The smiles of these Zimbabwean schoolchildren could soon disappear as hundreds of thousands face an uncertain future due to government’s ruinous policies. Photo by CAJ NewsBY CHIEF REPORTER
MASVINGO – Ruvimbo Manjoro (13) of Govo village in Masvingo, has just passed Grade Seven with flying colours.
Manjoro has always been at the top of her class and her teachers thought she could turn out to be anything she wanted to be. However, there is nothing certain anymore for the young girl who has always wanted to be a doctor. Her father, Tobias Manjoro, has recently moved out of Govo village to a remote farm, under the land grab programme. There are no schools or clinics there – not even borehole water to drink.
“I don’t think she will be able to go to school this year,” says Manjoro’s father. “There are no schools here, especially secondary schools, and even if there were schools I am only left with one cow and I cannot sell it to send her to school.”
The nearest secondary school, Mudavanhu, lies about 50km from the farm. Manjoro’s case is not unique, according to a Unicef education project officer. The organisation has been monitoring the movement of children since the beginning of the land redistribution process.
“The patterns are not very clear because some parents are leaving their children in the villages with relatives to attend school while they move to new areas. However, an estimated 400 000 children have been affected,” says the aid worker.
According to government figures at least 450,000 families people have moved from the communal areas onto farms under the land grab programme. “It has affected the provision of education in a very significant way,” said the aid worker. “I don’t think the government will be able to provide infrastructure for 90percent of the affected areas in the next 10 to 15 years. There hasn’t been enough infrastructure anywhere and this just aggravates the problem”.
Many schools report dwindling pupil numbers since the relocation to remote farms began. “Classes are basically getting empty as more and more children pull out of school to join their families in farms,” says one school principal who refused to be named. “We don’t know if children will come back when schools reopen,” he said.
The Zimbabwean government has not paid much attention to this issue. According to Didymus Mutasa, the minister for Land Reform, the priority is on land. “As the president has said, land first and infrastructure will follow. The government’s focus at the moment is on land and we will look at education, health and other things at a later stage. Children cannot go to school if they are impoverished. We first deal with the problem of poverty by providing land and then come other things,” he said.
Recently the Ministry of State Information and Publicity has published a 100-page document on the land redistribution programme, but the document doesn’t deal with education, health or any other form of development.
Mutasa said the government would seek aid from international donors to provide the infrastructure for schools, roads, clinics, water, electricity and houses. “We will invite international donors to assist with infrastructure but we will not allow them to interfere with policy issues.”
However, Unicef says it is going to be very difficult for the Zimbabwean government to attract foreign donors as international organisations such as the UN do not support the current policy on land redistribution.