Teachers across the country embarked on a national strike on Tuesday, following their threats to take action if the government fails to give them pay rises they desperately need. Civil servants were hoping to get the pay rise on Tuesday, but this did not happen.
Raymond Majonwge, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) told SW Radio Africa that the teachers should get at least US$500, which is in line with the national minimum living wage. Many government workers earn a minimum of US$200. The PTUZ said it expects 50,000 of its members in both urban and rural areas to participate in the strike.
Teachers and civil servant have gone on strike before and have always complained about their plight. The issue heated up more recently after reports that Robert Mugabe assured civil servants that they would get a pay rise. The state media then reported that Finance Minister Tendai Biti was blocking this, by deliberately refusing to release the funds for wage increases.
Biti has furiously denied these allegations, and has explained that there is no money to meet the demands. He said government revenue collections have been going down and that his Ministry had not received anything from the much-anticipated diamond proceeds since the beginning of the year. He also reportedly said the government first needs to carry out an audit of the 75,000 ghost workers on the civil servants bill.
However, ZANU PF officials through the state media have dismissed these explanations, and this has stirred up some unions to direct their wrath at Biti.
On Tuesday the PTUZ said it refused to blame Biti or any individual for their plight. It said the blame was squarely on the coalition government.
Majongwe said: “We are not directing our anger at one individual because I think we would be stupid if we had to make noise and say ‘that individual’. It is not even Biti because Biti doesn’t have the capacity to deny us an increment. Neither are we going to strike against Mugabe. We are looking at the collective, the government of national union (GNU). They are supposed to show the responsibility together.”
He added: “The moment we are going to single one single person, then I think we are failing to appreciate the real political fabric.”
“The issue of ghost workers is not an issue that was discovered last week. It’s an issue that he raised back in 2008 and the government has failed to deal with it. One on hand ZANU PF’s protecting its people, on the other hand the MDC [are] demanding that the audit results be tabulated and published. That is not our problem,” Majongwe stated.
Post published in: News