New Zimbabwe

26 January 2013

SPORTS Minister David Coltart has accused Zimbabwe Cricket of playing politics after it rejected his directive on the appointment of national selectors.

Coltart originally wanted all national selectors to have played for the national team in their respective sport, but after a dramatic public showdown with black cricket administrators who claimed the policy was racial, the minister this week amended the directive “in the national interest”.

Instead of all the selectors having to be ex-national team players, the new directive will require that “not less than 50 percent of the selectors shall have represented Zimbabwe as athletes or players at the senior level in the particular sport discipline”.

Cricket and bowls are two of the sports that use a panel of selectors to pick the team.The amended directive says the chairman of the selectors should have played for the national team – which would require that Givemore Makoni, the convenor of selectors for the cricket national team, must give up that post because he has not played for Zimbabwe. He could still sit on the panel as part of the less than 50 percent who have not played at the highest level.

In an extraordinary show of defiance, Zimbabwe Cricket said the directive – which takes effect from February 1 – would require it to change its constitution and terminate contracts with the current selectors.

Wilfred Mukondiwa, the ZC managing director said: “In terms of the Sports and Recreation Commission Act, it does not appear that the Commission can require a national association to amend its constitution in such a manner as to determine the persons who shall take particular positions. That would appear to be micro- managing the national associations which is not consistent with the manifest tenor of the Act.

“The Act empowers the Commission to provide a hands-off oversight role except in case of a disciplinary nature. With respect therefore, it appears that the Commission has no legal capacity to require ZC to do what the directive demands.”

Stung by ZC’s open defiance, Coltart – a member of the MDC led by Welshman Ncube – accused cricket chiefs of playing politics to frustrate him.

“Can you ever imagine Zimbabwe Cricket adopting this attitude if it was a Zanu PF minister involved? Politicians are not just those who have formal political positions,” Coltart said.

Coltart and the Sports Commission appear ready to dig in, while the ZC is readying itself for a season of defiance. The ZC claims there are only 10 ex-Zimbabwe stars who qualify to sit on the panel of selectors – and a countless number of white ex-stars. The accusation is that Coltart’s directive is designed to benefit white former players and crowd out blacks.

The Sunday Mail

By Jonathan Moyo

26 January 2013

David Coltart, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, wrongly deployed to that key role by Welshman Ncube’s MDC, just does not get it. His not-so-cleverly-hidden commitment to the Rhodesian racist cause has finally come out of the bag, leaving his human rights and rule of law charade up in stinking smoke.

The irrefutable evidence is now there for all to see from Coltart’s manifestly racist, illegal and even barbaric ministerial directive which he has fraudulently issued in the false name of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) to the effect that from February 1 no person shall be appointed as a selector by any national sport association for a national team unless they have represented Zimbabwe in that particular sport.

The fact that Coltart’s directive smacks of sickening and intolerable racism last seen in Rhodesia has already been made beyond rational disputation not least by Givemore Makoni, a true son of the soil who is currently Zimbabwe Cricket’s Convenor of Selectors with a solid 26 years of professional experience in the troubled sport of cricket behind him.  Indeed, well experienced and respected sports journalists such as Robson Sharuko, Lawrence Moyo and Kevin Mapasure, among others, have made telling media interventions that have raised questions which Coltart has failed to convincingly answer about the racist implications of his misplaced directive.

While the racism behind Coltart’s directive is now common cause, there are three equally damning aspects of the directive that have not been sufficiently interrogated yet each and all of them expose Coltart for the fake human rights and rule of law activist that he is.
In the first place Coltart issued his directive in a fraudulent manner under the false name of the SRC.

This is because the commission does not have a board to formulate and implement the purported directive. A perusal of the record shows that the term of the previous board of the commission expired on October 31 2012 and there has been no replacement.  Where there’s no board there can be no directive.

In an emotionally charged response to an article written by Kevin Mapasure last Friday Coltart revealingly wrote that, “The SRC directive by Col Nhemachena I sent to him last week states clearly that my proposal to the SRC was sent by me to the SRC on December 3 last year”.

This shows that, in the absence of an SRC Board, Coltart has been abusing Col Nhemachena by making him do unlawful things that he has no power or authority to do in terms of the law.

The fact that Nhemachena has obliged is a total shame. As such, the purported directive sent on January 8 in Col Nhemachena’s name and under his signature on Coltart’s instruction is a fraudulent piece of paper not worth the ink printed on it.

In the second place, the fraudulent directive issued by Coltart through Col Nhemachena is barbaric in that it targets incumbents like Givemore Makoni and seeks to use the backdoor to remove them from their legal, legitimate and contractual roles and obligations by the stroke of a racist pen through a fraudulent decree purporting to be coming from a board that does not in fact exist at law. That is jungle stuff typical of Rhodie antics with no basis in the rule of law.

It is an established human rights principle and a tenet of international best practice that the effect of a change of law or rule must not be retroactive.

Givemore Makoni was legally and thus contractually appointed as Convenor of Selectors on November 2 2012 by Zimbabwe Cricket well before Coltart sent his fraudulent directive to Col Nhemachena on December 3 2012 and it is barbaric for Coltart or anyone else to seek to shamelessly nullify that appointment through a racist decree which is intended to take effect from February 1 for a specific hidden reason that is too apparent.

In the third place, and above everything else, Coltart’s directive fraudulently issued through Col Nhemachena in the absence of an SRC Board in order to unleash barbaric consequences on targeted individuals such as Givemore Makoni is patently illegal. There is absolutely nothing in the Sports and Recreation Commission Act (Chapter 25:15) that gives either Coltart as the Minister or the SRC Board the power to do what Coltart’s racist directive seeks to do.

In simple terms, while the SRC has the policy duty and responsibility to oversee the affairs of sporting associations in order to co-ordinate and develop sport at the national level, it has no legal right whatsoever to run the affairs of the associations or to make or amend their constitutions through directives.

As a matter of fact, in all situations where the law gives a minister or board any “power”, that power is always specifically defined and is always exercised in statutory terms by first being gazetted in the Government Gazette.  In terms of the law, power cannot be exercised arbitrarily or in general and nebulous terms at the whim and caprice of a minister without reference to a specific section of the enabling law and without gazetting the desired action on the basis of that law.

The fact that Coltart is a lawyer and therefore should know this is enough to prove his sinister intentions because no self-respecting lawyer would seek to implement an arbitrary directive that has no legal basis and that does not even have Cabinet authority.
What is particularly shocking in this case is that Coltart is seeking to use an ungazetted and fraudulent directive to amend the constitutions of sport associations such as Zimbabwe Cricket that are legally registered with the SRC.

This alone shows that Coltart is a fake human rights activist and the noises he always makes — especially at international fora where he is now seeking a job at some international anti-nuclear proliferation agency — are hollow and self-serving.
Against this background the position taken by Zimbabwe Cricket should be commended and supported by all Zimbabweans beyond cricket because it is legally and morally correct and is in the national interest.

Instructively, the fact that there’s a not-so-hidden racist agenda in Coltart’s directive has been exposed by his outrageous response to the decision by Zimbabwe Cricket not to implement the illegal directive. Upon learning of the Zimbabwe Cricket decision last Friday, Coltart took to the social media with a post that made this shocking claim:

“I see that one of the reasons for defiance advanced by Zimbabwe Cricket is the following: ‘Further, the actions of the Commission, in that regard, would be in violation of Article 2.9(B) of the ICC Articles of Association which prohibit government interference in the management of the affairs of the member associations’. This is one of the most disingenuous arguments I have seen. I wonder how Zimbabwe Cricket reconciles this statement with the following article published yesterday regarding Sri Lanka’s selection procedures where the Sri Lankan Minister of Sport chooses the selectors”.

It is bad for Coltart to base his response on a secondary reason used by Zimbabwe Cricket and worse for him to misrepresent that reason in a manner that clearly shows that he takes Zimbabweans for fools.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s rejection of Coltart’s directive is primarily and essentially based on the law of the land and Coltart knows that because it is in black and white in the five-page letter Zimbabwe Cricket sent to the Col Nhemachena on January 24.   Except for only one paragraph in its conclusion, the entire five-page letter is based on the Sports and Recreation Commission Act (Chapter 25:15) and painstakingly shows how and why Coltart’s directive is illegal in terms of this law and this alone.

Coltart’s failure to respond to the detailed legal issues raised by Zimbabwe Cricket in terms of the Sports and Recreation Commission Act and his uninformed reference to a useless newspaper article about how the Sri Lankan Minister of Sport chooses selectors show how childish and irresponsible he has become in defence of his racism in sport.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s reference to Article 2.9(B) of the ICC Articles of Association which prohibit government interference in the management of the affairs of member associations is an important and relevant secondary and not primary reason for rejecting Coltart’s illegal directive. The primary reason is the Zimbabwean law.

What is as shocking as it is revealing is that Coltart, who is a lawyer, wants Zimbabweans to ignore the fact that Article 2.9(B) of the ICC Articles of Association does indeed exist and wants them to focus instead on the fact that Sri Lankan and Pakistan cricket are in violation of this ICC Article 2.9(b) of Association and that this violation somehow justifies his illegal directive.

In other words, Coltart is saying “if Sri Lanka and Pakistan are doing it illegally, then we must also did it illegally”. This is utter crap which shows that Coltart does not get it and is an enemy of the rule of law. His shocking irrationality is equivalent to a stupid lawyer who defends a client accused of murder by submitting that his client must be left alone to murder some more because there are other murderers out there going scott free.

The fact is that the ICC stands by Article 2.9(b) of its Articles of Association and has given Sri Lanka and Pakistan a reprieve and is closely working with them to comply while Zimbabwe Cricket is already in compliance which partly explains why it has rejected Coltart’s illegal directive.

Another example of Coltart’s failure to understand the compelling legal issues raised by Zimbabwe Cricket was exposed last Friday in his Facebook exchange with Darlington Tendai Majonga whom he sought to confuse if not smear by rhetorically asking: “Can you ever imagine Zimbabwe Cricket adopting this attitude if it was a Zanu-PF minister involved?”

Again and because he has no case besides his racist agenda, Coltart failed to give Majonga the legal basis or reasons why Zimbabwe Cricket should comply with his racist directive and instead — and rather foolishly — decided to go political in very personalised terms by claiming that “Zimbabwe Cricket would not insist on following the law if it was a Zanu-PF minister involved”.

This again shows that Coltart does not get it. No Zanu-PF minister would treacherously dare seek to reverse the gains of our hard-won and heroic independence by giving a directive intended to disempower the indigenous population in favour of erstwhile Rhodesian interests. That is unthinkable.

It appears from the record that Coltart suffers from an acute case of delusions of the grandeur.

He imagines himself to be a champion of human rights and the rule of law only by dint of the white colour of his skin simply because his race easily and readily connects him to Western interests and that gives him an exaggerated sense of a superiority complex.

By his own admission posted on his personal website, Coltart claims to have become a human rights activist for the first time in his life in 1983 yet he was born in 1957. But interestingly he claims in his curriculum vitae that he was “conscripted into the British South African Police Force stationed in Mashonaland, Matabeleland South and Masvingo Provinces” during the height of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle between 1975 and 1978. Although he claims that he was “conscripted” into the Rhodesian Selous Scouts network under the BSAP he boasts in his curriculum vitae that he was judged to be the “best recruit” in July 1975. Best recruit!

It is unthinkable that an unwilling soldier of conscience in Rhodesia could have been the best recruit. There’s clearly more to Coltart’s Rhodesian history than the people have known and his recent racist directive is a telling window into his dark past.
This perhaps explains why there’s nothing in Coltart’s history that locates him in support of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle or its legacy.  Nothing

According to his own curriculum vitae posted on his personal Website he became a human rights activist not by choice or God’s calling as he would have the uninitiated among us believe but after he was “instructed by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace to record affidavits from people who had suffered at the hands of the Fifth Brigade, affidavits subsequently submitted to the Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry”.

Coltart prepared these affidavits not as a human rights activist — which he has never been — but as a hired lawyer under instruction from Rhodesian interests! The same is true with his legal defence of the likes of the late Sydney Malunga, Edward Ndlovu, Stephen Nkomo and other members of the then PF-Zapu Central Committee. Coltart defended them as a hired lawyer and not as a human rights activist not least because he did not support their heroic liberation history or role in that struggle.

He just supported their unfortunate misunderstanding with their nationalist colleagues in Government. And to this day Coltart does not support the liberation struggle or its gains. This is because to him human rights and the rule of law are the antithesis of the liberation struggle and its gains.

It is for this reason that Coltart cannot stand the likes of Givemore Makoni whose rise in cricket is an expression of the gains of the liberation struggle.

Indeed, Coltart’s opposition to the liberation struggle and its gains also explains why more often than not on a given day in his Government ministerial office, he is wont to be found surrounded by hordes of Rhodies. In the same vein, his policy thrust as education minister is run by a so-called Education Transition Trust which meets once a month at his ministerial offices and whose composition is 70 percent white with the 30 percent remainder made up of the black employees of the same 70 percent white bloc that runs the trust plus a sprinkling of a few ministry officials.

Under Coltart, the last four years have seen a concerted effort to kill the very system of public education that has been Zimbabwe’s national pride by not only privatising it but also by creating white colonies within it that are reminiscent of the Rhodesian “Group A” schools that are now once again springing up as colonies in our country.

As part of Coltart’s racist initiative in education, these schools are running their own foreign syllabi and have become apartheid islands that are not relating to the rest of the schools in the public educational system even in sports and recreational activities.
Coltart has a dangerous racist agenda which he is pursuing with his racist cabal of Rhodies in a fraudulent manner with no legal basis. He must be stopped by any and all means necessary.

The Chronicle

By Vusumuzi Dube

26 January 2013

THE recent decline in the 2012 Advanced Level pass rate has been attributed to the examinations being difficult with reports that the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) tried to reduce the minimum examination pass mark, a move that was blocked by Government.

This comes amid revelations that Government will this year tighten monitoring mechanisms in the education sector to ensure that students perform much better.

The country’s pass rate for 2012 marginally dropped to 82,09 percent from 85,2 percent the previous year according to statistics released by Zimsec last Thursday.

The number of students who sat for A’ Level exams last year increased by 45,9 percent to 36 678 compared to 2011 where they were 25 139 candidates.

According to the figures, females performed better than their male counterparts, as they recorded a pass rate of 83,78 percent compared to the male figure of 80,83 percent.

The highest passed subject was Food Science with 96,95 percent, followed by Ndebele at 94,7 percent while the bottom two subjects were Geography with 54,27 percent and Accounting with 38,27 percent.

In an interview with Sunday News Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said he had personally issued an instruction to the examinations council not to decrease the minimum benchmark, as this would have a negative bearing on the country’s education sector.

“Yes, I am obviously worried on this decline but I personally gave an instruction to Zimsec not to meddle with standards because we want an honest assessment of how we performed so that we know what we have to do for the next examination period.

“Let’s not forget that we are slowly emerging from the 2005 — 2008 period where our students hardly had access to any textbooks, teachers were hardly in class and the country’s education standards were declining. However this decline must not be taken as a true reflection of the education standard as a whole,” said Minister Coltart.

He said his ministry was working round the clock to help revive the nation’s education standards, which included attracting back qualified teachers who had left the profession.

“Right now we have managed to bring back over 15 000 teachers  into the system. We will also be going ahead with our teacher retraining programme so as to help improve the overall service delivery and our students get the best possible services,” said the minister.

He said there was also a problem where they had a high number of unqualified teachers in the system thus the need for them to roll out a training programme for these teachers.

“We have come up with a new computerised education management system that will be linked to all our district offices, where we will be constantly monitoring teachers and see that they are always in the classrooms,” said Minister Coltart.

News Day

25 January 2013

EDUCATION, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart yesterday named an eight-member Zimbabwe Board of Wrestling and Boxing Control board tasked with reviving the fortunes of the sport in the country.

The board is headed by educationist, former broadcaster and Annual National Sports Awards (Ansa) judges panel chairperson Paul Nenjarama. The new board, which has a three-year term that ends on January 31 2016, includes former prominent boxer Alexander Kwangwari and boxing promoters Lorraine Muringi and Ed Hammond. Other members of the board are former SRC board member Tsitsi Muzuva, former national team doctor Farai Muchena, media practitioner Gilbert Munetsi and Rangarirai Charles Dzimba, the former general manager of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa Zone VI. The new board takes over from the previous board led by Richard Hondo that had been in charge since 1980 before it was dissolved by Coltart in November last year. In a statement, Coltart said the new board was chosen after widespread consultations with the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) and various stakeholders involved in the sport.

“The Board has been arrived at after widespread consultations with the Sports and Recreation Commission and various Stakeholders involved in Boxing. I am pleased to announce my appointment of a new Zimbabwe National Boxing and Control Board in terms of Chapter 25:02 of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act with effect from 1st February 2013. The Board’s tenure will last until the 31st of January 2016.” The new Board members were drawn from diverse experts in the field of Boxing, particularly administrators, former boxers, boxing coaches, boxing promoters and the medical profession.

Coltart said the new board will be mandated to revive boxing and to restore Zimbabwe as one of Africa’s top boxing nations. “I am confident that this new board will be able to resuscitate boxing in Zimbabwe and to restore Zimbabwe as one of Africa’s top boxing nations,” reads the statement.

“The state of boxing in Zimbabwe has been in dire straits with no functional and substantive board for over a decade. In the recent years boxing in Zimbabwe has been characterised by sporadic local tournaments and poor performances at international levels. The boxers have become inactive; hence it is virtually impossible to rank them to promote competitiveness. The urgent mandate of this new board is, therefore, to restore Zimbabwe as a top boxing nation by ensuring the re-emergence of the likes of Langton ‘Schoolboy’ Tinago, Proud ‘Kilimanjaro’ Chinembiri and Stix McLoud who made the nation proud by clinching international titles like the Commonwealth and the African Championships. ”

The Herald

By Augustine Hwata 

25 January 2013

Could the winds of change be finally blowing in the administration of local boxing? After more than 30 years at the helm, the Richard Hondo-led boxing board has been technically knocked out from the corridors of power with a new committee headed by Paul Nenjerama, assuming office.

Nenjerama, who is also the chairman of the judges’ panel for the Annual National Sports Persons of the Year Awards, heads the nine-member committee that was unveiled yesterday.

Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, yesterday also included Lorraine Muringi in the new structure.

Muringi made history when she became the first woman in Zimbabwe to acquire a boxing promoter’s licence back in 1985.

Back then, boxing was a male-dominated sport but Muringi made inroads through her Ring Boxing Stable.

Coltart has also appointed Farai Muchena, the owner of Hunyani Boxing Promotions, respected boxing trainer Ed Hammond, and Tsitsi Muzuva to the new structures.

Alex Kwangwari, journalist Gilbert Munetsi and Rangarirai Dzimba have also been appointed to the new board.

The new board will assume office on February 1, 2013, and their tenure will end on January 31, 2016. Coltart pushed out the previous board that had Hondo, Tobaiwa Mudede and Patrick Mukondiwa as the known members.

In November last year, Coltart dissolved the previous board that had been running the show for over three decades.

“I am pleased to announce my appointment of a new Zimbabwe National Boxing Board and Control in terms of the Chapter 25:02 of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act with effect from February 1, 2013. The board’s tenure will last until January 31st 2016,” said Coltart in a statement.

The once popular sport of boxing had nosed-dived over the years with few tournaments being held and little achievements to write home about.

“The state of boxing in Zimbabwe has been in dire straits with no functional and substantive board for over a decade.

“In recent years, boxing has been characterised by sporadic local tournaments and poor performances at international levels.

“The boxers had become inactive, hence it is virtually impossible to rank them to promote competitiveness,” said Coltart

The Minister said the mandate of the new board is to restore Zimbabwe as a top boxing nation and revive the glory days of yesteryear boxers like Langton “Schoolboy” Tinago, Proud “ Kilimanjaro” Chinembiri, Stix Macloud and Zvenyika Arifonso.

In selecting the new board, the Sports Commission made consultations with stakeholders drawn from promoters, medical field, former boxers, trainers and sports administrators.

Yesterday, Barthlowmew Dendere, who headed the ad — oc Zimbabwe Boxing Committee that gave some of their recommendations to the Sports Commission, expressed confidence that the fortunes of the sport will start to improve.

“We see the coming of a new board as a positive step and it’s important to move forward. There is no need to pick squabbles now,” said Dendere.

The Herald

By Robson Sharuko 

25 Janaury 2013

ZIMBABWE Cricket yesterday rejected the Sports Commission’s controversial directive, on the appointment of national team selectors, saying it was a violation of their constitution, in breach of

their contractual obligations and in conflict with the International Cricket Council’s Articles of Association.

The Sports Commission, acting under the orders of the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, had directed that as of next Friday, only those who have played for the national teams would qualify to hold positions on the panel of selectors.

The ZC yesterday responded by saying that neither Coltart nor the Sports Commission had the legal capacity to force the organisation to embrace the directive.

The directive torched a storm in ZC, an organisation that has battled racial divisions in the past, with convenor of selectors, Givemore Makoni, charging that it was targeted at removing him from his post because he didn’t play for the national team.

Makoni claimed it was unfair for him to be kicked out of the panel of selectors, on the basis that he never played for the national team, without taking into consideration that his path into that team was blocked by hurdles planted by a sporting discipline that was pregnant with racial barriers.

Yesterday, ZC managing director, Wilfred Mukondiwa, officially wrote to Sports Commission director general, Charles Nhemachena, advising him that it was impossible for his organisation to implement the package of measures contained in the directive.

“Zimbabwe Cricket (‘ZC’) position on the directive is the following:
The constitution of ZC is registered with the Sport and Recreation Commission in terms of Section 29 of the Sport and Recreation Commission Act (Chapter 25:15)(‘The Act’). Subsection (7) of the Section provides that the constitution or rules or amendments, as the case may be, do not come into effect until they are registered in terms of Section 29. The constitution of ZC having been duly registered is effective and binding on the ZC and all the stakeholders.

The board of the ZC has, in terms of its constitution, registered in terms of the Act, appointed a national selection committee made up of two independent selectors, one of which is a convenor. The national head coach is also a member of the committee. The captain of the national team is also involved in selection but has no voting rights.

The effect of the directive is to require ZC to amend its lawfully registered constitution so as to oblige the board to stipulate the qualifications of the convenors as required by the directive. Simply complying with the directive, without amending the constitution, will not be competent. There will be no legal basis for reversing the actions of the board lawfully and constitutionally taken unless the constitution is itself amended.

There is presently no cause for the amendment of the constitution except the directive. The Commission cannot require the ZC to act unlawfully or outside its constitution. Moreover, ZC has entered into contracts with the current independent selectors which would be summarily terminated if the directive were to be implemented. ZC has no cause to terminate the contracts of the current selectors and has not made provision for the damages claimable by them in its budget for the breach of contracts that will be induced by implementing the directive. The contracts are due to subsist for a period of 12 months.

In terms of the Act, it does not appear that the Commission can require a national association to amend its constitution in such a manner as to determine the persons who shall take particular positions. That would appear to be micromanaging the national associations, which is not consistent with the manifest tenor of the Act. The Act empowers the Commission to provide a hands-off oversight role, except in case of a disciplinary nature. With respect, therefore, it appears that the Commission has no legal capacity to require ZC to do what its directive demands. ZC’s position is based on a reading following provisions of the Act which the SRC and the Minister may be purporting to rely upon.

Section 19 of the Act is a broad statement of the objectives of the Commission. It does not prescribe any powers to enforce the objectives. The powers have to be found elsewhere in the Act. As such, the objects are to a large extent general and apply to the controlling of sport and recreational activities in the country. They set parameters within which the Commission defines policy and do not empower the Commission to do specific actions in the administration of any sport. That is left to national associations.

Section 21 of the Act, as read with the Second Schedule, gives the Commission administrative powers to carry out its functions as a corporate body and does not certainly allow the Commission to act as it seeks to do in the present instance. The power to prescribe qualifications of national selectors, or any of the office-bearers, is left to the national associations and is not a function of the Commission.

Section 23 gives the Minister the power to give written directives of a “general character” which are in the national interest. The directive of the Minister in the present matter is not of a general character and from the points raised below will be shown to be clearly not in national interest. In any event, such directives are supposed to have a financial effect on the operations of the Commission.

This is apparent from the requirement that the Commission should report the effect of the directive in its report in terms of the Audit and Exchequer Act (Chapter 23:03). It is therefore clear that the directives that the Minister may give, in terms of the Section, are administrative in character and do not have anything to do with the running of associations.

From a practical point of view, even if ZC were minded to implement the directive, there are a number of serious problems. The amendment of the constitution cannot be achieved before the 1st of February 2013 for obvious reasons relating to the notice periods required for the necessary meetings in terms of the constitution.”

Mukondiwa said there were other challenges, which were not entirely constitutional, which made it impossible to implement the Sports Commission’s directive and these were:
It is a known fact that the game of cricket, until about 2004, was largely a minority sport. Deliberate steps were taken to integrate the sport and achieve a multi-racial composition in the playing of the sport of cricket at all levels. That process is still on-going and some of the results are apparent in the upcoming crop of young players of all races who currently constitute the national team.

Because of the position described above, there are not enough persons of a multi-racial mix eligible and available to be appointed as national selectors if the directive were to be implemented.
The implementation of the directive in the present circumstances would result in the racially skewed composition of the selectors which prevailed in the period prior to the year 2004. That would be obviously turning back the hands of time to the pre-2004 era and undo the integration efforts and programmes that were beginning to bear fruit. The current pool of retired black players is still too small to provide the selectors that may be appointed in terms of the directive. The result will be obvious.

A quick review of the status of the retired black former players, who played for the national teams, proves the point made above. Below is a table profiling the 10 persons who would otherwise be eligible if the directive were to implemented. It is apparent that, from their location in the world and their current vocations, they would not be available or willing to be appointed national selectors at this point in time or in the near future.

H.K Olonga (living and working in the UK; E.Z Matambanadzo (living and working in the USA); M. Mbangwa (living and working as a cricket commentator in SA); D.T Mutendera (living and working in Zimbabwe. Employed by ZC as a development coach); B.T Watambwa (living and working in Belgium); T. Taibu (retired to church ministry); D.T Hondo (playing club cricket in UK and New Zealand); N.B Mahwire (attending university in SA); W. Mwayenga (living and working in Australia. Involved in coaching in Sydney); T.V Mufambisi (living and working in Zimbabwe. self-employed).

Some of the current national selectors are people who did not play for the national team at any stage and did not have the opportunity to do so. They have, however, been able to contribute tremendously to the development of cricket and have raised sterling cricketers such as Tatenda Taibu. It does not make sense to contend that the same people are not able to serve as convenors of selectors. Their record speaks for itself and it appears patently unjust to disqualify them on account of their previously disadvantaged status.

For comparative purposes, looking at South Africa, which is closer to home and whose circumstances at some stage were similar to us, it is worth noting that the following were appointed as national selectors in the post apartheid era when they had not played for their national team: Gerald Majola, Mustapha Khan. Morris Garda, Joubert Strydom, S. K Reddy, Anver Mall, Rushdie Majid, Haroon Lorgat, Winkie Ximba.

In view of the foregoing, ZC does not consider that it is proper for the Commission to require it to comply with the directive. Doing so would be in violations of the provisions of the ZC constitution and in breach of contractual obligations.

Further, the actions of the Commission, in that regard, would be in violation of Article 2.9(B) of the ICC Articles of Association which prohibit government interference in the management of the affairs of the member associations.”

Kubatana

25 January 2013

Kubatana interviewed Senator David Coltart  – Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture

Describe yourself in five words?

Determined, passionate, committed, patriotic, direct.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
To place my trust in the good lord.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done?
I tried to impeach Robert Mugabe in a parliament then dominated by Zanu PF.

What is your most treasured possession?
My family.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The loss of my parents.

Do you have any strange hobbies?
I record rainfall in Matabeleland (which is almost non existent).

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I am covered in moles.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Golf.

What have you got in your fridge?
Beer, wine, yoghurt, milk, cheese, butter . . . and yes chocolate!

What is your greatest fear?
Living a meaningless or purposeless life.

What have you got in your pockets right now?
My cell phone and wallet.

What is your favourite journey?
Travelling home to Bulawayo.

Who are your heroes in real life?
Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela.

When and where were you happiest?
At my eldest daughter’s wedding in the Matopos.

What’s your biggest vice?
Golf, although Zanu PF propagandists would say it was being a Selous Scout!

What were you like at school?
I was short and skinny. I was a team player but very much in the background.

What are you doing next?
I am going to another series of seemingly interminable meetings.

IRIN – Humanitarian News and Analysis

24 Janaury 2013

Zimbabwe’s education system, once regarded as the finest on the continent, was a casualty of the country’s economic meltdown in the 2000s, when it nearly collapsed – but lately there have been signs of recovery.

The education malaise was widely blamed on hyperinflation, which made teachers’ salaries worthless and funding for school materials and maintenance impossible.

But with economic reforms of 2009 and the establishment of a donor funding mechanism, the school system is seeing modest, gradual improvement. Still, vast challenges – from poor infrastructure to teacher shortages – remain.

A turnaround

David Coltart, the education minister, told IRIN that the country’s education crisis actually predates hyperinflation.

“Contrary to what many people think, the downward spiral began long before hyperinflation occurred. It started with the sector not getting as much as it got during the first 10 years of independence,” he said. Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980.

The education system’s deterioration accelerated under the effects of hyperinflation. Then, in early 2009 the country ditched its local currency and adopted a multi-currency financial system using the US dollar, the Botswana pula and the South African rand, ending hyperinflation overnight.

By the time Coltart assumed his post in February 2009 – after the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, entered a government of national unity with President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party – the economy was beginning to turn around.

Coltart found the education system “chaotic”, with schools closed, teachers on strike and infrastructure in a state of disrepair. One of the first steps towards overhauling it was the establishment of the Education Transition Fund (ETF), a mechanism to allow donors control over their funds.

“The way the fund works is the donor community provides funding, I chair the education transition fund meetings, and UNICEF [the UN Children’s Fund] is the ultimate manager of the fund. So we reach consensus regarding how the money is to be spent, and the ministry decides what its priorities are,” Coltart explained.

Funding for the ETF varies from year to year. A variety of donors – including the European Commission and the governments of Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US – contribute to the fund, which UNICEF then administers.

In 2012, the ETF was funded to the tune of about US$12 million, and in 2013, $25 million is earmarked for it, UNICEF said in a statement.

Green shoots of recovery

Hyperinflation had prevented the publication of school textbooks. “In some schools, as many as 15 pupils shared a textbook, while in some rural schools only the teacher had a bedraggled textbook,” Coltart said.

Julia Mapondera, principal of Gwinyai Public Primary School in Mbare, a poor neighbourhood in the capital, Harare, told IRIN that erratic attendance by students and teachers, combined with the unavailability of text books, proved a toxic mix.

Prior to the crisis, students learned to read and write in their first year of school; student Kelvin Bimha, now 11, didn’t gain those skills until his fourth year, and then only with the assistance of remedial classes during the holidays.

Donor funding has since helped address the textbook shortage; the pupil-to-book ratio is now one-to-one, Coltart said. Next are plans for the distribution of non-academic books to encourage a culture of reading; $9 million is budgeted for this in 2013, with donor support through the ETF.

At the height of the crisis, in 2008 – during which food insecurity and waterborne disease were widespread, and schooling was disrupted by political violence and teacher strikes – the pass rate for the final year of primary school dropped to 52 percent. The previous year, it had been 70 percent.

In 2009, only 39 percent of those who sat for the final-year exams passed. It has since improved, with 2010 seeing a pass rate of 42 percent and 2011 a rate of 45 percent.

Still, Coltart expects the pass rate to remain low for several years and then gradually improve.

Long way to go

Principal Mapondera says lack of infrastructure continues to undermine the education system. In 2012, the number of students at Gwinyai was close to 2,000 – nearly double its intended capacity. The overcrowding has led to a practice known as “hot seating”, in which some children attend morning classes and others attend afternoon classes.

Coltart says the situation is not unique to Gwinyai. “We’ve got 8,000 schools. If you go to most of these schools, you’ll see the infrastructure is crumbling – schools not being maintained, toilets in a terrible state of disrepair. Many schools don’t have desks, don’t have blackboards.”

He said the $500,000 from the 2012 national budget for school maintenance was “less than drop in the ocean”, and his ministry would be seeking donor assistance. “We could spend a billion dollars on the education sector, and we wouldn’t address all these structural problems.”

The education budget for 2012-2013 is $750 million. More than half of this, Coltart says, goes to primary and high school teachers’ salaries, which average about $300 a month.

During the hyperinflation years, many teachers just walked off the job, as their salaries fell to the equivalent of $1 or less a month. The ministry has declared an amnesty for these teachers, and many have returned. But many others moved to other countries in search of employment and better salaries, and it has proved difficult to lure them back. It is estimated that 20,000 teachers left the country between 2007 and 2009.

There are currently about 106,000 teachers; about 30,000 more are required. However, even if the teacher target is achieved, Coltart says, there will not be enough classrooms available for them to teach in.

He says the government’s relationship with the teachers’ unions – such as the Zimbabwe Teachers Association and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe – is improving. But threats of strikes are never far from the surface.

The education sector had been stabilized, but remains fragile. “Until we see literacy rates starting to improve, until we see grade 7 [the final year of primary school] examination results getting back to the levels they were perhaps 10 years ago, I will remain concerned about the education sector,” he said.

News Day

By Kholwani Nyathi

23 January 2013

Debate on the need for a united front against Zanu PF in the forthcoming elections has been gaining traction at different platforms in the past few months.

MDC president Welshman Ncube, MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti and MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart are some of the prominent politicians who have shared their views about the proposed coalition.

There are some who appear convinced that such a coalition against Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe will work only if it is led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Their argument makes sense because Tsvangirai had a good showing in the last elections where he beat Mugabe in the first round of the presidential elections.

His MDC-T also won the highest number of parliamentary seats against Zanu PF and the MDC.

These views are reportedly shared by the international donor community who are trying to coax other smaller parties to rally behind Tsvangirai.

Ncube and his party have taken the flak for insisting that they will not consider an election pact or re-unification with the MDC-T.

The MDC says it does not want to repeat the same mistake that it made on the eve of the 2008 elections where at the last minute, the MDC-T National Council rejected an election pact after lengthy and promising negotiations.

But that has not stopped some political observers from lynching Ncube and his party, with some accusing them of working in cahhots with Zanu PF.

People are entitled to their opinions, but it is wrong to behave as if other politicians owe Tsvangirai anything to be obliged to support his candidature.

The MDC-T leader has not demonstrated that he needs help from any of the opposition leaders and some of his public utterances showed some arrogance that might spoil his third attempt to unseat Mugabe.

Last week, Tsvangirai chose to fight in Mugabe’s corner rather than support Ncube in his battle to have the Zanu PF leader to respect a Sadc resolution on the Global Political Agreement (GPA) principals.

Sadc leaders at their last summit in Maputo resolved that Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara would no longer be recognised as a GPA principal because he had lost the leadership of the MDC.

Mugabe has stubbornly refused to respect the resolution and has stuck with Mutambara. Unwittingly, the MDC-T has isolated Ncube and his party by their stance. Tsvangirai has also labelled Ncube “a village politician” in the past suggesting that he is too popular to bother about an election alliance to fight Zanu PF.

However, such thinking is very short-sighted.

Previous elections have shown that there isn’t much separating Zanu PF and the MDC-T.

Although the MDC formations won most of the seats in the elections, Zanu PF won the popular vote in most provinces.

The next elections will be a different ballgame altogether for the MDC formations because the element of protest votes might not be a factor.

Zimbabwe has enjoyed relative economic stability for the past four years and voting patterns will be adjusted accordingly.

True, Zimbabweans are yearning for change, but they will not vote for Tsvangirai just for the sake of it.He has to demonstrate that he is a leader capable of uniting all Zimbabweans regardless of their political backgrounds.

If Tsvangirai cannot look beyond the petty issues that led to his fallout with Ncube and the subsequent split of the MDC, can he be trusted to reconcile with a defeated Zanu PF?

It is not too late for him to start reaching out not only to the MDC, but also Simba Makoni’s MKD and Dumiso Dabengwa’s Zapu.

The missing discourse in the way Ncube has been lynched on social media is the fact that it was Tsvangirai’s fault, not the MDC’s, that the coalition collapsed last time.

Failure to rally opposition leaders to support his candidacy will suggest that he still doesn’t understand that he needs these “smaller parties” more than they need him, judging by the margin with which he failed to secure an outright victory in March 2008.