Mabhena challenges Mugabe:

BULAWAYO<


SPAN style=”FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt”> – Former politburo member in President Mugabe’s government and former PF-Zapu secretary general, Welshman Mabhena, has challenged Mugabe to end the misery of Zimbabweans by stepping down from power and says Zimbabweans are abhorred in the region because of him.


“President Mugabe stinks to the international community and that is why countries like Botswana and South Africa hate Zimbabweans, the Zimbabweans also stink to those countries because their leader stinks too,” said said Mabhena, who was dismissed from Mugabe’s government as Governor of Matabeleland North in the early 90s for his outspokenness on government’s policy of not developing the Matabeleland region.


He was reacting to the ill-treatment that Zimbabweans suffer in detention and in holding cells in Botswana and South Africa where they flock in their thousands to look for a better life.


“We are appealing to Mugabe to give us a new start, we have reached the highest peak of our suffering and we are now saying he is our only saviour and he should just resign and give us another chance to move on as a nation and restore our dignity internationally,” Mabhena said.


“The international community is waiting to help Zimbabwe but they can not do that as long as Mugabe is still there (in power), he is a hindrance bit we are saying to him Mugabe please have mercy on us and do the right thing and step down today.”


Turning to the succession issue, Mabhena said Mugabe should never make the blunder of imposing Mujuru upon the people of Zimbabwe.


“Mujuru was elected to where she is today by Mugabe alone and he should not make the mistake of imposing him on the people of Zimbabwe because she is not a tried and tested leader,” he said.


Mabhena, a senior PF Zapu leader and trusted adviser to former Vice President, Joshua Nkomo, spent several years in detention with Mugabe and says he does not understand how Mugabe has changed over the years.


“People worshipped the ground Mugabe walked on before independence and I spent several years in prison with him and I can not say today that he is the man I knew and shared a vision with,” said Mabhena said. – CAJ News.



Birthday bash stirs clean-up commotion


MUTARE – A state-appointed commission running Zimbabwe’s fifth largest city ordered property owners in the city to repaint and renovate buildings to beautify the city ahead of this week’s birthday celebrations for 82-year-old President Robert Mugabe.


The 21st February Movement, named after Mugabe’s date of birth holds a public music and entertainment gala every year to mark the president’s birthday.


The birthday galas are rotated from province to province. In a notice published in local newspapers last week, town clerk, Morgan Chawawa, ordered residents to spruce up their properties at their own expense to ensure Mugabe would find the city in a pleasant state.


Chawawa said: “Notice is hereby given in terms of Section 31 of the operative, Mutare Town Planning Scheme number one that all owners of buildings in a state of neglect in the city are required to either repaint or renovate their buildings to improve external appearance of the buildings at their own expenses.”


Business leaders who spoke to ZimOnline were unhappy at the prospect of incurring huge and unbudgeted costs, especially after having been arm-twisted by the local leading party leadership to contribute a total Z$10 billion to cover the costs of hosting the birthday bash. – ZimOnline



PTUZ condemns Grade Zero



HARARE – The Progressive Teacher’s Union of Zimbabwe has condemned Government’s ill-timed introduction of grade zero as the pupils are forced to hot-seat their lessons. Grade zero was introduced this term and caters for kids aged five years.


Raymond Majongwe, the union’s secretary general, said while the concept was noble it was hurried by government.


“The PTUZ wishes to express its displeasure at the events unfolding as a result of the ill-timed introduction of the grade zero classes in our schools. The introduction of grade zero is a recommendation of the largely ignored Nziramasanga commission.


Its implementation requires proper planning of instead of the hurried imposition of the classes on schools, which are hardly equipped to accommodate the new classes,” he said.


“What is most disturbing is that grade one classes have also become a casualty of this bungling. Minister Aeneas Chigwedere himself declared not long ago that he would get rid of hot-seating by 2007, yet the number of classes attending afternoon sessions is increasing.”


Most schools in the country are overcrowded due to limited classrooms resulting in some students attending lessons in the afternoon.


Chigwedere on Friday admitted that there was a grave oversight in the introduction grade zero. “Most schools in the country were built long back before we thought of grade zero. The available classrooms were from grade one to seven, each grade composed of one class. But as population increased, there was a huge demand for education but we failed to match that with building more classrooms due to lack of money,” he said. – CAJ News

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