 million people were herded into camps by the Ugandan Army. Some
were
beaten, raped and killed; many more fell ill and died from
unsanitary
conditions. In the worst period, fatalities peaked at 1,000 a
week.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth for breaching the
Commonwealth's 1991 Harare Declaration on good governance and human rights.
Uganda's violations have, in contrast, merited barely a murmur of criticism.
Why the double standards? The Commonwealth's tacit collusion with Museveni's
abuses is the most shameful betrayal of the Ugandan people since its feeble
response to Idi Amin's murderous regime in the 1970s. If the Commonwealth
won't defend its humanitarian principles against autocratic leaders, what is
the point of its existence?