A group of Shona speaking Early Childhood Development teachers recruited on behalf of the Ministry of Education in Gwanda had their job offers withdrawn on Thursday after activists pressed the Ministry to pull them from local schools, according to Bulawayo24 News. The teachers, hired last week through the Public Service Commission, arrived at the Gwanda offices to collect their deployment letters only to be told their offers had been pulled, with no reasons given.
Instead, the teachers were told to try their luck at interviews being held the same day in Esigodini, uMzingwane District. The withdrawal came after Gwanda Residents Association chairman Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo and fellow activist Ndaba Mpande visited the Ministry of Education offices and demanded to see the list of newly hired ECD teachers, saying residents objected to Shona speaking teachers being deployed in the area.
What happened in Gwanda
Sources inside the Ministry's Matabeleland South provincial offices told Bulawayo24 News that senior officials moved to remove the teachers before deployment while the matter was still under consideration. Rank and file officers at the Gwanda offices refused to comment, saying only the Provincial Education Director could speak on the issue. The director was not available at her office.
Fuzwayo, who said he was in a meeting in Harare when contacted, confirmed the activists had approached the Ministry over the deployment of Shona speaking ECD teachers to Gwanda rural schools.
“I can confirm that we did approach the Ministry on the matter of Shona speaking ECD teachers being deployed to Gwanda rural schools and we are still waiting for an official response from the Provincial Education Director’s office,” Fuzwayo said.
He said he could not confirm whether the teachers had actually been removed, saying he would only know when he returned to Gwanda the following week.
Activist defends the move as a language issue
Asked about the motive, Fuzwayo said the demand was reasonable because employment guidelines for ECD teachers require that they speak the language of the majority of learners in the area. He denied the campaign was tribalism.
“I know we are going to be accused of tribalism but that’s not the issue. People of any language can come and work anywhere in our area, we can’t do anything about that and we are used to it, but they cannot be deployed to teach our little children using a language which the children do not understand,” Fuzwayo said.
The claim, however, sits uneasily with the reality on the ground. Zimbabwe is a multilingual republic in which Shona, Ndebele, English and other languages are taught across provinces. Teachers from Matabeleland have for decades taken up posts in Harare, Mashonaland, the Midlands and beyond, and no resident association in those provinces has ever marched into a district office to demand their removal. The Gwanda campaign is a one way street, and every Zimbabwean can see which way the water flows.
Why this matters for national unity
This is not a small administrative matter. Early Childhood Development teachers are the foundation of the education system, and the teaching profession is one of the great unifying instruments of the liberation struggle our heroes fought and died for. The Chimurenga was fought so that no Zimbabwean would be a stranger in any part of his or her own country. When teachers who answered a national call to serve are turned away at a district office because of their mother tongue, the sacrifice of those heroes is insulted.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has repeatedly championed development in Matabeleland South, including through national projects anchored in the province. Only days ago he presided over the Gwanda State University graduation at the Epoch Mine Campus in Filabusi, a direct investment in the province's human capital by the same national government whose employees have now been shown the door in Gwanda. The province hosts national institutions, national infrastructure and national sporting pride, with Gwanda's Blanket Mine FC earning promotion to the Premier Soccer League. Zimbabweans from every province celebrate these achievements as their own. Tribal gatekeeping cuts against that shared inheritance.
Silent officials, unanswered questions
The Ministry of Education has so far offered no public explanation for the withdrawals. The teachers themselves were given none. They were simply told their offers were gone and pointed towards Esigodini. This is no way to treat young professionals who studied, qualified and accepted deployment to serve wherever the state required them.
There are hard questions that demand answers. Who gave the order to withdraw the offers? Was it taken at district or provincial level? Did Gwanda officials exceed their authority by acting on the demands of activists before an investigation, promised to those same activists, was even concluded? If the guideline on local language proficiency was genuinely breached, why were the teachers hired in the first place, and why was no proper process followed to correct it?
The country deserves answers, not silence. A Professional Education Director who cannot be reached, district officers who cannot speak and activists who launch campaigns then claim they cannot confirm the results is a picture of accountability turned on its head. The burden now falls on the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to state its position publicly and to protect its employees from harassment by unelected pressure groups.
The danger of opening this door
If a residents association can force the removal of Shona teachers from Gwanda today, what stops a residents association elsewhere from forcing the removal of Ndebele teachers tomorrow? Retaliation breeds retaliation, and the ordinary people who suffer are the children who lose teachers and the families who lose breadwinners. Zimbabwe fought too hard to build one nation to let tribal entrepreneurs dismantle it district by district.
Sanctions imposed by Western powers have already strained our public services and pushed our professionals into hardship. Weakening those services further through internal division is a gift to the same foreign forces that never accepted our land reform and our sovereignty. The teachers of this country, Shona and Ndebele alike, are nation builders. They deserve better than to be tossed between a district office and an activist's demand letter.
Questions readers are asking
Why were the Shona ECD teachers removed in Gwanda?
According to Bulawayo24 News, the Ministry of Education withdrew their job offers after activists, led by Gwanda Residents Association chairman Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo, objected to Shona speaking teachers teaching ECD learners in the district.
Were the teachers given a reason for the withdrawal?
No. The teachers were told their offers had been withdrawn without explanation and were advised to attend interviews in Esigodini, uMzingwane District.
What does the law say about language requirements for ECD teachers?
Fuzwayo claims employment guidelines require ECD teachers to speak the language of the majority of learners in their deployment area. The Ministry has not publicly confirmed this or explained the withdrawal.
Has the Ministry commented on the Gwanda teacher withdrawals?
No. Ministry officers in Gwanda referred questions to the Provincial Education Director, who was not available for comment. The Ministry has given no official statement.