Educationists, activists, and politicians in Matabeleland have condemned the sacking of the Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science, and Technology Development, Simelisizwe Sibanda, by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday, July 1, 2024.
They view Sibanda’s dismissal for advocating Ndebele infants being taught in their mother tongue as a form of ethnocide.
Ethnocide refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the culture, customs, language, and way of life of a particular ethnic group. It can occur in various forms, ranging from government policies aimed at forcibly integrating minority groups into the dominant culture to more extreme measures like mass killings.
Sibanda was fired after demanding the transfer of early childhood development (ECD) teacher, Winnet Mharadze from Clonmore Primary School in Bubi Constituency, allegedly for not being proficient in the local language, Ndebele.
The ZANU PF MP had gone to donate uniforms to learners at the school, 55 km out of Bulawayo, off Harare Road near Gloag High School on June 24, 2024.
During a meeting attended by teachers, parents and hundreds of learners, Sibanda asked Mharadze why she was in Matabeleland and tested her by asking her what “uqethu” is.
As reported by CITE, uqethu means grass, and it is part of a common tongue twister among IsiNdebele speakers that goes “Qum’ qethu, ‘gecu ‘qethu,” which simply means cut the grass.
This was not the first instance of Sibanda criticizing Shona teachers in Bubi. Reports indicate that Bubi District education officials alleged the MP stirred controversy previously at Mbembeswana 1 Primary, where he also reprimanded Shona teachers who could not speak the local language.
In 2016, then Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora said that infant classes (ECD to Grade Two) in the country must be taught in indigenous languages.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution also recognises 16 languages, while a 2018 policy mandates student teachers to learn three local languages beyond their own.
In an interview with CITE, Cultural studies expert Khanyile Mlotshwa said that Ndebele children have a human right to learn in their language. Said Mlotshwa:
It is ironic that the new Zimbabwean constitution that has a strong bill of rights also recognises many different languages in the country.
No matter what some other people might feel about isiNdebele, it is recognised in that constitution as well as ChiShona. Ndebele children have a human right to learn in their language.
A teacher who cannot speak their mother tongue cannot be forced on these children, especially in their first 1,000 days at school.
Sadly, this is something that has to be spoken about year in and year out, yet the government does not want to reform itself and stop treating other citizens as stepchildren of Zimbabwe. The marginalised people’s life is ironic in very strange and macabre ways.
Speaking to CITE, an educationist, Future Msebele, claimed Sibanda was fired for implementing government policy under the new Heritage-based Education 5.0, which says ECD learners must be taught in their mother language. Said Msebele:
This is seen as the continuation of the Gukurahundi programme. The programme of ethnocide should not be allowed to continue.
Renowned academic Dr Samukele Hadebe, whose PhD was entirely written in IsiNdebele, said:
Teaching in schools is socialising children into future adults and responsible citizens to play various roles in their respective families, communities, and society at large.
Education is imparting culture, and philosophy, and giving lifelong skills needed for survival.
If you teach children in a language that they do not understand, or they are taught by someone they cannot understand, it means you are deliberately giving unequal education.
You are designing that education to create some children to be future slaves for other children whom you want to be masters over those that have poor education in the same country.
He added that a teacher who is deployed to do what he or she is not capable of doing is a criminal.
The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) leader, Obert Masaraure, said:
Zimbabwe has a Harare problem. Our governance system is over-centralised in Harare; decisions made from Harare are not compatible with the lived realities of all regions. Such a system deliberately marginalises sections of Matabeleland.
Harare has therefore systematically denied some learners opportunities to progress professionally. Deployment is also centralised and run by some Shona supremacists.
Mbuso Fuzwayo, Secretary General of Ibhetshu LikaZulu, a local pressure group, criticised Zimbabwean leadership, alleging they are tribalists rather than nation builders, who have exacerbated societal divisions instead of fostering unity in diversity.
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