adminTafataona Mahoso
IN my January 12, 2014 instalment in The Sunday Mail, I pointed out the significance of NSSA and ARDA as public entities which survived ESAP and illegal sanctions and were therefore going to play pivotal roles in Zim-Asset.If one looks at the higher education sector, it is also easy to identify the Zimbabwe Open University and the polytechnics and technical colleges as holding the best prospects for enhancing the education and training requirements of Zim-Asset because of their proven record of accessibility to the general population, their flexibility and their proven resilience in times of economic adversity.
The nation is entering yet another period of economic challenges similar to those caused by sanctions, financial warfare and hyperinflation in the period 2006-2009. It was during that period that the ZOU model proved its viability, adaptability and resilience compared to conventional universities.
Because of its ability to accept and upgrade mature students who were already employed and who continued to work and learn at the same time, ZOU helped to retain and upgrade skills at a time students from conventional universities were not learning (because those universities were forced to close), or they were emigrating to the diaspora to escape the hardships.
ZOU also complemented the land reform programme by helping to slow rural-urban migration. Why is that history important today as the nation seeks to implement Zim-Asset? It is important because of the new economic challenges which the nation is facing and the bright promise of public entities like ZOU which stood the test of the last phase of the economic crisis.
These prospects and challenges are somewhat summarised in The Herald Business for January 14, 2014:
“Sovereign Wealth Fund to boost economy” on page B1 and “Economy heads for deflation point, says economist,” on page B2. This means the country is entering a period of economic challenges which are the reverse side of the hyperinflation of 2006-2009. The Brockhampton Dictionary of ideas defines deflation as “a reduction in the level of economic activity, usually caused by an increase in interest rates and reduction on the money supply, increased taxation, or a decline in Government expenditure.”
Almost all sectors are complaining that what they got from the 2014 budget is way too little compared to the programmes they seek to mount. But instead of just a reduction in money supply, Zimbabwe’s challenges include the absence of a national currency.
Zim-Asset and the detractors’ attention on ZOU
ZOU played a critical role in the survival of Zimbabwe during the hyperinflation phase of Zimbabwe’s economic challenges by reducing the emigration of the educated classes.
ZOU has continued to reduce rural-urban migration by going wherever the people are who need higher education.
ZOU’s cost structure in terms of fees, time and movement is lower and is more realistic for the general population than the cost structures at conventional universities.
If given public funding commensurate with its size and its core business, ZOU will be found to be more cost-effective and efficient than conventional universities especially during this deflationary period the country is entering.
ZOU is likely to take students away from conventional universities as deflation begins to bite while the Zim-Asset programme requires increased training for empowerment of ordinary citizens.
If these things happen as I have outlined, the profile of those persons who have managed ZOU is likely to rise profoundly in the context of the Zim-Asset and the need to overcome effects of deflationary pressures.
The deflationary problems anticipated by economists will include increased unemployment and redundancy for those in non-performing or under-performing institutions.
The country therefore faces a real dilemma in its crusades against corruption in the sense that fighting corruption will be corrupted and will be turned into a bandwagon even for charlatans whose motive is to remove and replace certain incumbents — under the guise of stamping out corruption — when in many cases the motive is to open up jobs for friends, colleagues and even relatives.
On January 9, 2014, readers of The Herald and Chronicle woke up to two rather long letters to the editor respectively entitled “Probe ZOU for alleged corruption” and “Ministry must probe goings-on at ZOU.”
But the bandwagon effect of the anti-corruption rhetoric was even more openly revealed through a Daily News cartoon on January 14, 2014 (see page 8).
The cartoon’s kinship with the letters to the editors of The Herald and Chronicle on January 9 arises from the fact that they depict the strategy of a force or group whose motive is not to eradicate corruption, but rather to fuel the sort of pessimism, despair and despondency which might help defeat Zim-Asset as well as defeat genuine efforts against real corruption.
The Daily News cartoon presents a picture of a Zimbabwe where corruption is universal, making the actions to end the recently uncovered corruption at ZBC seem futile and insignificant. In other words the aim remains demonisation and brand destruction rather than ending corruption.
The following characteristics of the two letters to The Herald and Chronicle are quite striking in this regard and they help to demonstrate what I mean:
The first element is the similarity between the attacks on ZOU and the Anglo-Saxon attacks on Zimbabwe over the last 15 years, that is: You are damned if you do; you are damned if you don’t. It shows such prejudice, such malice and desperation that even the best of behaviour and achievement by the targeted person or institution must be used in the worst light possible, however incredible, the interpretation.
In the past for instance the detractors used to attack ZOU for taking too long to produce examination results. This time ZOU is being attacked for producing results ahead of the bogus whistle-blower says schedule and that proves that ZOU is covering up something.
The second indicator is the attempt to criminalise normal corporate practices. ZOU’s opening up to the Standards Association of Zimbabwe and seeking ISO certification is attacked as intended to cover up corruption. In other words, if ZOU were to avoid independent scrutiny it would be accused of hiding something and refusing to accept criticism which might lead to improvement.
But in the Chronicle version of the attack opening up ZOU to the SAZ’s scrutiny and assessment is alleged to be evidence of corruption being covered up. Never mind that Zimbabwe’s lawmakers, the Parliament of Zimbabwe itself, boasts on its letterhead that it sought and obtained ISO certification through the SAZ!
The third element is the unjustified anonymity. The author reveals that the allegations in the letters are being recycled from 2012 and before; and that a forensic audit was commissioned by Council in 2012 and carried out by AMG Global. If the editor had asked ZOU or done a little bit of background checking, he/she would have found that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating allegations of corruption at ZOU in 2011 and ZOU co-operated.
ZACC also brought in the then Comptroller and Auditor General (now Auditor General) in 2012. ZACC, as usual, worked also with the police.
ZACC, the police and the Auditor General all have the constitutional authority to investigate cases of corruption and embezzlement as well as authority to protect genuine whistle-blowers and witnesses.
Why, after four years of continual whistleblowing and involvement of all he constitutional agencies capable of protecting genuine whistle-blowers — why should this writer still find solace in anonymous letters? This means such a writer never wants to become a real witness and never wants to be assessed and cross-examined on the concocted stories he is spreading through the media.
The fourth element is the false and unsubstantiated analogy between the ZBC and ZOU. Upon her appointment, Minister Olivia Muchena has not found at ZOU a situation similar to what Minister Jonathan Moyo found at ZBC upon his appointment at the same time.
Minister Muchena was appointed when ZACC, the Auditor General and AMG Global had already looked at the allegations being recycled now. And a forensic audit commissioned in 2012 was already completed. Where the ZBC failed to pay workers for seven months in a row, ZOU was attacked for offering extra incentives to retain staff during the worst days of inflation.
Had the allegations been true as first published in 2011 in newspapers and presented by ZACC, arrests would have been made back then. Unfortunately, all the allegations were false, except for two cases which the university was already dealing with when ZACC arrived.
This may explain why no effort has been made to obtain the position of the Auditor General on AMG Global’s forensic audit of ZOU. The Auditor General has the ultimate constitutional authority over all public funds. Even AMG Global comes under the Auditor General when they audit public institutions.
Shaisano: How Jacob failed, Solomon recognised the true mother
There is a moral lesson at the end of the ZOU story for Zim-Asset and for the Government of Zimbabwe. In the struggle to eradicate corruption, is the Government or ZANU-PF going to be like Jacob or like King Solomon?
I have already tried to describe how ZOU stands out in a unique category of its own, just like the extraordinarily beautiful coat which Jacob gave his youngest son Joseph. Jacob failed to read the envy and jealousy that was eating his older sons, Joseph’s brothers.
The majority of the envious brothers wanted to murder Joseph because he talked about the visions he saw in his dreams about the future and because he wore the most beautiful jacket.
There was only one of its kind among 12 brothers and Joseph had it. The eldest brother saved Joseph from being murdered by his brothers by suggesting that they strip him of the jacket; put him in a pit along the road to Egypt, so that slave traders could take him to Egypt; and soak his most beautiful jacket in the blood of a lamb so that they could take it to Jacob and report that Joseph had been eaten by lions.
The brothers who were supposed to be Joseph’s protectors sold him into slavery and lied to their father about Joseph’s fate and their role in it. Let us now turn to Solomon and the two women, one the real mother of the child, the other a corrupt pretender who had killed her own baby. It is best to read in Shona the story of the two women in King Solomon’s court. (Read 1 Kings 3:17-27)
The Chancellor and the entire Government of Zimbabwe must understand that deflation and unemployment make ZOU more and more attractive to envious and jealous aspirants just as Joseph’s beautiful jacket or the surviving child between the two women at Solomon’s court also provoked uncontrollable jealousy and envy.
There is need to be able to perceive the envy, the malice and the jealousy; and to separate the false mother from the true mother.
The true mother would want to build and protect the ZOU brand to turn genuine struggles against real corruption into brand-enhancing exercises.
Online Reporter