The Observer - 26 January 2014 - 3
Zim asks
Britain for
education
funds
PETA THORNYCROFT & AISLINN LAING IN
JOHANNESBURG
ritain is considering a request by
Zimbabwe for funds to cover school fees
for one million impoverished children –
around a third of the country’s pupils.
The request was made to the Department
for International Development (DIFID) by the
Zimbabwean government ten days ago, the same
week that schools opened for the year.
Britain paid school fees for about 300,000 mostlydisadvantaged children for three years during the
multiparty government, which ended last August
when President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF
party won a huge majority in disputed elections.
Britain, Germany and other European donors
also paid for more than 13 million text books for
schoolchildren after the inclusive government,
which included Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change, came to power in 2009.
Now, despite Mr Mugabe’s anti-British rhetoric
and insistence that Zimbabwe is better without the
interference of its former colonial master, the labour
and social services ministry has asked DIFID to
contribute towards the basic fees which cover the
school costs. “We received an initial request from the
Zimbabwean Government and we are considering
our response,” a DFID spokesman said.
The government of Mr Mugabe, a teacher himself
by training, inherited one of Africa’s best education
systems and, in the 15 years after independence,
improved it further, expanding the number of
schools, improving teacher training and boosting
resources. As a result, Zimbabwe continues to boast
one of the highest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
However, like all public services, it has been
crippled by an economic crisis that began in the late
90s. Hyperinflation made what salaries were paid
worthless and, coupled with a growing climate of
political intolerance, many teachers moved abroad.
Today, the government estimates that approximately
a million children, mostly from primary schools, will
need help with school fees.
Lazarus Dokora, the education minister, told The
Daily Telegraph: “As far as my pupils are concerned,
they are all in school. None have been excluded. (The
fees) never flow in a synchronised way, and come in
usually as a postscript each year.”
The Zimbabwean government can only pay
teachers’ salaries since it is collecting ever less tax in
the shrinking economy as more and more companies
lose patience with the administration and pull out.
Donors say privately they do not approve of the
present school funding model as it is run by school
committees made up of parents who are regularly
partisan about which child deserves help with school
fees, sometimes along political lines.
Zimbabwe’s collapsed economy was rescued, to an
extent, by the inclusive government five years ago, but
David Coltart, the former MDC education minister,
said he estimated that even with that assistance more
than 300,000 children did not attend school last year.
“The school system is grossly underfunded
by government and was designed for a different
economy,” he said. “It is not coping to ensure that all
eligible children will attend school.”■
B
Is Mugabe set for mini-cabinet reshuffle?
P
PRINCE TONGOGARA, HARARE
resident Robert Mugabe is set to
conduct a mini-cabinet reshuffle
upon his return from annual
leave as a means of putting the
brakes on the fast deteriorating economy
less than six month after appointing a
new team following his disputed landslide
victory last year, political analysts say.
World Bank resident economist Nadia
Piffaretti last week said Zimbabwe’s
economy was set to grow by 4.2 percent
in 2014, a lower figure than government’s
projection of a 6.1 percent growth
mentioned in the national budget statement
last month.
Piffaretti also said the weakening South
African rand will further affect Zimbabwe’s
ailing industries as imports will become
cheaper.
The cabinet reshuffle is further fueled by
the imminent swearing in of former Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor as
senator to replace Kumbirai Kangai, who
passed away last year.
The analysts argue that a deteriorating
economy and the gloomy economic
outlook will force Mugabe to reshuffle
his cabinet particularly the ministries of
Finance and Economic Planning, Industry
and Commerce and Energy and Power
Development which should play a critical
role in the recovery of the economy which
has taken several months to be felt.
Mugabe is expected to chop or reassign
Finance and Economic Planning Minister
Patrick Chinamasa, Industry and Commerce
Minister Mike Bimha and Energy and Power
Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire.
Bimha is struggling to revive industry
with many companies continuing to go
into liquidation while Mavhaire has failed
to make the country have reliable energy
and the recent policy reversal on mandatory
bending of petrol with ethanol.
Gono is widely tipped to be appointed
the next Finance Minister.
Political analyst Ricky Mukonza said
Mugabe is set to reshuffle his cabinet
especially the Finance portfolio but may
delay a bit for political reasons.
“Yes he will because the current Finance
Minister is showing that he is out of depth
in that portfolio,”
Mukonza said.