Election Day A Public Holiday, Minister To Seek Approval For Schools To Close Early

Election day is a public holiday according to the Electoral Law in accordance with section 38(2) of the Electoral Act.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday proclaimed July 30, 2018 as the date when Zimbabwe will hold harmonised elections. Schools opened on May 8 for the Second Term and are supposed to close on August 9.

In an interview with The Chronicle on the sidelines of the official opening of Bulawayo Book Fair, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima said elections have a disruptive impact on schools. He said he will seek an approval for an early closure of schools at the next Cabinet meeting. Professor Mavima said if schools close early this term they will open early in the third term. Said Mavima:

We know that it will be disruptive for elections to run when schools are open. This is something that we are going to present to Cabinet. Maybe we can close schools a week or so before elections since most of our schools are polling stations. We will deal with that in an administrative way. Our Permanent Secretary (Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango) will be working on that. We may close a week before the elections and then work out how we can compensate the pupils for the lost time.

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