The teachers now rent rooms in Zvishavane town and commute to their schools daily at great expense, they said.

At Makovere school, 10 kilometres east of the town, this paper found only one teacher still living in a school house. The rest of the teachers had relocated to the town. Their houses had been taken over by Zanu (PF) militants and villagers loyal to President Robert Mugabe's violent party.

“We are now being forced to fork out huge amounts of money in bus fares and rents every month, but there is nothing we can do,” said a teacher at Dambudzo school in defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa's home village.

The teacher said they faced daily threats from party thugs who threatened violence similar to what was unleashed in the area in 2000.

During that year's violent election campaign, Zanu (PF) hooligans led by one George Funhiro killed the MDC activist Chigwindiri Chidhakwa and dumped his body in the Dambudzo school football grounds to scare teachers. The Zanu (PF) mobsters said the MDC had committed a cardinal sin by campaigning in Mnangagwa's village and they had 'embarrassed'

the minister.

Many teachers said they faced transport problems after many buses withdrew from the areas where schools were located citing threats from 'war veterans', bad roads and lack of meaningful business. Some of the teachers said they had to walk distances of more than 20 kilometres daily when they failed to get public transport or when their meagre pay ran out.

Teachers in the district are bearing the brunt of a backlash against all people perceived to have voted against Mugabe in the 2008 election, which the long-time dictator lost to long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T.

By The Zimbabwean