Schools closed for Mugabe’s birthday bash

By Jeffrey Muvundusi

Government said yesterday all of Matabeleland schools will be closed to students for two days due to President Robert Mugabe’s 93rd birthday bash set for Rhodes Estate Preparatory School (REPS) in Matobo on Saturday.

The directive was issued by the Primary and Secondary Education ministry. It decreed schools to close today and tomorrow.

“We have received communication from the ministry of Education informing us to close school between tomorrow and Friday to enable people to join in the celebrations for the February 21st Movement which is being held in Mat South this year,” the circular said.

Mugabe turned 93 on February 21.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition spokesperson and Habakkuk Trust director Dumisani Nkomo said: “Children’s right to education is being flagrantly violated at a time when pass rates are plunging.

“A birthday must be a personal, and at best, social event not a national one.”

Youth organisation, Victory Siyanqoba Trust, condemned “the frog-marching of students into an abyss of a politically-charged fête.”

“Even my own children do not dodge or abscond school on my birthday as their father,” the Trust’s Desire Moyo said. Daily News