Delayed Joshua Nkomo honour hypocritical?

The reasons behind the official opening of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport and the unveiling of a statue in honour of the late Vice President last year, after so many years of hesitation from the Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe are questionable.

Could it be that the Zanu PF leader and his party, who had viciously attacked ZAPU and its leader Joshua Nkomo in the 1980s calling them dissidents, had suddenly tuned a new leaf or the move to honour Nkomo is a ploy to win the hearts of Matabeleland people so they could support Zanupf.

I feel that Mugabe’s late honour of Nkomo is suspicious considering that if the move was sincere, Nkomo should have been honoured long ago not only in Bulawayo but across the country as well.

The government provoked fury in 2010 when it attempted to erect Nkomo’s statue at the Karigamombe Building in Harare, a name which loosely translates to ‘Felling the Bull’.

The government backed off following protests from the Nkomo family and ZAPU leaders, who felt that the erection of the statue there was a celebration of Nkomo’s incarceration and defeat by Mugabe.

Furthermore exploring the Nkomo projects even deeply, one gets a feeling that there is an underlying disrespect for the demands and recommendations for the Nkomo projects from both the people of Matabeleland and those of the Nkomo Family itself.

The Nkomo family following the removal of the Nkomo statue in 2011 from the then Main Street was quoted in the then NewsDay Southern Edition as having said the statue did not capture the late Vice President in his entirety and was small. however years later upon the release of the what was dubbed "new" Nkomo statue coming along with renaming of Main Street to Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street, the same small statue was used but with just a bigger platform to put it on.

Pictures of the then Nkomo statue and the "new" one will reveal that it is pretty much the same statue to the naked eye. Pictured below are the "old" and the "new" statues. the old being above the new one. One is left wondering why it took the government 2 more years to finally relaunch the statue when the largest change was the platform it rests upon. Indeed the marginalisation of the regions projects is noted in this microcosm of the Nkomo statue.

"Let go of the victim mentality"-Cont Mhlanga

The founder and director of Amakhosi Cultural Centre Cont Mhlanga last week said Matabeleland  had faced difficult times as it was a region that has continuously been made aware that  it was marginalised.

Mhlanga said this development had especially disempowered young  people who have lost all hope of being employed in the region. According to Mhlanga young people think opportunities that are availed in Matabeleland are for other people that are not from this region.

He however warned Matabeleland youths to let go of the victim mentality but instead engage the government.

He however urged young people to let go of victim mentality and engage the government if they wanted the government avail to them opportunities. 

But do the youths of Bulawayo truly have a victim mentality?. Of course the youths have developed an attitude that promotes what most could view as laziness but could rather be looked at as demotivation or hopelessness. 

Zimstats statistics show that Bulawayo has the highest unemployment rate in Zimbabwe which directly translates to few employment oppotunities for the youths that are toiling in the education system for the purpose of gaining knowledge that would transform to food on their plates and making a living. however due to the harsh economic situation in the region, youths eventually see no use in enduring the years and more so, spending money to go to school to go and attain a qualification that will collect dust in wardrobes and suitcases without being effectively utilised. this demotivating dire situation contributes to school dropouts and those who would rather do side deals to make a living. 

But despite considering the social dynamics faced by the youth of today in Bulawayo and matabeleland, one should also explore what the youth can do to not be victims but be leaders and shapers of their own destiny. 

The answer according to Zwelibanzi Ndlovu, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stop to Start is a change in perceptions, the youth in particular should see opportunities in hopelessness and seek to fill them instead of dispersing to South Africa and so on. In that way the victim mentality that dogs the region will begin to fade away

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.