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Zimbabwe: Making Schools work
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) - May 5, 2009.
Harare (Zimbabwe) — The authorities announced a package of measures on 4 May to revive Zimbabwe’s beleaguered education system and get teachers and children back into classrooms, as schools are expected to reopen this week.
“Cabinet will shortly decide on tuition fees, which will be substantially reduced,” David Coltart, the minister of education, sport, arts and culture, told a press conference.
He said school fees would be reduced and parents would only have to pay admission fees to keep their children in schools while consultations on the fees to be charged took place. The admission fees range from US$5 to US$20.
Teacher unions have said educators would not return to work unless their salaries were improved, so as an inducement to get them back to school he announced that their children would not have to pay school fees.
Coltart said he had met with several donor organisations who had promised to help the government revive the education sector through capitalization. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, with around 90 percent unemployment and crippling shortages of basic commodities, has made survival a priority.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), school attendance rates dropped from 80 percent to 20 percent in 2008. Unaffordable school fees and absentee teachers meant more than 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural schools, which most children attend, could not reopen at the beginning of the 2009 school year.
At present, school fees will cost the parents of primary school children in affluent low-density suburbs US$150 per child, while those in high-density townships will pay US$20. Civil servants earn about US$100 a month, making education unaffordable for most children.
The parents of high school students in low-density areas will have to fork out up to US$280 per term, while those in high-density areas will have to lay out US$180.
Students in rural secondary schools are expected to pay US$50 per term, but even with provisions to stagger payments, parents throughout the country failed to pay fees.
According to available statistics, more than 20,000 teachers left the profession between 2007 and 2008 in search of greener pastures, mainly in neighbouring southern African countries.
While individual teachers said they would “wait and see”, union leaders on 4 May urged their members to return to work. “We are calling on all teachers to report for duty. We are doing this with heavy hearts, but we have faith in the minister,” said Sifiso Ndlovu, chief executive of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association.
Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, told IRIN that donor representatives had assured them they would receive money to improve salaries. “After meeting the donors, we have reason to believe that our case is now in legitimate hands … we have confidence in them.”
G8 ready to seek UN sanctions against Zimbabwe
Reuters
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
The Group of Eight has agreed to seek UN sanctions against Zimbabwe after a violent election that extended President Robert Mugabe’s 28-year rule, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today.
The G8, holding a three-day summmit in northern Japan, was due to issue a formal statement on the political crisis in the southern African country after discussing the issue over dinner, Japanese officials said.
“The need and the urgency was indicated for sanctions at the UN Security Council,” Berlusconi told reporters during a break in the talks. “Given that even Russia decided to go ahead, it seemed to me important to join in, voting unanimously.” The Italian prime minister said yesterday that he favoured a compromise deal between Mugabe and the Zimbabwean opposition rather than sanctions.
As the G8 ratcheted up pressure, Zimbabwe’s state media reported today that Mugabe’s ruling party and the opposition were to resume talks under the mediation of South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Mugabe was the only candidate in the 27 June run-off election after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out, citing state-sponsored violence against candidates and supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change.
Tsvangirai has said the opposition will not participate in any negotiations until Mugabe’s government halts political violence against his supporters and accepts that Tsvangirai won the election in the first round of voting on 29 March. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wanted sanctions to be accompanied by the appointment of a UN envoy to try to resolve the crisis.
“It’s pretty clear that I want sanctions against the Mugabe regime. I believe that we’ve got to say that they’re illegitimate because of the way they are holding power with an election that is not seen as free or fair to anyone,” Brown told reporters.
“Obviously we want to call for an end to violence and we want to get humanitarian aid to victims of the repression and the economic failures of the Mugabe regime,” he added.
Seven African leaders invited to the first day of the G8 summit yesterday expressed reservations about sanctions.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who is also head of the African Union told President George Bush that there was still room for discussions to end the crisis.
An African Union summit issued a resolution last week calling for talks leading to a national unity government in Zimbabwe.
Asked whether Africa took a dim view of a club of rich nations’ going on the offensive against Mugabe, Brown said: “I think it’s the other way round. Africa now sees that what’s happening in Zimbabwe is damaging the credibility of Africa as a whole.”
Zimbabwe: Country Will Take Its Place in the Global Village, Says Makoni
Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
INTERVIEW
2 March 2008
Posted to the web 3 March 2008
In this Question and Answer interview with The Standard (TS), Simba Makoni (SM) speaks on his presidential campaign. Excerpts:
How far have you gone with the campaign?
First, the reality…the campaign has started slowly because we came into this late… because we don’t have a party. We have a team of volunteers who believe in the vision and ideal. There is a shortage of paper, shortage of material for the T-shirts. Sometimes not even coal to fire boilers for factories. So, it started slowly but it is picking up. By the beginning of next week, we will be communicating and circulating among the people which we haven’t been doing physically and personally, other than through newspapers and the media which have been the main method of communication. But while I confess we are not as visible as we should be, we will be shortly and we will be circulating among people and communicate our messages. The response has been overwhelming…Messages are still pouring in. Sometimes people just present themselves and say we have come from Tsholotsho, we have come from Chipinge, and we have come from Chirumhanzu. We want to collect material to go and campaign with.
And then about the alliances, we understand that you have an informal alliance with Arthur Mutambara and you are also working on having another one with Morgan Tsvangirai. Are there any ideological problems especially with the Morgan Tsvangirai formation?
I am an independent candidate… so how can you be an independent and be in an alliance at the same time? But I also want us to understand that I am offering a national platform. We want a new direction for our country, we want a better life for our people and I made a commitment to the people of Zimbabwe at my launch… that when I get elected as President of this country we will set up a national authority that will harness representatives of all key national constituencies. So that means I am in alliance with the whole of Zimbabwe.
Can you explain how you can be an independent and at the same time be in alliance?
Because I am in alliance with the whole nation, that is why I am saying you must understand we are not about compartments, and paddocks and little groups, I am in alliance with the whole nation. I am for the people of Zimbabwe.
You don’t say you are in agreement with Tsvangirai and Mutambara. You are saying if there are other Zimbabweans that want to be in alliance with you it doesn’t have to be formal?
No. I am with the people and for the people and I know the people are in Zanu PF, the people are in MDC, the people are in other formations, the people are in churches, the people are in industry, the people are in trade unions, the people are women, the people are youths, the people are ex- combatants, the people are farmers, they are industrialists. I am in alliance with all those and that’s why I am an independent candidate. Don’t paddock me; don’t fence me into little groups because I am bigger than little groups. Sorry I am not bigger than little groups, I am more than little groups.
What it means is that you are not going out and say Tsvangirai let’s agree. You are just appealing to ordinary Zimbabweans?
Everyone is ordinary shamwari. I am very ordinary. There are some people who think they are not ordinary but everyone is ordinary.
The rural vote is said to be Zanu PF’s hunting ground. That’s where Zanu PF draws its support and you say it’s clearly a perception of the media?
I think I want to keep emphasizing that I want to persuade our people from putting us into little groups and paddocks. The rural people have no sugar, so do the urban people, so do the peri-urban people. The rural people have no cooking oil. They have no candles; they have no bars of soap. What you don’t find in an urban supermarket, you won’t find in a rural trading store. So why do you want to distinguish between the experience of the rural people from the experiences of the urban people and vice versa? What we are enduring in Zimbabwe is a nationwide experience of fear. The rural people are more fearful than or as fearful as the urban people, of privation or deprivation. The rural people are more deprived than the urban people… The extent of suffering among the rural people is worse than that of urban people; so we won’t devise a different strategy for the urban people from that of rural people because it would be exactly dividing our people. What we are offering is a vision for the Zimbabwe of tomorrow and that Zimbabwe of tomorrow is as rural as it is urban. The food crisis touches all Zimbabweans, the crisis of education and health is of all Zimbabweans…jobs…potholes. I plead with our people to resist the temptation of being placed in paddocks. We are one people with one experience and what I am proposing is one future, one brighter future for one people.
Suppose you are elected president on 29 March (Makoni interjects: it’s not suppose. It’s when I am elected) when you are elected president what will you do in the first 100 days in office?
We have a framework for the initial task. When we outlined the elements of the manifesto we highlighted key areas that we must deal with. We must deal with the food crisis, we must deal with the energy crisis, and we must deal with crisis of production. We must lay the groundwork to get Zimbabwe working again. So we must set up the national authority… that is the first action.
National authority… what is this animal called national authority?
This animal is that authority, the entity, the government that will take Zimbabwe into Mavambo. So we must constitute the government but composed of representatives of all national constituencies.
In other words you are saying you are setting up a government of national unity?
I am calling it a national authority, those are the words I found appropriate. You can call it a unity government. Someone else says are you talking of a government of national unity. A rose by any name still smells like a rose. So let’s not get bogged down in vocabulary…
So in simple terms you are saying you have a government with MDC, Zanu, independents?
The constitution prescribes who is coming into government. They have to be elected representatives. So from the elected representatives with the mandate of our people for being elected we will constitute a national authority. On 30 March in accordance with the existing constitution the executive must be constituted out of elected representatives and those elected representatives will be from Zanu PF, from MDC, from Independents and any others who are contesting…
Suppose you are asked to prioritise what they will do in the first day: is it the constitution or the economy?
The crisis. I have already enumerated the food crisis, the energy crisis, the water crisis and sanitation, potholes, medicines in hospitals. It’s horrendous that babies should be dying in the antenatal units because ZESA has switched off the hospital, well not quite that ZESA has switched off the hospital but the hospital had been switched off. I am sure ZESA are not doing it deliberately. We must solve those crises and get life for Zimbabweans to be normal again. That they can go into a supermarket and buy milk and cereals and vegetables. We will have an immediate crisis plan and then we roll out a short term, medium term and long term plan for getting our country back to normal, getting it back to work again.
Roughly how many years do you think are required to bring Zimbabwe where it was?
It would presumptuous of me. I don’t think we just want to bring Zimbabwe to where it was. That would be such a limited vision. This is the 21st century. We want to get Zimbabwe to the 21st century to be an equal player in the global village. Just getting back to 1996 is not a vision for me, it’s not an ambition. But obviously you can’t do all these at once that’s why we will have a phased programme. First deal with the crisis of everyday life and I enumerated. But I must also underline that I am not the person to be doing this. Our rallying call for re-engagement, for national re-engagement is to get Zimbabweans to do things for themselves. It would be very arrogant and presumptuous for me to say I am doing this. It won’t be different from those who are saying: you sit under the tree and wait for us to give you schools and boreholes and medicine, that’s the antithesis of what I am proposing for our people…
There are Zimbabwean businesspeople who were hounded out of country for one reason or the other; do you have plans to bring them back?
We have plans to get Zimbabwe working again and that means capturing all the resources and capacity that Zimbabwe has. But the question has been posed which authorities have refrained from responding to: If these people committed a crime why are they not brought to the due process of law to answer for their crimes?
And how about re-engaging the IMF and World Bank.
This country will be back in the international arena, taking our rightful place in the global village… Zimbabwe needs to be at one with the rest of the world, not apart from the world… We don’t want to put ourselves in little cells.
Mugabe crisis hurting Africa, warns Angela Merkel
From
Later Baroness Amos, Brown’s representative at the summit, defended Mbeki’s omission of Zimbabwe, arguing that he had to be “very careful” as he was leading a committee laying the ground rules for new elections in Zimbabwe. “When you are in the midst of negotiations you have to be very careful what you say. You don’t just go out there and start criticising the country when you have a specific role as a mediator,” she said.
Behind the scenes, British officials said they were encouraged that other African countries were starting to speak out on Zimbabwe for the first time, especially in the run-up to the summit.
One senior official also defended the decision of Brown to remain at home, a move widely criticised by human rights groups. “If the prime minister had been here it would have been a big circus and none of the wider issues would have been discussed. It would have become a UK/Zimbabwe issue. Now it is an EU/Zimbabwe issue and an Africa/Zimbabwe issue.”
Brown had feared being caught by Mugabe in a handshake before photographers and has said he could not sit in the same meetings with a man accused of ruining his country’s economy and democracy. A British proposal to send an EU envoy to Zimbabwe before the summit to prepare a report was turned down.
Human rights campaigners and parliamentarians expressed outrage yesterday that the crisis in Zimbabwe was not formally on the summit agenda. “It gives a signal to the world and to Zimbabweans that the EU doesn’t care about human rights and democracy,” said Kate Hoey, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe.
