Zim man shot dead in SA

A 30-YEAR-OLD Zimbabwean man was shot dead in South Africa in an incident which his family suspect was a case of robbery.

Brighton Mutarika who was working as a hairdresser in Johannesburg was shot five times while he was on his way home from his workplace.

Zimbabwe Ambassador to South Africa, Mr Isaac Moyo confirmed the incident but referred further questions to Zimbabwe’s Consular-General Mr Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro who indicated that he was yet to receive a report on the incident.

“I received communication on the matter but I don’t have finer details as it is being handled by the Consular-General’s office. You can contact him for full details on the incident,” said Mr Moyo.

Brighton’s father who is also chairperson of the Plumtree District Soccer League, Mr Chakudza Mutarika said his son was buried in Soweto, South Africa on Sunday while a funeral service was held for him at their home in Plumtree.

“I received communication that my son had been shot in South Africa. He was staying in Yoeville area with a group of friends. It seems that my son was heading home after work when he was attacked by unidentified people.

“They shot him five times — on the head, neck, chest and on both shoulders. They also took his cellphone and an undisclosed amount of money,” he said.

Mr Mutarika said his son’s body was later found by a passerby a few minutes after he had been shot.

He said when he first received the news of his son’s death he could not believe it.

He said he later assigned his daughter who also works in South Africa to identify the body.

“My daughter who also stays in South Africa went to identify Brighton’s body three days later at a government mortuary and confirmed that it was indeed him. She made all the funeral arrangements for my son and he was buried in Soweto on Sunday.

“As a family we realised that it would be costly to ferry his body back home and decided to bury him in the neighbouring country. While the burial was ongoing on Sunday we held a funeral service for him in Plumtree,” he said.

Mr Mutarika said he had not received any information on the arrest of the culprits.

He said his family will pursue the matter until his son’s murderers were arrested.

He said his son’s death was a huge blow to the family.

Mr Mutarika said Brighton left home for South Africa two weeks ago after securing a job.

ZOU (Zimbabwe Open University) has come up with a post-graduate diploma in education programme and this was accredited by Zimche (Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education) in 2016. So we have quite a number, we have actually been taking statistics and we have communicated to provinces encouraging those with no pedagogy to actually take up the diploma. Those that have non-teaching degrees have actually taken up the diplomas and they are at varying levels of training. The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has asked us to submit names and statistics of those that are in the system and do not have teaching qualifications but have degrees and they are been redeployed in ministries that would need their areas of expertise. Some have been deployed to the department of immigration, and quite a number of economists have been redeployed to the ministry of economic planning and some have been deployed to the Ministry of Rural Development. This rationalisation is ongoing.

TC: You have mentioned before that your ministry requires an additional 7 000 teachers. What is being done to ensure that those teachers are recruited?

DR UM: There has been discussion at the highest level that is at cabinet level, I think something is coming out soon. We are just waiting for official communication, because we must get Treasury concurrence because this is an additional cost to Government. As you know 90 percent of the revenue is going to salaries. We have done all the preparatory work so that once we get the nod then it should not take time for us to engage the teachers, because the teachers are there. We also have to consider areas that have critical shortage, like the infants, mainly because statistics are there. We know exactly the shortage that we have and at what level so we need to rationalise. We also have a critical shortage in Mathematics and sciences. At the moment we are doing replacements, because they are budgeted. For example if a teacher dies, retires or absconds we have to replace because that post would have already been budgeted for, for 2017.

TC: Will the 7 000 teachers take you to the staff complement that you desire as a ministry?

DR UM: I think if we can’t look at what we desire then it can be anything, but we are saying what the Government can afford. We also need to be very realistic because Government is very sensitive to this area. His Excellency is very sensitive and if he could have it his own way and funds permitting he would say let’s have all the teachers in the classroom but then the pocket may not allow him.

TC: Lastly, the ministry issued a directive to schools to have levies administered by Government. What became of the directive as we have observed that SDCs and SDAs are still actively involved in administration of levies in schools? Did Government rescind the directive?

DR UM: There was never a directive, and circulars are issued by the permanent secretary and I don’t remember issuing such a circular. I don’t think I could be that forgetful. What is happening now is that the Education Act and Statutory Instruments are being repealed so that they conform to the new constitution. So a lot of ground work has been done and our legal section has been out working with the Ministry of Justice because they are the ones that are responsible. It is from the outcome of what they will then submit to us that we can then talk of the issues that we having now. Otherwise as of now, nothing has changed until the legal frameworks are addressed.

TC: Thank you very much Dr Utete-Masango for your time.