Jacob W. Chikuhwa
This book chronicles how Zimbabwe’s boom
educational and health systems unravelled after independence in 1980 and how
exuberance gave way to pessimism. The uncomfortable truth about how socialism
lost its way and the dramatic reversal of fortune is told. No jobs were created
for the school leavers, inflation went up and poverty started to creep in. The
1980s actually laid the foundations for the economic problems Zimbabwe now
faces. Trapped in an ideological commitment to socialist enterprises, policy
makers permitted accountability to slip, carried co-operatives further than
they should have, and pandered to socialist greed with its corrupt tendencies.
Zimbabwe: Beyond a School Certificate
examines the relations between governance and discursive practices in the
modern labour market: the role of institutions of learning and skills
development, and the brain drain as creative and retrogressive forces in the
economy; labour laws and the job market in a critical methodology for
organisational research; and the health system and the poverty datum line as a
measurement of the dynamics in industrial development.
This is a genuinely authentic analysis
based on statistical data which support the unfolding events in the southern
African country. This book is useful for students (and lecturers alike) and
donor agencies wanting to know more about Zimbabwe. Organisations helping to
fight the HIV pandemic will also find the book a source of information.
Jacob Chikuhwa was exposed to political
influence at an early age as his father (c.1879-10 March 1972) used to tell him
of the Pioneer Column of 1890. During the creation of the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953, Jacob was made
to understand the political ideology of the federation.
During his student days, Jacob heard about
the Mau Mau in Kenya.
General Dedan Kemathi, who was hanged by the British and Jomo Kenyatta’s
exploits in the war against the British, had an impact on Jacob’s political
thinking. He understood that although the Gold Coast (later Ghana in 1957) pursued a non-violent process of
decolonisation, the armed struggle in Kenya was a justified method of
liberation.
After having been detained by the white
minority Rhodesian regime (1964 to 1965) because of his involvement for a
democratic Zimbabwe, Jacob
Chikuhwa escaped into Zambia
in 1966. He secured an Afro-Asian scholarship to study in the former Soviet Union. In 1972 upon completion of his studies,
Chikuhwa moved to Sweden.
Chikuhwa was appointed ZANU Publicity
Secretary for Scandinavia, Austria and West German in 1974. This
is when he became interested in research on Zimbabwe’s politico-economic
development.
Chikuhwa holds degrees in economics and
international relations from the Kiev Institute of National Economy in Ukraine and the University
of Stockholm in Sweden.
Chikuhwa has lectured on economics and administration.
After having worked as an economist for
over 30 years, Chikuhwa has turned to writing full-time. He is currently
working on a book titled Zimbabwe: The
End of the First Republic. Besides Zimbabwe:
Beyond a School Certificate, Chikuhwa has written Zimbabwe: The Rise to Nationhood, A Crisis of Governance: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe at the Crossroads, A
Cheer for Sanity, A Thought for the
Day, Shona Proverbs and Parables and In
Communication with the Deceased.
Zimbabwe: Beyond a School
Certificate will have scholars and research fellows eagerly turning the
pages to follow the willy-nilly twists and turns of Zimbabwe’s socio-economic
situation. Dr Jacob Chikuhwa has been successful in highlighting the path of a
Zimbabwean from the time he/she graduates from an educational institution on to
the labour market and into the intricacies involved with attaining a stable
standard of living.
It is a delight to read that the author has written for the use of those
concerned with development, whether at a purely national level or in connection
with any of the aid programmes of the international agencies. He sets out to
explore some of the historical facts which have been covered in the past but
considered valid and useful in the context of development activities.
Particular emphasis is placed on politico-economic systems which are currently
subject to heavy development pressure.
By way of economic and statistical
analysis, Jacob Chikuhwa highlights various problems associated with Zimbabwe’s
manpower development, industrial relations and the standard of living. The author has made a commendable
socio-economic analysis to bring to light the data which institutions
compile and to discover the reasons why things so often turn out differently
from what was intended.
