Zimbabwe has closed the country’s private schools and arrested nine school heads, after the education minister reportedly told a delegation of parents that the government was going to take over the schools the way they seized white-owned farms.
In the wave of forced closures and arrests President Robert Mugabe’s officials have accused the schools of being racist. Early this week about 30 000 children enrolled at 46 private schools countrywide found their schools closed or were turned away
by police at what was supposed to be the start of the mid-year term. The schools were ordered to bring down their fees before they can open.
But on Friday a judge in Bulawayo ordered the reopening of 17 schools in the area that were among 46 private schools closed for hiking fees without permission.
Richard Majwabu, who represents the Bulawayo schools, said the judge had made an interim order allowing the schools to reopen but also giving state lawyers 10 days to oppose the order.
The overturning of school closures in Bulawayo follows a similar court victory by a top Harare school on Thursday, which was ordered to reopen by the Harare High Court.
On state television the education minister, Aeneas Chigwedere, said:
”We are dealing with racist schools. They are all former white schools — all racist,” . ”They throw Africans out simply by hiking fees.”
Members of Zimbawe’s black elite and professional classes have easily afforded the school fees. The private schools have overwhelmingly black student bodies and many members of the school boards are blacks.
President Mugabe’s own son, Robert Jr, and the children of many cabinet ministers attend private schools.
The headmaster and two board members of Hillcrest College in the eastern border city of Mutare were arrested by police yesterday, according to school officials, making a total of nine heads who have been taken into custody in the past two days.
Many heads have gone into hiding to avoid being jailed over the weekend. Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer, is a board member of Harare’s leading Roman Catholic school, St George’s College, where Robert Mugabe Jr is a pupil. She confirmed that a committee of eight concerned parents went to see Chigwedere.
”They reported back at a public meeting of parents that the minister said that he will do to the schools what was done to white farmers, and that ultimately the government will take these schools over as Zanu-PF controls the courts.”
Hartmann House, a Catholic primary school for boys in Harare, reopened yesterday after being closed for four days. The school, which Mugabe’s son attended, pressed a court case in which the judge declared the closure illegal and ordered police to allow it to reopen. Two other private schools were pressing similar court cases in Bulawayo yesterday.
An estimated 30 000 students attend 45 private schools.
The schools have raised fees by up to 75% since January because of rampant inflation, currently running at 580%. The government says any increase in fees above 10% is a crime.
The heads of the private schools say they have repeatedly submitted written requests to raise fees, supported by audited accounts. But the requests have received no response from education officials, not even an acknowledgement.
”It’s frightening,” said one parent. ”Everyone, black and white, is furious. It’s ridiculous to call the schools racist. Most schools are overwhelmingly black and the students mix together well.”
Zimbabwe’s government schools, attended by the vast majority of students, are suffering a serious breakdown as a result of the economic crisis. School enrolment has dropped by 60% because parents cannot afford the fees, according to a survey by the International Monetary Fund.
In recent years the Mugabe government has allowed the country’s once proud education system to decline. State schools are in a critical condition with many having classes of more than 80 pupils and severe shortages of teachers, textbooks, desks and classrooms.
The government is awarding civil servants pay raises of 300%, said John Makumbe, political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. ”So why can’t private schools put up their fees by 75%? This is a classic example of the Mugabe government playing the race card and trying to use whites as scapegoats for his failed policies.
”Government schools are in a shambles so Mugabe is trying to put the blame on the private schools. It is the same as seizing the farms and closing down the private press. But people are not falling for his propaganda.” – Guardian Unlimited Â