The Standard

12 The Standard September 14 to 20 2014
Comment & Analysis / Opinion
Building a political
career around
orphanage wrong
sundayopinion
BY CONELIA MABASA
Naturally, what people do
and how they carry themselves
around speak better
for them than having to use
words to build an identity.
Imagine if Oliver Mtukudzi
“Tuku” would take every opportunity
to tell us that he is a great
musician? That would take much
from his stature. It makes much
sense to let the music speak for
him. To get the guitars, drums
and other instruments spread the
message, to give his versatility a
chance to interact with the audience.
It is a skill to be able to leave
music reviewers to critique his
work, then to take lessons therefrom
without prejudice. Humanity
values humility.
Events in the political arena
have given us Grace Mugabe as
the incoming Women’s League
boss come the December Zanu
PF elective congress. She is taking
over from war cadre Oppah
Muchinguri who recently conceded
that her next political appointment
depends on Robert Mugabe.
She had to give way for amai,
so she says, because as women,
they felt they had to do something
for her to acknowledge the
good work she has done being the
pillar upon which the President
rests. Isn’t that as it should be for
husband and wife?
For years, people compared the
First Lady with Mugabe’s first
wife, Sally, who was a compassionate
woman. When Grace established
an orphanage in Mazowe,
I thought she was finally
going to exonerate herself from
the mean woman tag, extravagant
and worshipping on the altar
of opulence. She followed that
up by building a school in the
area to “educate the orphans”.
She has been on a spree to acquire
more and more land without
a care what happens to people
who used to occupy the surrounding
farms. She also plans to build
a hospital, a museum and a university
in the area.
What becomes repulsive at the
end of the day is that she has
turned that orphanage into a political
spring board. Instead of
leaving the philanthropic work
to do the talking for her, she has
turned Mazowe into some personal
political space.
Zanu PF women, youths and
now the chiefs are visiting her at
the orphanage to pronounce their
support and endorsement for the
position of the powerful women’s
league boss. It is given that she
will take over because she won’t
be contested at congress. The
stampede is just to curry favour
with her and the President.
Are we witnessing an abuse
of the under-privileged to further
powerful people’s ambitions?
Yes, she has given the children a
home and hope of a bright future,
but is she turning them into initiates
of Zanu PF’s partisan politics
by engulfing them with slogans
every now and then? It was
at Mazowe that she declared that
she is “strict but firm”, threatening
to pull bigger punches against
enemies and promising to rein in
those who dared stand in her way.
Grace Mugabe
Some orphans and care workers at Grace Mugabe’s Mazowe orphanage.
She used language so bad it
should not come out of a head of
state’s wife, so vicious it can’t be
said within children’s earshot; so
intimidating that it instils fear
when people need to feel confident
and safe in their own country.
The language is so telling of
dictatorial leadership on the way.
Why use the orphanage as a political
selling point? Where is the
compassion? Is she using it as
a tool to reach the hearts of the
electorate ahead of the congress?
A means to an end. A launch pad
for her political career.
Surely the insincerity of it
cannot escape us all.
Parents should not shoulder burden of education
The Rural Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (RTUZ) is saddened
and stunned by the
stance taken by Primary and Secondary
Education minister Lazarus
Dokora of calling for the
reprimanding of the poor parents
who fail to raise tuition fees
for their children as was reported
in the media. It is disgusting that
Dokora unashamedly continues,
to call for legal action against poverty-stricken
parents yet it is the
duty and responsibility of the government
to fund education. Article
27 of the Zimbabwe constitution
clearly states that the government
should fund basic education,
hence calling for the arrest of “defaulting
parents” is unconstitutional.
The RTUZ urges the minister to
reconsider and withdraw his uninformed
and capitalistic stance
of lobbying for the privatisation
of education. RTUZ wishes to advise
the minister to stop being a
stumbling block but instead be
a building block that encourages
the government to exercise its
duty of funding education instead
of threatening the poor parents.
RTUZ would also want to urge
the government to prioritise the
education sector if the empowerment
mantra is supposed to be a reality
because education is the pragmatic
empowerment tool that can
capacitate citizens. That the government
only contributed a paltry
US$600 000 as compared to Unicef ’s
US$2,4million towards the Capacity
Development Programme, clearly
shows that the government is reluctant
to contribute towards education
yet millions are channeled
to the army and police as if we are
a country at war.
While the Capacity Development
Programme is a good initiative
by Unicef (and not by government
as reported in the media),
RTUZ urges those responsible
for the implementation of
the programme to ensure that the
programme is lopsided in favour
sunday
view
BY RTUZ
of rural teachers. This will lure
qualified personnel to teach in
rural areas, which in return will
boost pass rates.
RTUZ would also like to make
it clear that it supports government
on the idea of curriculum
review. However, the association
urges government to engage all
relevant stakeholders in the implementation
of this long overdue
curriculum review initiative. It
is also our hope that the curriculum
review will not be politicised,
but instead, the new curriculum
should be beneficial to the learners
in preparing them for life after
school. In other words, the curriculum
should not be tailor made
Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora
to suit hegemonic agendas of certain
individuals or political parties
as has been the case before.
Lastly, RTUZ hopes that the curriculum
review will be a panacea
for fashioning and producing
learners that will be effective in
community building as far as development
is concerned. Therefore,
it is important that whoever
will implement the programme be
non-partisan and well-informed;
otherwise the curriculum review
will end up being an ideological
tool of some egocentric and parochial
individuals for hammering
their propaganda into the heads
of our children.