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Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said no private schools should be indigenised as the Zimbabwean constitution allows religious groups and individuals to establish and maintain a school.
He was responding to the proposals setting the minimum requirements for the indigenisation of the private schools last week.

Minister Coltart said schools were not set up to enrich people and indigenising them will be unconstitutional. He said while the move will affect most trust schools, it should be noted that the schools were run by boards of trustees, which included many black people.
“The idea behind the Empowerment Act is to empower disadvantaged Zimbabweans and how can you enrich someone by giving him a non-profit making institution,” said Minister Coltart.

“Private schools are generally owned by churches or a trust and there is no shareholding to talk of.
“For Government to adopt such a policy would be nonsensical as the constitution gives individual groups a right to educate their children.”
The new regulations to take over private schools are contained in a notice published in the Government Gazzette last Friday.

The notice stated that schools with a net asset of $1 must have a 51 percent indigenous ownership.
Minister Coltart said he met Youth, Indeginisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere last week who assured him that schools will be spared from the programme.

“Last year in August, the Minister (Kasukuwere) approached me with the proposals, but after lengthy discussions he made an undertaking that the schools would not be part of the programme,” he said.
“This has come to me as a surprise and since there is no such Cabinet policy, I hope most members of the Cabinet would not buy such an idea.”

Minister Coltart said Minister Kasukuwere should “revisit” the issue if the country’s education was to maintain high standards.
“Every child has a right to education and if you take the Greek community in the country as an example, they should be taught Greek Orthodox just the way Anglicans and Catholics do to their children,” he said.

“It is unfair to take over their schools because they also have a right to education.
“The issue should be revisited as we want to keep up our high standards.”

The indigenisation and empowerment laws require foreign owned companies to cede 51 percent of their stake to locals.
Efforts to get a comment from Minister Kasukuwere were fruitless as he was said to be out of the country.