Messages From Zimbabwe

The geriatric ZANU PF leader Robert Matibili Mugabe has admitted that he rigged the June 2008 Presidential Run-off elections that pitted him and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the televised 21st February mundane interview, Zimbabwe Telegraph has confirmed.

Following the drubbing of Mugabe in the 29 March 2008 elections by Tsvangirai, he withheld the outcome of the presidential polls by more than a month to give time to the rigging machinery to doctor the figures to force a run-off.

Prior to the run-off, Mugabe stepped up political violence to cow Tsvangirai’s legion of supporters into submission.

Tsvangirai eventually withdrew from the race in empathy with his supporters that had been a target of retribution by ZANU PF.

In the interview with ZBC’s Tazzan Mandizvidza, Mugabe said, “…Whatever happened in the June elections, I had a thunderous win.”

Mugabe is on record as having vented his anger saying that, “Nyika haingatorwe nekaX.” (A mere vote cannot take the steam from ZANU PF).

Meanwhile political commentators have said that the elections that are coming in two years time should be handled under a new constitution and in full observance with the international community because Mugabe knows that on a level play field, ZANU PF cannot stand a chance.

High level sources in ZANU PF are saying that Mugabe who is in a dilemma at the moment is pinning his hopes for the candidature of the current defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa his point man.

They said that by positioning Mnangagwa in the defence ministry, he is also protecting himself from the echoes of retribution from the opposition party.

“Have you realised that there is no deputy minister in the defence ministry. ZANU PF has the lion’s share of that critical ideological state apparatus and be assured MDC is now decapitated in the face of Jongwe,” they said.”

(Source)

The embattled Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s national executive will today meet to review the status of the inclusive government, under a whole raft of breaches of SADC brokered unity government by the intransigent Robert Mugabe.

The MDC on Thursday said it was concerned about the plight of Zimbabwean people and wanted to find out whether the inclusive government has begun to deal with theoutstanding issues.

“The party remains seized with the plight of the  The issues include the unilateral appointment of permanent secretaries, the irregular appointments of the Attorney-General and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, the issue of provincial governors and the continued detention of MDC and civic activists on trumped-up charges.

“Among the issues to be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting include the starvation in the country and the state of the party. The main agenda, however, is the review of the status and performance of the inclusive government in relation to the party’s expectations,” said party spokesperson and Information Communications Technology Nelson Chamisa.

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai described Tuesday’s appointment of permanent secretaries by President Robert Mugabe as null and void since they were done in contravention of the global political agreement and the constitution.

President Robert Mugabe has defended key government officials he appointed recently and has said they will not be removed from office as being demanded by the opposition Movement Democratic Change MDC).

Speaking to journalists from his Munhumutapa offices on Wednesday, Tsvangirai said: “The permanent secretaries who were in positions as of September 15 will remain in acting capacity until the matter is resolved. This government will not allow a parallel force within its structures or any unconstitutional or unilateral actions which serve to impede progress.”

He said no civil servant, according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, had the authority to make such appointments or announcements, therefore the announcement of permanent secretaries were unlawful and was therefore null and void.

Members of Parliament from both Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions this week began voicing their concerns over the bloated government. An extra 30 ministers have now been added to the 31 agreed by Zanu-PF and the MDC.

President Robert Mugabe last week swore in five more ministers of state and 19 deputy ministers, bringing the number of ministers and deputy ministers to 61. Another 10 provincial governors are due to be sworn in at a date yet to be announced.

Tsvangirai said it was important that the appointment of governor of the Reserve Bank Gideon Gono and the Attorney General Johannes Tomana were dealt with and resolved immediately.

“This is in line with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) communiqué issued in Pretoria on the 27th of January, which states that the appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor and the Attorney General will be dealt with by the inclusive government after its formation,” added Tsvangirai.

The Prime Minister also said the appointment of Provincial governors must be resolved forthwith.

(Source)

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has denied reports that he bought a mansion in Hong Kong saying ‘ndiri mwana wevhu” (I am son of the soil) and will never leave the country.

Mugabe made the remarks, in his 2-hour traditional birthday interview with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings on Wednesday.

“Why would I need a house. Ndiri mwana wevhu (I am a son of the soil)” said Mugabe crouching to the ground and picking some soil granules, in the snippets of the interview which will be beamed Thursday night.

International media have been awash with the reports that Mugabe bought a USD 5,8 million mansion in Hong Kong, where his daughter, Bona, is attending university. Some of the media even published pictures of the alleged mansion.

The London Times said the mansion was purchased by a middleman through a shadowy company whose registered office is in a run-down block. It said when a reporter and a photographer called at the house last week, they were attacked by the Zimbabwean occupants. The assailants were questioned by the police.

The acquisition came to light during a Sunday Times investigation into the Mugabes’ financial interests in Asia, where a web of associates has helped them to spend lavishly on luxuries and stash away millions in bank accounts.

In Zimbabwe, meanwhile, inflation has reached 231 million percent, although this figure is believed to be much more than that, unemployment stands at 94 percent and 3 467 people have died in recent months from cholera.

(Source)

Hundreds of members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) delivered a petition to the new Minister of Education, Senator David Coltart today in Harare. Whilst leaders tried to deliver the petition to the minister, with whom they had an official appointment, riot police indiscriminately beat the peaceful group that were waiting for the minister to come and address them. At least 10 members have been arrested. The full extent of the injuries sustained are not clear but at least one woman is unable to walk and an ambulance has been called for her.

The group of 450 members handing in the petition converged on the Ministry of Education from three different directions. The first group to arrive was immediately set upon by the riot police detail that is based at Parliament.. Whilst they were being beaten however, the women appealed to the police reminding them that their children are not going to school either. The police stopped the beatings and the protestors re-grouped outside the Ministry to wait. A police vehicle full of riot police arrived shortly afterwards however and again started to beat the group. They were joined by a second vehicle, again full of riot police who were banging their shields and singing, “today we are going to beat you” as they descended on the group and viciously began to beat them. They later changed their song to “why are your husbands’ allowing you to demonstrate?”

As they were driven off towards Harare Central Police Station, the women under arrest were heard to be singing “we want education for our children.” More details of their arrest will be given once lawyers had been able to attend to them.

The Minister, who had been delayed by an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister, finally arrived to accept the petition of approximately 25,000 signatures. He expressed regret and sorrow that the group who had had an official appointment with him should be beaten and arrested and said that these kinds of incidents were exactly what the MDC was trying to change by joining government. He also stated that he had heard the pleas of Zimbabwean parents and would do everything in his power to ensure that every child goes to school.

The petition and the protest are part of WOZA’s Take the Step campaign, designed to encourage Zimbabweans to continue with the civic participation that they demonstrated in March 2008. The signatures on the petition were collected by WOZA members in a door-to-door campaign in recent weeks. The petition text reads as follows: ‘Please put our children’s education first. I am a parent whose child did not learn well in 2008. There were no teachers, no textbooks, and I cannot pay the new forex fees. Please declare the education system a national disaster and allow all children to repeat 2008 at no cost. Those that do not want to repeat will need help so that the children do not suffer. Please campaign to lure teachers home with dignified salaries, adequate supplies, furniture and equipment in schools.’

More information will be made available as it is received.

(Source: via email)

A Zimbabwean judge on Tuesday granted bail to Roy Bennett, a prominent official in the new prime minister’s party, but ordered him held at least another week while prosecutors decide whether to appeal.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party has called the arrest of Bennett and others a politically motivated attempt by factions in President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party to derail the country’s 11-day-old unity government.

Bennett, who was arrested the day Cabinet ministers were sworn in, faces weapons charges linked to long-discredited accusations that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party had plotted Mugabe’s violent overthrow.

At Tuesday’s High Court hearing, Judge Tedius Karwe criticized the new prime minister for writing a letter in support of Bennett’s bail application, calling the move “unprecedented.”

“We don’t want politicians to interfere with the work of the judiciary,” the judge said. “I hope that they will take heed of that, because we don’t want a clash of the executive and the judiciary.”

He then ruled Bennett could be granted $2,000 bail. Relatives and friends of Bennett, being held in Mutare prison 270 kilometers (170 miles) east of Harare, were still embracing in celebration of the bail ruling when Prosecutor Chris Mutangadura requested time to consider an appeal. Karwe was quick to grant it, saying Bennett would be held another week, drawing gasps from opposition supporters in the courtroom.

Bennett’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said there was “nothing amiss” in Tsvangirai writing in support of the bail request.

Mtetwa said Tsvangirai wrote to guarantee he would ensure Bennett would abide by any conditions set by the court. Tsvangirai also wrote that Bennett, his deputy agriculture minister nominee, needed to be released to take up his duties, but pledged that those duties would not keep him from making court appearances.

Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal — created to end months of political deadlock after disputed elections last year — has united longtime political rivals in a quest to address Zimbabwe’s multiplying crises. It keeps Mugabe as president after three decades in power, but many of his top aides have lost Cabinet posts to Tsvangirai and his aides.

Zimbabwe has the world’s highest official inflation rate, a hunger crisis that has left most of its people dependent on foreign handouts and a cholera epidemic blamed on the collapse of a once-enviable health and sanitation system. Cholera has sickened more than 80,000 and killed more than 3,800 people since August.

U.N. health agency spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said Tuesday that cholera cases in neighboring countries have also increased. Cholera is common in the region, but Zimbabwe had previously been able to control the waterborne disease. Chaib said South Africa has seen around 10,000 cholera cases and 54 deaths.

Critics say Mugabe has engineered Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, in part with land reforms that saw white-owned farms seized and given to his cronies instead going to impoverished blacks as he had claimed.

Bennett, who is white, had his coffee farm in eastern Zimbabwe seized years ago under Mugabe’s policies.

(Source)

Dear Family and Friends,

I am delighted to be able to tell you that my new book: “Innocent Victims,” has just been published by Merlin Unwin Books in the UK.  

Innocent Victims is the story of  how Meryl Harrison rescued thousands of animals stranded on farms during Zimbabwe’s land invasions. In her sixties and with a heart condition, Meryl travelled with one or two young SPCA Inspectors and together they faced mobs of men who were often drugged or drunk and almost always armed with weapons ranging from sticks and stones to guns, knives and whips. Meryl drove thousands of kilometres to remote and abandoned farms; she and her colleagues went into “no –go areas” and faced war veterans, secret police, army and youth militia; they dismantled road barricades and went to places which even the Police said were dangerous and unsafe. There wasn’t an animal too big, small, slippery or furry for Meryl and she rescued cats, dogs and goldfish. She and her team caught pigs, sheep, cows, goats and chickens. They saved horses and ponies, duikers and sable antelope and intervened on behalf of lions, hippos and ostriches.

For some the heart of Innocent Victims will be in Marmalade, the cat rescued from under the bath; for others it may be in Bokkie, the dog on Roy and Heather Bennett’s farm who won an award for “his exceptional bravery and loyalty to his owner and his family and his courageous action that saved their lives.” Or maybe it will be the little un-named piglet which Meryl  popped onto the floor of her truck while mobs of men raged, shouted and threatened all around her.

All of the stories in Innocent Victims are the original first hand accounts taken from Meryl’s personal diaries. Some of the rescues are gruesome and heartbreaking but others tell of great courage, ingenuity and joyous reunions. All tell of the extraordinary dedication and deep passion shown by one woman for the lives of many thousands of animals. Innocent Victims is the story of an unsung and reluctant hero in Zimbabwe’s darkest of times.

Innocent Victims can be ordered from my website: www.cathybuckle.com or from the publishers at: www.merlinunwin.co.uk .

Thank you for your support of my writing and for reading this letter.

Love

Cathy.

(Website)

Zimbabwe defence chief General Constantine Chiwenga has told military colleagues that he will have “difficulties” saluting new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, impeccable sources told The Zimbabwean on Sunday.

MDC leader Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara who heads the smaller formation of the MDC, have formed a government of national unity that analysts say is critical to rescuing Zimbabwe from crisis but which continues to face deep resistance from many within the old establishment.

Our sources said Chiwenga – who is the top military commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) that comprise all of the country’s armed forces – said he remained opposed to Tsvangirai assuming any role in government.

But Chiwenga, who together with the other service chiefs boycotted the inauguration of Tsvangirai as premier, said that his views were personal and that he would not stand in the way of officers who may want to salute or show respect to the Prime Minister.

“Chiwenga made it clear that he was suspicious of Tsvangirai and the MDC,” said a senior officer in the army who attended a meeting where Chiwenga made his remarks.

The meeting held last Tuesday at the army’s KG IV headquarters was part of Chiwenga’s routine monthly meetings with fellow generals and other senior officers. The officer, who spoke on condition he was not named said: “He (Chiwenga) said he would not stop other officers from saluting Tsvangirai.

“In fact he made assurances that he is not going to victimise any officer who chose to salute or respect Tsvangirai. But he went on to say that personally, he is going to have difficulties saluting Tsvangirai.”

Chiwenga’s reluctance to accept Tsvangirai in government is not surprising. In the run-up to last June’s controversial presidential run-off election Chiwenga and other top generals and security chiefs said that they would never salute Tsvangirai if he ever came to power – a declaration that at the time was viewed by many as a threat to stage a coup against the MDC leader if he won.

Following the utterances by their senior commanders, agents from the spy-Central Intelligence Organisation, police, army, war veterans and Zanu (PF) militia embarked on a violent campaign during the run-off that resulted in the death of about 200 MDC supporters, plus 10 000 injured and displacement of over 25 000 families.

The violence prompted Tsvangirai to withdrew from the race, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission went ahead with the run-off saying the MDC leader’s pull out had no legal effect. Mugabe won the one-man race by over 80 percent, but he was forced by the regional SADC alliance and the African Union to open talks with Tsvangirai and Mutambara to form a government of national unity.

Mugabe has remained in charge of security in the unity government although his Zanu (PF) and the MDC share control of the Home Affairs Ministry that oversees the police
It was not immediately clear whether Chiwenga’s views were shared by other top security commanders as other reports over the past week suggested that CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe had urged his subordinates to support the unity government and work for its success.

Other unconfirmed reports suggested that Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi, National Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and the service chiefs will meet the Prime Minister this week as part of efforts to ensure better working relationships among all government departments.

Asked about Chiwenga’s reported comments, Tsvangirai’s spokesman, James Maridadi, disclosed that Mnangagwa and Mohadi had already met the Prime Minister last week and pledged their loyalty to the new government.

“The Prime Minister expects the ministers to make subordinates aware of their constitutional obligations. After all, the ministers pledged to uphold the rule of law during the meeting,” said Maridadi.

Chiwenga was not immediately available for comment on the matter while Mnangagwa refused to discuss the issue, switching off his mobile phone when our reporters called him on the matter.

Analysts do not expect military chiefs and others who may be opposed to the unity government to immediately cause it to fall but they say resistance from these still very powerful opponents could seriously hamper the work of the new administration and has potential to cause it to fail in the end.

Meanwhile sources said senior army officers who attended the Tuesday meeting with Chiwenga chronicled to him the poor living and working conditions of middle-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers that they said had reduced soldiers to “dangerous destitutes”.

One source said the soldiers were not happy with a US$100-monthly allowance that the unity government is dishing out to every government employee including soldiers saying they wanted to be paid more cash which should vary with one’s rank.

“The meeting went well into the night,” said the source. “Senior officers openly told Chiwenga that soldiers were very near to a mutiny because of the conditions they are being subjected to.

Chiwenga was told to warn the government to meet soldiers’ demands because the situation in the barracks is deteriorating.”

(Source)

Britain is ready to increase its aid to Zimbabwe but only if the new power-sharing government takes steps towards towards economic and human rights reform. Gordon Brown has told the new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, that the national unity government must pass a series of stringent tests to allow international donors to treat it as an “ordinary country”, and step up efforts to secure the long-term recovery of the ravaged Zimbabwean economy. Key measures include the immediate release of political prisoners; moves towards greater freedom of the press; the opening of talks with the International Monetary Fund and other bodies about an economic recovery plan; and a “road map” towards fresh elections. Mr Tsvangirai was in South Africa yesterday to discuss a recovery package for his country. He said that Zimbabwe would need US$5bn (£3.5bn) to help to repair its battered economy.

The Zimbabwean power-sharing government was formed last week after months of deadlock between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). But fears that Mr Mugabe’s “hard men” are trying to wreck the agreement appeared to be confirmed last week when Roy Bennett, Mr Tsvangirai’s nominee to be the deputy agriculture minister, and expected to be one of two white men in the cabinet, was arrested. Aid workers have warned that immediate action is needed to stem the spread of disease, halt food shortages and prevent further collapse of the economy. The number of people hit by the cholera epidemic will soon reach 100,000 in a country where, according to the UN, 20 per cent of the adult population has HIV. The average life expectancy is only 35 years. There are also warnings that the country will face a major food shortage within months unless urgent action is taken to stabilise the economy.

One British aid official said: “Zimbabwe is badly broken now. It will get considerably worse if there is not very rapid progress. If the fundamentals are not sorted out things will go down very, very quickly.” Britain is the largest supplier of aid to Zimbabwe with a £49m programme delivered through the United Nations and local groups, and is to send medical supplies into the country to tackle the cholera epidemic. Britain and other donor countries have made it clear they will respond to future humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe. But British ministers have also indicated that they need a commitment to reform in Harare. Mr Brown has told MPs that he informed Mr Tsvangirai that “until the government of Zimbabwe could convince us that there were going to be free and fair elections, and at the same time that there was going to be the removal of repressive legislation, including the release of political prisoners, until these things happen we could not treat Zimbabwe as if it was an ordinary country.”

He also said that “obviously we would want to see humanitarian aid getting to people who are in the distressed position that, for example, the terrible cholera outbreak has caused”. The Prime Minister added: “I hope there will be considerable pressure by the international community to release political prisoners, to get in a credible team to deal with the finances and to have a clear road map to the next elections that will take place in Zimbabwe. These will be the indicators of change that we will be looking for and I fear that President Mugabe will still stand in the way of these changes.” The International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: “We hope the new government will bring an end to the country’s spiralling decline but words must now be turned into action. “The UK stands ready to offer further assistance but we must first see a change in the policies and actions of the government. The situation for millions of ordinary Zimbabweans remains desperate and that is why we remain determined to do everything we can to improve their lives.”

The price of aid: Brown’s conditions

1. Release political prisoners: Morgan Tsvangirai stipulated in a speech after his inauguration that he wanted the immediate release of all political prisoners. But even as the ceremony was under way, Roy Bennett, who was due to be sworn in as his deputy agriculture minister, was arrested on terrorism and weapons charges. Contrary to a condition of the power-sharing deal, Mr Bennett is one of 40 political detainees still being held.

2. Press freedom: For the past seven years, tough laws have barred foreign journalists from working permanently in the country and imposed state permits on local journalists. Campaigners are putting pressure on the unity government to guarantee press freedom.

3. Open talks with the IMF: The inflation rate, last officially estimated at 231 million per cent, has left the Zimbabwean dollar worthless. Mr Tsvangirai is asking foreign donors for $50m in hard currency a month for six months to pay civil servants who have been on strike.

4. “Road map” to fresh elections: Mr Tsvangirai’s orders are already being contradicted by Mr Mugabe. It has been difficult to re-establish the rule of law in a split cabinet where Mr Tsvangirai’s ministers are outnumbered by Mr Mugabe’s party 16 to 13.

(Source)

A former Australian citizen and activist Sekai Holland has been given a cabinet seat in Zimbabwe’s hybrid Government.

The unexpected appointment came after opposition parties led by Morgan Tsvangirai insisted on an expanded cabinet to that proposed by the President, Robert Mugabe, this week as part of a fragile power-sharing arrangement in Zimbabwe.

Mrs Holland’s appointment as one of five special ministers of state marks a high point in a long journey as an activist in the country, including a brutal beating in Harare in March 2007.

She sustained three broken ribs, a broken leg and arm, a fractured knee and multiple bruises in the attack, as the Mugabe Government cracked down on opposition parties.

She previously lived in Sydney for 16 years, until 1980, and is married to an Australian citizen, Jim Holland.

She was a vocal opponent of the Australian cricket team’s planned tour of Zimbabwe in 2007, which was eventually cancelled amid growing international pressure on Mr Mugabe to resign. Mr Mugabe was forced to negotiate with opposition parties throughout the week, after drawing up a list of 31 ministers to form the new Government without consulting Mr Tsvangirai.

At a swearing in ceremony on Thursday night in Harare Mrs Holland was one of five special ministers included in the new cabinet at the last minute as part of a compromise. It also represents a breakthrough for her splinter opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, which now has 15 seats in the new Government.

Mr Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has 17 of the 36 ministers, and the remaining four ministers are from a breakaway Movement for Democratic Change party, led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara.

(Source)

Charges against 4 activists dropped

The four women were finally taken to court this morning on the fresh charges of criminal nuisance. The prosecutor at Bulawayo Magistrate’s Court refused to entertain the charges however. All four women were therefore unconditionally released after six days of harassment and intimidation by police, four of which were spent in horrific conditions in police cells. In consultation with the four women, WOZA is considering suing the Zimbabwe Republic Police for wrongful arrest and detention.

The harassment against WOZA continued this afternoon however when members gathered to discuss the state of education in the country.

Officers from the Law and Order unit interrupted the meeting and refused to leave despite it being a closed meeting of members. Those present therefore felt they had no option but to dismiss as they felt their freedoms of assembly and speech would be curtailed by the presence of police officers that they violated their rights on so many occasions.

Please find below a WOZA communiqué on the state of education in Zimbabwe..

The State of Education in Zimbabwe - a Dream Shattered

A WOZA perspective – February 2009

Background

Last week, the political parties proceeded to implement their power-sharing deal. This is the first step in the formation of a transitional government that is to oversee reforms, come up with a new constitution and then conduct an election. Zimbabweans have had to stand by and observe this process without being given the opportunity to participate, and perhaps they will feel that they have no choice but to continue to watch and wait for these developments to lessen their hardships. Many promises were made in the Global Political Agreement that have been ignored, so we should not be surprised if the trend continues.

But what should Zimbabweans do? Our role is to put maximum pressure on all the parties to this agreement to address our issues and our priorities. We must not wait for 100 days to pass and complain that nothing is happening. Every day matters and every day we should be speaking out and demanding change. Especially as most schools in the country have still not opened.

Education - a dream shattered

We as a people have always valued the education of our children more than anything else. For that we sell our precious beasts, work two jobs, travel across borders, go into exile, buy less food and once joined the liberation struggle. We hang the hard-earned certificates on the unpainted walls of our small homes, and ululate at the graduations.

An educated son or daughter is our pride and joy, the fulfilment of years of struggle.

After Independence ZANU PF seemed to understand this burning desire of Zimbabweans, resources were allocated to the ministries of education and an expansion of schooling followed in the 1980’s.

Although there was still more that could have been done, by the mid-1990’s we could boast of teachers’ colleges training qualified teachers by the thousands, universities producing graduates to teach A-level, graduates obtaining further degrees to become college and university lecturers. We were the envy of Africa, with 90% adult literacy by 2002 and 98% youth literacy. Our school leavers could obtain places for tertiary education anywhere in the world, but they did not need to leave Zimbabwe, because our universities were developing and providing training in almost any field.

Teaching was a respected profession at one time, a teacher the most educated person in a rural community, a resource of knowledge to be shared. Teachers were never highly paid, but they could buy the necessities and some luxuries. Many even retired on a decent pension.

Who could have believed that we could sink so low as to reach the situation we are in today? Only private tertiary institutions function, government universities, colleges and schools are closed. The rot began many years ago; by 2001 the number of school-aged children not in school was already higher than in 1991, literacy rates had started to fall by 2002 and qualified teachers had begun leaving Zimbabwe by 2003. But the worst devastation has come in the past four years. Schools are closed because there are no teachers; teachers are not there because they have been chased away from their classrooms by the meagre wage offered by government. Large numbers of them have opted to swim across the crocodile infested Limpopo River to seek a living wage in South Africa.

WOZA believe that a once vibrant education system, along with our children’s lives, has been destroyed by political interference. The Mugabe regime stole from the education budget to fund political campaigns and pay an overstaffed intelligence department. They could not provide funding for schools, classrooms, textbooks and teachers salaries, and so today, in 2009 we have no education except for those few rich people who send their children to private schools. Even the defence forces whose activities were resourced at the sacrifice of the education system cannot afford to send their children to school.

Those teachers who remain in Zimbabwe have been forced to supplement their salaries by trading, by selling sweets, by turning their classrooms into market places. Some have survived by charging fees for teaching children after hours. Where is the valued teacher of old, the community leader to whom everyone showed respect? That teacher cannot survive without a salary, the teacher cannot survive when being threatened and insulted instead of valued and encouraged for the work being done.

The work that teacher was doing cannot not be done by school leavers or uneducated war veterans who think teaching is a matter of shouting and punishing. The knowledge and skill that teachers possess has been scorned and devalued by people who seem not to care about the future of our families, our communities and our nation. They don’t understand the many years of work by so many thousands of educators, which went gone into building what was once such a respected education system. And now all that is destroyed. Our teachers are all over the world, the lucky ones teaching, the less lucky working in factories, in construction, as domestics, and the most unfortunate starving on street corners in the cities of every continent.

An education system also needs school buildings, furniture, stationery and textbooks. All of these need money. Money comes from a functioning economy and the willingness of a government to allocate funds.

These funds should not be expected to come from parents. We fought for the right to free education, and thought we had gained that right. Now it has been taken away; now there is no education in Zimbabwe; now our children are starving for food and starving for the learning, which will enable them to become productive adults.

The State of Education in 2008

In August 2008 WOZA undertook a survey of our membership. We interviewed a sample of more than 1,000 members in Bulawayo, Harare and Chitungwiza. We asked them about how they are living, and we asked them about the education of their children.

· 15% said they have school-age children who are not going to school.

· Only 37% said their children were able to attend classes regularly.

· Only 5% said there were enough teachers, and 3% said there were enough textbooks.

· Less than 10% had a chair and a desk for each child at the school.

· 70% said their children had been sent away from school because they had not paid fees on time, or paid the levy, or paid a fees top-up.

· 66% had failed to buy uniforms when they were needed and 60% had had their children sent away from school for not having correct uniform.

· 47% had had their children sent away from school because there were no teachers.

This survey was conducted in urban areas. Rural schools were by and large in worse conditions.

These figures come from August – before the chaos and confusion of the third term of 2008. When there had already been major disruptions earlier in the year - classes cancelled due to elections, schools appropriated by thugs as centres to create violence, teachers’ absences because they could not afford transport to school. Children were expected to write public exams without having done any learning. The exams were conducted in confusion. We don’t even know if professionals were employed to mark the exams so cannot trust the results. Some were told to bring a chair to sit on to write their exams, many were required to provide a ream of paper with their exam fees.

Children hardly learnt in 2008 and many will need to repeat the year. Many parents are prepared to see their children repeat rather than remain substandard due to the time missed. But are the schools in a position to offer anything at all to our children?

We hear the Prime Minister asking teachers to go back to school but what will they do there? Results were not released; there is no stationary and no furniture. Charging huge amounts of money in foreign currency will not bring children to school as their parents do not have US $200 to pay. Parents are not to blame for the political disaster that killed schooling. Parents cannot pay teachers - should they when that is why there is a government with a minister of education?

The Way Forward

We will not allow 2009 to be a repeat of 2008. We demand our children get a decent quality education and demand free schooling and free levies in 2009. Our children cannot be made to suffer for the politics and mismanagement. Very few can afford to pay school fees in foreign currency. Those who did would be the privileged, those who benefited from the chaos of our current situation. No, as Zimbabweans we are not prepared to have education provided to only a few.

These are our demands to the new government:

1. Declare the education system a national disaster and we will participate in asking the international community to support teacher’s salaries and infrastructure in schools. We will help source donor funding and allocate revenues from Zimbabwean recovery to education.

2. Reduce the size of the armed forces and the CIO and allocate the money saved to education.

3. Sell the expensive cars allocated to government officials and use the money to buy text books.

4. Consult us and together we can design a fee structure that will enable all children to go to school.

5. Introduce a non-politicized assistance programme for those children who cannot afford the fees.

6. Begin a campaign to lure teachers home with adequate salaries, and adequate supplies, furniture and equipment in schools.

7. Open schools as soon as 50% of the required teachers are in place.

8. The rest of 2009 should be devoted to repeating the previous year – hence no grade 0 intake.

9. 2008 exams should be discounted and rewritten in 2009 at no extra cost to parents. If we cannot administer our own exams we ask a donor to fund that administration and import specialists to implement it.

10. Political interference in the administration of schools must cease and professionals must run education.

We call on teachers to do the following:

1. Understand the plight of Zimbabwean parents and children is the same as your plight.

2. Make reasonable demands for a living wage, in keeping with what will be affordable by government.

3. Return to your classrooms only when you are sure there will be a living wage. You will need you to work hard without distractions like trading in the classrooms and absences from work to make money. With an adequate wage, cease your demands for payment from parents.

We call on parents to do the following:

1. Teach your children to value education and learning.

2. Instil in them a discipline that has been lost over the past year of chaos.

3. Participate in community activities that can resurrect our schools as centres of excellence.

4. Be patient but vigilant as the new government reorganizes our schools, and ensure that the policies are in the interests of the majority of the people.

We are watching and waiting. We believe that together we can rebuild schools that will once again be the envy of the region. But the primary responsibility lies on this government to deliver on promises, to allocate funds and to make them work for our children.

WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE (WOZA)

WHAT IS OUR MISSION: Women and men of WOZA are conducting a non-violent campaign. Our aim is to mobilise Zimbabweans to demand social justice from their leaders. The time has come to put the past behind us and start building a better tomorrow. We will hold existing leaders accountable and mobilise people to the movement to demand leaders who will deliver all aspects of social justice and a genuinely people-driven constitution.

DREAMING OF A NEW ZIMBABWE - THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER

Zimbabweans, united and resolute, announce:

That after 27 years of independence, the freedoms and equal opportunities we were promised have not been fulfilled;

The dreams we had of a good life - of dignity, comfort and security - have become nightmares.

Zimbabweans must dream once again and turn their dreams into a living reality.

We must keep in mind, however, that we deserve better and we must not be afraid to believe that we have the right to a brighter future and we have the right to contribute to building it.

And therefore, we, the people of Zimbabwe, women, men and children, of all races, tribes and religions, come together with respect for each other and as equals to adopt this Charter, knowing that united we can deliver its possibilities;

And we undertake to work together with strength, courage and hope, until all Zimbabweans can live in a genuinely democratic country in peace and with dignity.

Educating the Nation

Every child shall have equal access to an education without any form of discrimination. Those who cannot afford it shall have access to financial assistance;

Primary education shall be free and secondary education affordable as we were promised in 1980;

All students shall have a good quality education, taught in classrooms with enough resources - books, desks and equipment.

There shall be enough qualified teachers committed to educating the next generation.

We must respect their contribution enough to give them a living wage.

(Source: via email)