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If we steal teachers, how will Zim grow
Cliff Saunders
Extracted from Letters to the editor - The Star (SA)
January 17, 2007

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3630850

Education Minister Naledi Pandor says "South African teachers should not feel threatened" by the move to employ Zimbabwean teachers.

But how "not threatened" should the Zimbabweans feel about being deprived of their best teachers? This government's "silent diplomacy" towards Zimbabwe has now been distorted by a "stealing system" whereby a down-and-out nation is being deprived of the very people needed to pull it up.

The director-general of education, Duncan Hindle, says there are already about 10 000 fully trained Zimbabweans living in SA but "not working in their field of expertise". Start employing them and another 10 000 will flock to SA.

Where does that leave a Zimbabwe deprived of future leaders? If the policy of "silent diplomacy" was regarded as one of "good neighbourliness", this latest policy of "stealing the cream of the teaching crop" is most certainly not. If Zimbabwe does not strongly object then it's simply because it is following the Stalinist policy of getting rid of the well educated because of the "problems" they can cause.

Right now it is impossible to state accurately how many Zimbabweans have taken refuge in SA - legally and illegally. They come in search of work (legal or illegal), they steal - and others live in misery, only just surviving "until something comes up".

Young people educated by efficient teachers are the future of a country. To quote Henry Brooks Adams: "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence will stop." This is so true.

The way things are going now it would be wise of Zimbabweans to request that they be included as a province of South Africa. Robert Mugabe could then sit in his "palatial dwelling" and watch the restoration of Zimbabwe.

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