Non-Ndebele teachers contributory to low pass rate in Matabeleland schools

There has been a hated debate over the appointment of non-Ndebele speaking teachers to teach the Ndebele language in Matabeleland region primary schools with various educationists and analysts in the region critisising the government for creating a handicap that affect  the overrall pass rate in schools.

In media publications, Matabeleland North provincial education director Boithatelo Mnguni said this was  a handicap that was affecting the teaching process in the region. As a solution, she said the governement was coming up with a facility where schools would be required to engage specialist teachers who then assisted those teachers who did not have Ndebele as their first language.

"We hope schools will take this cue and also chip in to assist in resolving this clear handicap," she said.

Dr Samukele Hadebe  who comppiled the Ndebele dictionary , said with the manner in which things were going, there was a possibility that the language was dying a slow death because the personnel entrusted to administer the language by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary education were not proficient in the language.

"When looking at this matter one fact that canonot be ignored is that those who teach Ndebele do not have a basic or even a deeper comprehension of the language mainly because it is not their first language," said Ndebele.

He said the region needed more people from the region who had Ndebele as their first language to come in and teach Ndebele so that it can be preserved.
http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39181:uproar-over-non-ndebele-speaking-teachers&catid=38:local-news&Itemid=131

Is the low pass rate a sign of marginalisation?

Recently in the press, Siganda villagers in the Bubi district of Matabeleland North attributed the low pass rate at primary and secondary schools in the area on recruitment of teeachers from other regions who were not familiar with the local language.

The locals who said they preferred local teachers, accused the teachers who were not from the region for failing to connect with pupils in class contributing to leaners failing dismally.

According to a concillor for ward 7 Elliot Gwayi, "pass rates have been very low in the past few years and the trend continues."
He said children were willing to learn but those who failed struggled to supplement and ended up being lost in the community.

This has not been the only incident in Matabeleland concerning teachers from other regions contributing to a low pass rate in schools in the region.

Some pressure groups in Matabeleland such as the Mthwakazi Youth leaders joint resolution had also  attributed marginalisation as one of the contributory factors.

According to the group, the low pass rate in Matabeleland schools was due to teachers who came from Mashonaland and other parts of the country, to teach children in Matabeleland. These teachers would not be fluent in Ndebele enough to teach pupils such that the pupils would struggle in achieving good grades.

According to the pressure group, one evidence of this was at Makuzeze Primary School in Mangwe District which recorded only one pass at the 2012 Grade Seven examinations and the villagers believed the acting acting headmaster, Victoria Pasipanodya was liable for the problems bedeviling the school.

The forgotten developmental projects in Matabeleland

Matabeleland people have argued that developmental  projects  which are supposed to uplift the lives of ordinary people in Matabeleland and which should have been  completed long back  have been moving at a snail’s pace to be completed.  Some are still incomplete compared to projects in other provinces compared to projects in other parts of the country.

 These projects include the Nkayi road, the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo airport which was only opened last year after being postponed many times,  Ekusileni hospital,  the National University of Science and Technology, the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust project which is meant to boost Matabeleland in terms of water supply.

I wonder if the government’s failure to prioritise these projects in Matabeleland is due to lack of funding or it is a deliberate ploy to sideline people in Matabeleland region. There has been unequal distribution and allocation of resources towards the development of projects in Matabeleland and those in other parts of the country.

Matabeleland heroes are denied status

People in Matabeleland have been arguing that marginalisation of Matabeleland has also been in the form of the government denying national hero status to liberation war heroes from the region.

There has been a difference regarding the treatment of  fallen heroes from Matabeleland region and those outside the region. This should not be the case however as every Zimbabwean, regardless of ethnicity and tribeshould be treated equally, with honour and dignity.

For example, a number of former Zipra and Zapu cadres from the region have been denied hero status such that they ended up being buried at Lady Stanley cemetery in Bulawayo and these include Former Zipra commander General Lookout Masuku. Masuku's credentials as a hero have been strong as he was one time deputy commander of the Zimbabwe National Army but he was denied the status he deserved.

Former PF Zapu secretary general and Matabeleland Governor Welshman Mabhena, and ex-Zipra senior official Masala Sibanda are also amongst those who have been buried at Lady Stanley. In the past few years, there had been frustrations when President Mugabe refused to accord national hero status on ex- political detainee and former trade unionist Gibson Sibanda.

However, there are some "so called" heroes who had been awarded the national hero status by Mugabe and are lying at the National heroes Acre. Some of those heroes are unknown and their partaking in the liberation struggle is questionable.

From the city of Kings to a scrapyard

Bulawayo, the second largest city of the country has over the past years  been reduced to a gloomy picture of  ailing industries and massive relocation of companies from the city.

The city, which had once been the industrial hub of the country such that it was commonly referred to as koThuntuziyathunqa is now in a sorry state. Its glamorous appeal has been fading to the point that even the President last year during his inauguration speech termed the city a "scrapyard"

Company buildings have been turned into places of worship which are mainly visible in the central business district and Kelvin industrial area. The once bustling "Ntuthuziyathunqa" city, which directly translates to smoke that is rising, got its nickname due to the busy nature of the industries which continuously plummeted the atmosphere with industrial gas and smoke from large manufacturing firms such as Kango and sterling.

Currently Bulawayo is more characterised by ancient buildings that are in dire need of renovation or demolition particularly in the 1st to 4th avenues of the city. a view from the top of a high rise building will be filled with scenery of a sea of rusty roofs which give a sigh of hopelessness and an atmosphere of utter disparity worsened by the unhappy slow moving faces seen on the pavements next to the buildings. A further stumbling block to the city's royal namesake is the pollution within it. the pavements are increasingly getting filled with fruit peels and plastics, yet Bulawayo was once known for its cleanliness, not only in Zimbabwe but in Africa as a whole.

Meanwhile the capital city Harare rises and rises.

Zimbabwe should be divided into two states

A lot has been said about Matabeleland being marginalized economically, socially and politically. This has led to some politicians and pressure groups in Matabeleland emotionally advocating for the region to stand as a state on its own, separate from Mashonaland.

I wonder if that would be the best solution for a region which is said to be marginalized, or it is just one of those fantasies that are not realistic.

The leader of the now disintegrated Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) which was formed in 2010, Paul Siwela has been one of the advocators of Matabeleland  being separated. He has been quoted saying that  this development is a crucial solution to guarantee democracy and peace in the country.

According to Siwela, Zimbabwe has to recognise two states which are  Matabeleland and Mashonaland and allow a federal dispensation whereby each state will have all the three arms of the government – the executive, the judiciary and legislature. 

His view of the country being divided, has been supported by the Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) which was formed in January  this year. 

During the launch of the party, MRP president Mqondisi Moyo said President Robert Mugabe’s government was not willing to equally serve the people of Matabeleland region.
Moyo had said it was disheartening to note that Zimbabwe’s attaining independence from colonial rule was all in vain because the people of Matabeleland have always been treated as second class citizens in the country.

Moyo said the gruelling history dating back from the Gukurahundi atrocities and a plethora of other forms of grim disregard of rule of law against the people of Mthwakazi had forced them to rise up for their rights.

This means Mthwakazi must secede from Zimbabwe forthwith along known and accepted national boundaries. We want to govern ourselves, manage our own resources and operate our own economy for the benefit of our various peoples
Moyo said part of the grand plan was to see, the boundary between Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi being pegged in Kwekwe in a move that is set to see Matabeleland and Midlands Provinces falling under the latter.
He said they were already setting up a negotiating team that is expected to engage the Government of Zimbabwe over the best peaceful ways to achieve cessation adding that the whole process should take place in within a period of two years.
“We plan to do this through a negotiated settlement with the Government of Zimbabwe, no war, no force of any kind whatsoever, as we do not believe in any of them to achieve our objectives,” Moyo said.

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2014/01/13/another-secessionist-party-formed-in-byo
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Matabeleland locals should get first preferance in employment

Pressure groups in Bulawayo recently attacked the Bulawayo Provincial minister Eunice Sandi Moyo over her refusal to support proposals that locals be given first preference in employment and education opportunities.

Moyo, in response to a question posed to her, said she was not a tribalist and would not reserve jobs in Bulawayo for the people of Bulawayo but would give jobs to anyone with the right documentation.

Moyo had been asked by Movement for Democratic Change legislator Ruth Labode on how she intended to handle the issue of people from outside Bulawayo being employed in Bulawayo at the expense of the locals.

To some members of the society, the Minister’s remarks is a sign that Matabeleland locals are being sidelined in terms of employment thereby bringing home the  view that Matabeleland is indeed marginalised.

There has been a number of developments during the years that has led to many people from Matabeleland complaining that people from Mashonaland and other provinces  were coming to Matabeleland in a bid to take up employment opportunities there at the expense of locals.

However there are some politicians such as Obert Mpofu who had labelled Matabeleland people as  lazy and Qhubani Moyo who said they are  being cry babies.

About cry babies...

By Ronald Moyo - opinion

Matabeleland people have a history of being accused by politicians of being cry babies, lazy or attention seekers but one has to ask if their "cry baby" nature or "laziness" is forced upon them, is justified or is a baseless social construct from the minds of the political elite.

When it comes to laziness, the youth have been accused of not taking up the opportunities given to them by the government through funds and initiatives such as the Kurera/Ukondla fund and CABS youth fund which in my personal opinion, is indeed a reality. There are however other factors that come into the picture with this, particularly the access to resources and business environment. the matabeleland region's smaller towns barely have internet facilities and resource centres and to draw up a convincing business plan that can be invested in from the top of dusty school desks of emzola in lupane or tsholotsho business centre itself will be an arduous task. When it comes to the business environment which is a sea of shut down rusty industries one will be asking a lot for a young person to manage to draw up inspiration to start a business that will thrive and "compete" with others. this is where i have to agree with the quote by Mehmet Murat idan that “The footprints of a free-minded man are always towards the forward direction.” The minds of the youth are shackled by the rusty cuffs of the industrial scrapyard that is Bulawayo, their minds are not free to picture them sitting in glassy skyscrapers, pushing their livelihood and the livelihoods of many others forward. Those who walk amongst the tall buildings of a bustling city are more likely to come up with better ideas that would make better businesses.

Let us also listen to the woes of the Matabeleland people before we judge them, what really are they saying is the cause of their seemingly never ending flow of tears and complaints from a trench where their echoes cant be heard by those lavishing above?. time and time again as a reporter and as an individual i have heard the issue of the Gukurahundi killings being raised by not only matabeleland politicians but also by colleagues, friends, people on the street and so on to an extent that without a formal baseline survey I can conclude that the Gukurahundi's wounds are still very much alive in the region and what seems to be the salt being rubbed into them is ignorance. 30 years later when the topic is brought up in rallies and residential gatherings one or two elderly citizens can be seen holding their head, walking out and in some instances, literally crying.

without delving into the details of the killings that happened in the region, one already notes that the people of the region are not only disgruntled but arguably stuck in a moment that they desperately want to move on from but no help is coming and their cries continue to go unheard. what then can end this sorrow one may ask, is this not water under the bridge surely 30 years later the youth may say... few realising that the bridge for some collapsed 3 decades ago and all they can still see is water. In other regions of Zimbabwe however, this precarious scenario is not there. Having said this, why is this issue brought up by politicians largely towards elections in their campaigns and seldom addressed during the course of their tenure in office?some questions will remain questions, some attempts at answers will remain mere attempts and some residents will just remain crying but despite being ignored some voices will always be heard

Is Matabeleland really Marginalised?

The question whether Matabeleland is marginalised or not has sparked always sparked a heated debate in the society. Some of the individuals holding powerful positions in society have disputed the assertion that Matabeleland is marginalised.

 A few weeks ago, a Bulawayo Magistrate Chrispen Mberewere was quoted in a local newspaper disputing the assertion that Matabeleland was marginalised. According to him, de-industrialisation of Bulawayo was nothing out of the ordinary because de-industrialization was happening everywhere. Mberewere said this while he was passing sentence on two Mthwakazi Youth Leaders Joint Resolution Mqondisi Moyo and Busani Sibindi whom he convicted for organising a demonstration against Zesa without police clearance. Mqondisi Moyo and Busani Sibindi had led a demonstration for employing people from Mashonaland to work at Emganwini power station and sidelining the locals.

“The court has taken into consideration that the accused are first offenders who acted in the belief that they did not need to inform the authorities,” he said.

“The court did not take into consideration that they are from a marginalised region as indicated by the defence counsel during mitigation, it is not true that they come from a marginalised region. The aspect of de-industrialisation affects the whole country.”

Last year, former MDC director of policy and research Qhubani Moyo described the people of Matabeleland as cry-babies who were anti-Zanu and rejected government help.

Moyo said people in the region were anti-Zanu PF to an extent of shunning opportunities offered by the ruling party only to cry foul when Matabeleland lagged behind in development. 

"One of the problems we have as people of this region is that when opportunities come from the government, we don’t take them and then we cry foul from outside.People should grab that opportunity and serve the region while in the government."

“I have walked that path where we attack people from this region who work with Zanu PF calling them sellouts and this and that, but I have realised that doesn’t help.It does not serve the region at all.”

Marginalisation dissolving Zimbabwean Nationalism

The collective identity of a Zimbabwean and what constitutes Zimbabwean nationhood faces a barrier of non geographical but ethnic divisions between the northern (Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Harare, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East)  and  and southern regions (Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South) of Zimbabwe. The argument on marginalisation of Matabeleland being a myth holds little water when contrasted to the population of the two afore mentioned regions of Zimbabwe, the north and south, in which one notes a particular overwhelming proportion of one ethnic tribe in one region over the other.

As is evidenced by Zimbabwe's census results, the northern region consists the greater proportion of the national population of Zimbabwe whilst the Southern region is the smaller part of Zimbabwe populous wise. This directly translates to a marginalisation of the ethnic groupings that abide in the southern region, in this case Matabeleland regions. Further contributing to the drowning of the ethnic groupings in the southern region is the location of the capital city, Harare, in the northern region in a centralised political economy which is Zimbabwe.

When one is dealing with the ethnic divide in Zimbabwe one has to note the historical elements that have contributed to its existance. this ethnic distribution in Zimbabwe emanates from the first Chimurenga and prior to it, making the country a story of two halves which are crossed particularly between ndebele in the southern region and shona tribe in the northern region. Therefore the ndebele and other even smaller by population tribes such as the khalanga, tonga, venda and tswana become the minorities in Zimbabwe while the Shona tribe is a majority.

This marginalisation of ethnic groupings is noted in many levels but this article will draw down to the media, commerce and education. In the media this is seen in the national broadcasting networks content which largely consists of vernacular programming in the Shona language. Of particular note are the prime time television shows on ZBC television such as talk shows and dramas which are not only filmed in harare, the capital city but are also in shona language. this trend extends to the radio broadcasters, such as star fm and power fm which have a predominantly large shona language content in terms of local music and interview languages. this means that the tribes in matabeleland will be left out of the media public sphere and fail to relate with the national broadcasters content, virtually leaving them out of the public debate and popular culture of Zimbabwe.

Furthermore, Bulawayo which was once an industrial hub and a pride of Zimbabwean Commerce  has had a number of industries shutting down including big name companies such as Archer, Colcom and CSC even scaling down its operations. On the other hand Harare has become the central point of commerce in Zimbabwe, with exponential growth of the city's malls and central commercial industries. Education wise, considering the large array of tribes in the southern region of Zimbabwe only 2 have examinations set for their languages, being Ndebele and Tonga examinations, of which the Tonga examinations were introduced in 2012 by the then Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture.