Zanu PF descends on school heads

Newsday

By Moses Matenga

26 March 2011

A senior education official in Chikomba District, Mashonaland East province has declared all schools in the district would on Saturday be used as signing centres for the anti-sanctions petition and that all headmasters are required to act as “polling officers”.

This is despite a directive by Education, Sport, Art and Culture minister David Coltart barring the use of schools for political activities.

School heads in the district are said to be angry with the order and those that spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity yesterday said much as they were against the idea, they had no choice but to follow the instruction to save their skins.

Chikomba district education director Ngoni Simon Mujuru issued a circular to all school heads in Chikomba District advising them to be available for the launch of the project on Saturday.

On Friday, Mujuru confirmed writing to inform all the headmasters in his district about today’s event but said the directive had come from the District Administrator (DA).

“I wrote the letter to all headmasters but the DA is the one who can comment on that,” he said.

Part of the letter, printed on an official government letterhead, a copy of which is in NewsDay’s possession, reads: “All school heads will be polling officers. It is our patriotic duty to conduct the exercise and as such, no payment is expected.”

The letter notifies that the venue for the signing of the petition would be “all schools in the district”.

Repeated efforts to contact the DA were fruitless on Friday.

Schoolchildren are also expected to turn up for the signing of the petition.

The party anticipates collecting more than 2 million signatures for the petition.

Minister Coltart recently said he was opposed to the decision to use schools as anti-sanctions petition signing centres and said he would immediately consult Secretary for Education Stephen Mahere to find out whether he had sanctioned the decision.

“We do not support any political or party activity in schools. I am going to discuss the matter with my senior staff to find out what is the best way forward.

If it is a Zanu PF activity, then it is totally unacceptable. We have a clear and consistent policy against the holding of party and political activities in schools,” said Coltart.

Chikomba District is notorious for schools being invaded and turned into Zanu PF bases.

Only a fortnight ago, Mujuru told school heads during a meeting that there was need to bring in war veterans to teach history in schools and to lecture to pupils on how they used to dodge bullets during the liberation struggle.