Mail & Guardian - Zim children deprived of schooling

At least 300 000 children have dropped out of school in Zimbabwe since a government-driven campaign to demolish shacks and other unauthorised homes was launched nearly six weeks ago, a teachers’ union said on Tuesday.

“The government’s Operation Murambatsvina has caused severe devastation on the education sector,” Raymond Majongwe, leader of the militant Progressive Teachers’ Union (PTUZ), told a meeting of residents in Harare.

Police have been carrying out the two-pronged “Operation Restore Order” and “Operation Murambatsvina”, (literally translated as “drive out the rubbish”), flattening backyard shacks and shop stalls in cities and towns across Zimbabwe.

The United Nations estimates that 200 000 people have lost their homes in the campaign but the opposition says the figure is closer to 1,5-million homeless.

Why is the UN only restrained when it isn’t talking about US prisoner abuses?

Date: Jun 28th, 2005 · Comments RSS · Tags: Geography and Foreign Affairs