School closed end of March, at the on set of the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of corona virus, have just reopened. Many teachers are refusing to go back to work until they are paid living wages.
The Poverty Datum Line wage for a family of five is US$650 per month. Some teachers are paid as little as US$30 per month which is less than 5% of the PDL.
”They (teachers) have raised their concerns and we are taking these concerns to the President and Cabinet. We have heard their concerns, but we also appealed to them to be realistic in their concerns and consider the economic conditions prevailing in the country,” said Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima.
"The salary negotiations between the Government and the National Joint Negotiating Council are ongoing. But Government decided to cushion its workers, while waiting for these negotiations to be finalised and the appeal to civil servants is to be patient while waiting for the outcome.”
The sheer arrogance of this Zanu PF government beggars belief!
Is government being realistic in paying someone 5% of the PDL wage?
The issue of slave wages was on the table before the lockdown six months ago; why has government failed to have this matter resolved during that period?
Of course, the teachers, like everyone else, are aware of the prevailing economic conditions in the country. They know the prices of basic necessities such as food and fuel are soaring, there are the usual shortages of cash and medicine, inflation is soaring, etc., etc. They are worried sick.
With year on year inflation rate now at 838% or month on month rate at 35%, they will need to get a 35% wage increase every month just to stay where they are! They know that will not happen and hence the reason they are asking the wages to be paid in US$ or pegged to the US$.
The much anticipated flood of new investors and lenders in response to President Mnangagwa’s clarion “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call has never materialised. This Zanu PF government must now accept that it has failed to revive the country’s economy, team inflation, etc., etc.
It is unrealistic to expect teachers to live on US$30 per month. Without the teachers, Zimbabwe’s education service has but totally collapsed. The same has happen to the health service and other sectors.
What kind of nation is this with no education for the children? No function health care? And the timing could not have been worse, given we are in the middle of a serious pandemic.
The economic situation is Zimbabwe has become intolerable; teachers cannot be expected to survive on air and the nation cannot be expected to accept a future with no education, health care, etc.
“Teachers must be realistic with the wage demands!” No Minister Mavima, it is government that is not being realistic, teachers cannot survive on air alone!
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Zimbabwe’s education service, just like health care and many other things, collapsed decades ago; it is just that Zimbabweans have mastered the art of burying their collective head in the sand and pretend everything is fine.
“Chiredzi South legislator Kalisto Gwanetsa last week called a meeting with all school heads in his constituency after it recorded poor results during the 2019 Grade 7, Ordinary Level and Advance Level Zimsec examinations” reported Newsday, in February 2020.
“Most of the schools performed dismally with some posting a 0% pass rate while others got 2% or 3%.”
"I have called this meeting because I am not happy with last year's results. I know things are difficult economically, but our results are pathetic. We have room to improve. We should be seen putting more effort to improve our pass rate,” said the Zanu PF MP Brigadier-General Kalisto Gwanetsa (Retired).
Chiredzi South constituency was not alone in posting pathetic results, it was true across the land.
Schools open in January 2020 only to close in March for the shut down and when they finally reopened last week, there are no teachers. Of course, there is no hope of improving the student pass rates.
Zimbabwe is facing a Herculean task rebuilding the country’s schools, hospitals, industries and the other economic infrastructure that are in ruins. The task will be near impossible with a labour force and electorate that is ill-educated.
The people of Zimbabwe must snap out of the sloth-like slumber and stop pretending everything is fine. The country is sinking deeper and deeper into this man-made, Zanu PF made, hell-on-earth and it is our duty to stop this madness of pay dearly for it with our own lives!
Said Charamba, "When you re-read this tweet from the US Ambassador barely a week ago after his meeting with Professor Mavima, and relate it to the blatantly political actions and communications of a certain segment of teachers' unions, is the connection not obvious??? Kana vada hondo, tinoitambira. The US Ambassador can only mislead them, nothing more.”
Charamba was commenting on tweet by US Ambassador to Zimbabwe who had said, "I met with Labor Minister Mavima today to encourage government and labor leaders to negotiate in good faith. Respect for workers' rights will help create a more prosperous Zimbabwe.”
So what wrong did the ambassador or the teachers do?
This is just another example of the big bad wolf accusing the lamb down stream of mudding the waters!
Zanu PF unleashed the Gukurahundi massacre to force the late Joshua Nkomo and PF Zapu to sign the 1987 Unity Accord paving the way for the imposition of the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country ever since. The party has blatantly rigged the elections and now and again use wanton violence, beatings rape and even murder, to retain its iron grip on power.
Mnangagwa was cocksure investors and lenders would flood into the country in answer to his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call. Investors are a savvy and shrewd lot, they stayed away. They could see that the country was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs.
Zimbabwe’s in serious economic and political crisis. The economy has all but crashed, basic services like education and health care have collapsed and millions of ordinary Zimbabwean now live in abject poverty. If teachers are being paid US$30 per month in a country with PDL of US$650 per month, one can only imagine what the 90% unemployed are earning!
The big bad wolf can threaten and even punish the teachers for asking for a living wage; there will be no one to teach because teachers cannot survive on US$30 per month.
It is for the people of Zimbabwe to now decide how long they are going to tolerate this situation of total economic collapse, run-away inflation, no health and education services, etc., etc. How long are they going to allow themselves to be cowed into submission by the big bad wolf whilst it destroys the economy, their hopes and dreams?
@ Tafanana Kwedu
“Teachers’ demands must be realistic at the same time dialogue must be given a chance!!”
Mnangagwa hoped to revive the economy with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call. It is now obvious that there have been no takers; the flood of investors he was cocksure was coming has never materialised. Government has no revenue from which it can pay the civil servants like teachers and nurses.
Government has often resorted to printing money to cover its expense; this has fuelled inflation that has soared to 838% year on year or 35% month on month. High inflation has the negative effect of discouraging economic activity because people are reluctant to be paid in a currency that is losing it value.
You can lock the government officials and the civil servants in a room to talk all week, all month, if you like; they will still come out with nothing. Government cannot pay the civil servant a living wage with money it does not have!
You cannot make a silk purse out of a sower’s ear!
Zimbabwe must revive the economy and since Zanu PF has failed to rig economic recovery the party must allow the nation to elect others who will.
The only dialogue the nation needs is one to reaffirm the right of the citizens to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. We have shied away from even mentioning the curse of rigged elections these last 40 years we cannot do so any more.
@ Dudu
Well you clearly have a lot to learn. Look what is happening in North Korea, Supreme Leaders Kim Jong-un got the hammer from his father Kim Jong-il who in turn got the hammer from his father Kim Il-sung.
The hope that Zanu PF will fizzled out with the death of the last liberation war hero next year 2021 is therefore a foolish notion.
There have been many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship most notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. If you cannot understand how MDC leaders sold-out and wasted that opportunity then you will never understand the more subtle opportunities to end the dictatorship.
Since Zanu PF thugs will pass on the hammer to their sons and daughters you can pass the stone you have sat on these last 40 years waiting for Zanu PF to die to your sons and daughters - those lucky enough to survive the abject poverty and despair!
SADC leaders have decided to take a strong action against President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ZANU PF government, Patriotic Front Spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has claimed.
Writing on micro-blogging site Twitter Mawarire said, "SADC is expected to tighten screws on ED & his Junta-PF regime after SADC Chairperson, Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera, cut short his state visit to Zimbabwe amid reports, from Malawi, suggesting that ED was unhappy with the message Chakwera was carrying, that the region was growing worried with ED's increasingly despotic rule and gross abuse of human rights.”
There is no doubt that the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is now so serious that SADC leaders have no choice but to pay attention. Zimbabwe’s economies in total meltdown, basic service such as education and health care have completely collapsed, etc., etc.
What makes Zimbabwe’s situation totally hopeless is that the country is stuck. Elections are the opportunity for nation to bring about meaningful change of leadership and direction; not so in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF corrupted the state institutions it is now impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections. And to crown it all Zanu PF has coopted the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders to participate in these flawed and illegal elections to give the process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging Zanu PF regime legitimacy.
After MDC failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, SADC leaders must have felt they had no option but to endorse Zanu PF’s rigged elections. It was a foolish decision because it did not solve Zimbabwe’s crisis but only made the vote rigging Zanu PF regime more arrogant.
Zanu PF has refused to implement even one reform and it is a certainty the party will rig the 2023 elections. Chamisa and company will participate.
SADC leaders will know they cannot continue to endorse Zimbabwe’s rigged elections. Mark my words, even the village idiot south of the Limpopo River will not endorse the next elections as having “gone well!” this time.
The economic situation in Zimbabwe has reached a dangerous point. It is nonsense to think that teachers can continue turning up for work when their wage is so low it cannot even pay for their transport cost let alone everything else. It is equally nonsensical to suggest the nation can continue without such basics as education for the children.
Zanu PF has clearly failed to revive the national economy and it must now allow the nation to get others who will revive the economy. It is an outrage for the regime to hold the nation to ransom.
The truth is the Second Republic has failed to revive the country's economy. Mnangagwa's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" had no takers; it is dead in the water. With no money the government is failing to keep even a sub substandard education and health care service going.
Teachers and nurses' wages are now so low it cannot even cover their most basic necessities. A hungry teacher or nurse is not going to turn up for work every day, if at all, and no amount of threats and posturing by government is going to change that reality.
Not even one school in Chiredzi South managed more than a 3% pass rate at grade seven, form two, form four and form six last year. This year's results will not be any better. It is no exaggeration to say education in Zimbabwe is dead!
The task of rebuilding Zimbabwe's economy was always going to be a Herculean task given everything in in ruins and not the task will be even tougher given one has to do it with a whole generation or two of uneducated citizens.
Mnangagwa on Wednesday admitted that the majority of teachers were not at work.
He said less than 30% of teachers had reported for work to prepare students for final examinations and threatened to withhold salaries for those on strike.
Teachers yesterday said they were unfazed by Mnangagwa's threats and would not report for work until government awards them a living wage.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said withholding of salaries for teachers would be challenged in court.
He said the same happened in 2002, where 627 suspended teachers successfully challenged the decision in court.
"From what I heard, the President did not threaten us, but he asked for dialogue with us. If he said let us meet today, we will meet him. We do not expect threats from the government because we don't eat threats. We have raised genuine concerns that need to be solved," Raymond Majongwe said.
This is just government being foolish, it is failing to pay teachers enough to cover the transport cost and yet still expect the teachers to turn up for work?
The truth is Mnangagwa has failed to revive the economy. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” failed to attract the flood of investors. Government cannot pay teachers, nurses, etc. a living wage because it is not collecting enough revenue to do so.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The nation has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship for 40 years and it shows.
Zanu PF rigged the elections but has failed to rig economic recovery. For its part, Zanu PF will never acknowledge it has failed much less give up power!
The people of Zimbabwe a simple choice either to grasp the nettle and demand their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country or let Zanu PF drag them deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth.
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