Dokora pursuing 1979 Zanu PF Grand Plan - Mthwakazi

Mthwakazi Republic Party spokesperson Mbonisi Gumbo has said Primary and secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora in his policies is pursuing the 1979 Grand Plan of Zanu PF which sought to eliminate people of Matabeleland in the developmental projects done by the government.

"The minister of education's education policy presides over an Education Master Policy meant to finalize the fulfillment of the 1979 grand plan," he said. "MRP ground team managed to be part of the Bulawayo Curriculum review. The observation of the Mthwakazi Republic Party Team is that, the Education policy which is said to have been done through community consultations is not a reflection of what Mthwakazi communities are anticipating."

He said the teams further noticed that, the Ministry of Education uses a lot of threats to align the vulnerable teachers of Mthwakazi.

"The Ministry of Education principals comprising of the Minister, the Deputy Minister and the Permanent Secretary of which all are Shonas have no respect for the province, because they arrived at half past three(15:30) at a meeting which was scheduled to take place at two in the afternoon(14:00), they ironically talked of respect and professionalism which is an insult to the capital of Mthwakazi. Mthwakazi Republic Party further condemns the so-called "National school pledge" where they are compelling teachers and students to recite that at schools," he said.

"This is more of a religion, and children should not be taught to worship the oppressive Zanu PF rule. This was done by Hitler and Mussolini and it must not be tolerated by the world in this day and age. We believe the Minister is supposed to address questionable issues like the payment of bonuses to the teachers, who are now given the extra work of teaching students to recite national pledge that praises the oppressive government."

Gumbo said the party advises the faithful citizens of Mthwakazi to refuse and condemn this madness that is highly primitive in this day and age.

"The Minister should be talking about free primary and secondary education which is what our communities are anticipating. Another very discouraging empirical information is that in Bulawayo there are 188 schools whilst in Harare there are 400 schools. The number include also private schools. They claim to be championing equitable education yet at ground level they are not reflecting that," he said.

"Furthermore, the Minister was bold to say that, he will deploy teachers anywhere not considering languages issue which is a major cry in our nation of Mthwakazi whereby(Early Child Development) ECD students are taught by teachers who do not understand the local languages. Such policies are resulting in poor performances at schools and undermining local cultures and customs, which is a violation of Ubuntu. We warn the government of Zimbabwe to refrain from such behaviour which is aimed at disturbing the pride of our valued and loved rich culture of Mthwakazi."

He said another issue of importance which the Minister did not respond to clearly was failure of the government to employ teachers who recently graduated from Tertiary institutions and also addressing the issues of resources at government schools due to their policy at the schools.

"The ministry cannot seek to introduce other things before addressing the current issues which are pertinent at the moment. Its very unfortunate that our people are subjected to day dreamers leadership rather than visionaries. Some of the components of the new curriculum are a misdirected dream and they are not visible and viable. Its unfortunate that, the Zanu PF government is now fast tracking reforms, which is a process that was supposed to have started in 1980," he said.

"The problem with this government is that it always fast track programs and they are not learning from their mistakes. Fast-tracked programmes tatamount to populist stop gap measures; as they are not policy based Implementation, and do not address and offer long term solutions. We expect this Ministry to be talking about the fall of fees in the education system, but instead it is introducing bureaucracies that would further milk the very little tax payers' hard earned cash. Furthermore they are not promoting privatization which may encourage economic growth if not manipulated, as they usually do. Bantu bakithi lafa elikaMthwakazi sithule. Leli yilo ithuba eliqondileyo lokuthi silungise indaba zakithi. Sithi vuka sizwe sikaMthwakazi leli yilo ithuba eliqondileyo."