Officer cadets quit over pay (08-02-07)

HARARE - Scores of newly recruited officer cadets at the elite Gweru-based Zimbabwe Military Academy (ZMA) have quit or are contemplating quitting in a row over poor pay, military officials have admitted.
Scores of troops from the 500-strong second lieutenant training infantry walked out months

before completing their training. They said they were paid less than Z$100,000 a month.
“They said they were not happy with their terms and conditions and they didn’t obey the instructions of their commanding officers,” a senior official from the ZMA administration in Gweru, told The Zimbabwean.
“Lieutenant General Phillip Sibanda has appointed a board of inquiry from the academy’s commandant to look into this issue. Usually if troops refuse to follow orders, the authorities have no choice but to declare that they are no longer soldiers in the ZMA battalion. I understand they are consulting with the commander-in-chief (Mugabe).”
The Zimbabwean heard that Mugabe had been fully briefed about the near mutiny at the Gweru infantry, and was hurriedly reviewing pay scales of all the security forces as a result of the mass resignations.
Some of the protesting security forces were said to be held in detention barracks awaiting court martial. Army spokesman Simon Tsatsa was not available for comment.
Plans by the Zimbabwe National Army to demobilize junior troops and form a conscript reserve force of war veterans have also raised a storm of protest.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba has reacted angrily to media reports suggesting growing unrest in the elite Presidential Guard over poor salaries. – Staff reporter

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