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Hexco Results Finally Out

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Press Statement from the Zimbabwe National Students Union

Students in all Poly-technic Colleges set for their examinations in November to December 2008 after going through a rough term characterized by high and unaffordable fees, shortage of qualified lecturers and inadequate teaching and learning materials. After six months of waiting, Higher Education Examinations Council (HEXCO) results for November and December 2008 were finally released on Monday 1 June 2009. HEXCO claims that financial constraints have hampered the release of results in time.

HEXCO results have always been released a month after writing examinations, allowing students time to register, write supplementary examinations and proceed to the next level.  Students in Poly-technic colleges are six months behind with their studies and are faced with a mammoth task of catching up, amidst a harsh economic environment, where they have to pay fees ranging from USD150 TO USD400, and also cater for all their educational costs. The lost six months will delay graduation and will impact negatively in the learning schedules and careers of students who have a market that does not have confidence in their qualifications.

ZINASU urges government to vigorously work towards making education affordable to all students rich or poor, as the majority of students are going to be further delayed because they cannot afford the fees. The Union applauds steps taken to engage the international community and humanitarian organizations in reviving the education sector. The drilling of boreholes and vehicle donation by UNICEF and WHO respectively at the University of Zimbabwe raises hope on the opening of the country’s largest institution that has remained closed for one academic year.

Issued by ZINASU 4 June 2009

Sudan's Bashir in Zimbabwe for summit

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VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe (AFP) — Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir, who faces international arrest for war crimes, arrived in Zimbabwe on Saturday for a two-day African trade summit.

Beshir will join heads of state from the 19-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) who are set to approve a free customs union on Sunday.

Zimbabwe has no duty to arrest Beshir as it is not party to the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court (ICC), justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told AFP.

“We are aware that the President of Sudan is under an ICC warrant of arrest which he disputes. We are not a state party under the Rome Statute. We have no obligation under the Statute of Rome to execute that obligation,” he said.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March for Beshir to face five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes over the conflict in Darfur.

Sudan is a member of COMESA, which will be chaired from Sunday by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe who takes over from Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

Under the free customs union deal, the 19 countries with a total population of 400 million people will impose the same tariffs on goods from outside the region.

Raw materials and capital goods will travel across borders without tariffs, while intermediate products will be taxed at 10 percent and finished goods at 25 percent.

Also in Victoria Falls is ousted Madagascan leader Marc Ravalomanana, who said Madagascar needs support and help from the trade bloc, following his ouster in March.

“It was a coup. I’m sure COMESA will make a commitment so that I get my country back,” he told reporters at Victoria Falls airport.

Ravalomanana this week dismissed a four-year jail term to which he was sentenced in absentia over his purchase of a 60-million-dollar presidential jet.

COMESA consists of Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai to seek aid in Europe, U.S

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By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai left for Europe and the United States on Saturday to try to drum up financial aid for a unity government he formed with rival President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai will visit the Netherlands, Britain, France, Sweden and Brussels, seat of the 27-nation European Union, to try to help Zimbabwe’s battered economy. He will meet U.S. President Barack Obama during a four-day trip to Washington.

“I am meeting all the heads of government of the countries I am visiting … I hope that we will be able to put our case across and for the rest of the world to give the inclusive government the benefit of doubt,” Tsvangirai told reporters.

Tsvangirai formed a unity government with rival Mugabe in February after an electoral standoff that worsened an economic crisis, which many critics blame on the veteran Zimbabwean president.

Many Western countries imposed sanctions on Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government over charges of human rights abuses, vote-rigging and its seizures of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks without paying compensation.

Mugabe, 85, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, says Zimbabwe’s once-prosperous economy has been wrecked by sanctions and his land policy is aimed at correcting colonial injustices.

Western donors say they will not release substantial aid until Zimbabwe’s new administration undertakes political and other reforms. Harare says it needs about $10 billion for its short-term economic recovery program, but has so far secured credit lines worth about $1 billion from Africa.

Asked if he would be able to convince Western countries to release aid, Tsvangirai said: “I’m optimistic because Zimbabwe has gone through a very difficult period. The country has been in isolation in the last 10 years. It’s time we put our case across.”

Tsvangirai says he has a “workable relationship” with Mugabe although there are still disputes in the unity government over Mugabe’s appointment of his allies as heads of the central bank and the attorney-general’s office.

In a sign of the difficult relations in the new government, Zimbabwean state media on Saturday cast Tsvangirai’s trip to Western capitals as “an assignment given by the president to the prime minister to undo sanctions he invited on the country” while in opposition.

Tsvangirai’s spokesman James Maridadi said: “That is outright propaganda meant to cast the prime minister as a poodle and junior partner in the government.

“The prime minister’s program is not defined by President Mugabe but the whole unity government and he is working in the best interests of all Zimbabweans.”

Zimbabwe cricket officials in ‘punch-up over white players’

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Zimbabwe Cricket Union director Ozias Bvute got into a fist fight with convenor of selectors Stephen Mangongo
Zimbabwe Cricket Union director Ozias Bvute got into a fist fight with convenor of selectors Stephen Mangongo

The divisions and rifts in Zimbabwean cricket came to a head when Zimbabwe Cricket Union director Ozias Bvute got into a fist fight with convenor of selectors Stephen Mangongo, according to several witnesses.

Zimbabwe Cricket Union director Ozias Bvute got into a fist fight with convenor of selectors Stephen Mangongo
Zimbabwe Cricket Union director Ozias Bvute got into a fist fight with convenor of selectors Stephen Mangongo

The alleged incidents happened last Thursday, when Zimbabwe were playing Sri Lanka in the last of five international matches.

Bvute had a fight with Mangongo after they disagreed over how many of the white players who have recently been on strike should be included in the Zimbabwe team for the first Test against Sri Lanka which begins in Harare on Thursday, according to several guests and security staff who reported the incident to ZCU officials.

Before that Bvute had stormed into the television commentary section of the media centre at Harare Sports Club and sacked Mpumulelo Mbangwa, a Zimbabwe commentator.

Bvute and Mangongo admitted later in a joint statement that they had had a “physical confrontation” but they denied it had extended to fisticuffs.

Witnesses to their row said Mangongo thought eight whites who have been in dispute with the ZCU but who have resumed training should be included, but Bvute said he was prepared to include three or four at most.

They said later they were discussing “pertinent issues” which led to shouting, then to the fracas.

Several administration and technical staff were present in the TV section when Bvute marched in and told Mbangwa, popularly known as “Pommie,” that he was fired for making observations about the Zimbabwe team’s performance, comments which apparently enraged Bvute.

A ZCU source who was informed about the incident said: “I am told that Pommie later went to see Bvute to discuss it and Bvute relented.”

One of the TV company’s managers, who asked not to be named, confirmed the incident, saying: “Yes, that is exactly what happened.”

Bvute has the authority to sack TV commentators according to the ZCU. He is chairman of the ZCU marketing committee which negotiates TV and other publicity contracts.

Bvute is also in charge of the Union’s integration policy to advance blacks into top levels of the sport, both on and off the field.

Mbangwa, a former Test cricketer with Zimbabwe, has been commentating for several years and is highly regarded by the TV company.

Neither ZCU chairman Peter Chingoka nor Bvute were available for comment. Mbangwa was said to be away.

The white players went on strike in protest at the sacking of former captain Heath Streak. He was replaced by 20-year-old Tatenda Taibu. AFP

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