Opinion / Columnist
Seligonjolozelwe / Makomberedzwa!
23 Feb 2017 at 07:48hrs | Views
This was a vicious, indeed a venomous shout above the city of Bulawayo from a former Rhodesian army war plane during the Gukurahundi operations. It signaled the beginning of the genocide and the subsequent barbarous kidnappings, arrest, torture and maiming of the defenseless and innocent people of Bulawayo and the entire Matabeleland region.
On Wednesday schools in Bulawayo were summoned and told that there was a directive from the Ministry of Education that schools had to shut down. Some were to go to sing for the President and his Vice Presidents. They had to abandon their lessons for 2 days to go and sing for the President at his birthday party. Others had to meet in Stanley Square at the Bulawayo`s impoverished high density suburb of Makokoba to be drilled about how to march in the streets of Bulawayo carrying placards with all sorts of praises to Mr. Robert Mugabe.
The school heads were also ordered to surrender their school buses for this purpose and make available their facilities as bases or accommodation for the ZanuPF youths. Schools such as the Dominican Convent who have good looking buildings were ordered to open their classrooms even if these are not bedrooms but educational facilities built and maintained by parents for the education of their children. Some heads of schools did not even know what to do or say to their students and staff as the message was given in a military style. It was purely a militarist order that had to be taken; no discussion, no negotiation and no need for questions.
The situation is not different from the Gukurahundi where villagers were massively moved to places where all insults would be yelled at Joshua Nkomo before or after the brutal slaughter of some of the villagers. The school heads, their staff and the young children have the same trauma as those of a church congregation whose elderly member was taken from church and never to be seen again. Parents who under normal conditions would have a right to decide if their children can participate were not even given a chance. Obviously they did not send their children to school to spend 2 days singing for the President that most of them do not support. These parents would wish that the school protects the child but head masters cannot do anything. It's a fascist dictatorship. A headmaster who resists risks not only losing his job but his life as well.
This is indeed yet another perpetuation of Gukurahundi now coming through the Ministry Of Education.
On Wednesday schools in Bulawayo were summoned and told that there was a directive from the Ministry of Education that schools had to shut down. Some were to go to sing for the President and his Vice Presidents. They had to abandon their lessons for 2 days to go and sing for the President at his birthday party. Others had to meet in Stanley Square at the Bulawayo`s impoverished high density suburb of Makokoba to be drilled about how to march in the streets of Bulawayo carrying placards with all sorts of praises to Mr. Robert Mugabe.
The situation is not different from the Gukurahundi where villagers were massively moved to places where all insults would be yelled at Joshua Nkomo before or after the brutal slaughter of some of the villagers. The school heads, their staff and the young children have the same trauma as those of a church congregation whose elderly member was taken from church and never to be seen again. Parents who under normal conditions would have a right to decide if their children can participate were not even given a chance. Obviously they did not send their children to school to spend 2 days singing for the President that most of them do not support. These parents would wish that the school protects the child but head masters cannot do anything. It's a fascist dictatorship. A headmaster who resists risks not only losing his job but his life as well.
This is indeed yet another perpetuation of Gukurahundi now coming through the Ministry Of Education.
Source - Mkhululi Zulu
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