MPs unite in ruckus call for better wages for teachers - yet none of MPs want free elections, it's bridge too far N Garikai

 

“Zanu-PF and MDC MPs showed rare unity on Tuesday as they combined to demand better salaries for public sector workers who have declared "incapacitation", reported Zimlive.

“Civil servants are currently working a two-day week – Mondays and Tuesdays – after declaring a pay impasse with the government. They are demanding the RTGS equivalent of US$540 per month for the lowest paid worker, up from the present US$199 at the official exchange rate.”

This is all politicking, they are all after cheap brownie points and they know it. The issue of poor civil servant wages has going on for donkey years. The country’s health and education services have all but completely collapsed after decades of under funding.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. All of our political opportunists know and yet not even one of them would dare admit it much less do something about it. Zanu PF members know they are MPs precisely because the party rigs elections and they have all played their part in the rigging.

"The salaries are inadequate, especially for those in rural areas," said Chikomba MP Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu-PF).  

"The current exchange rate is US$1 to 130 RTGS, that's the rate that is being used by most shops… We expect immediate action to be taken on the matter, even if it means minister Mthuli Ncube be called into the House to answer questions and to address the matter.

"At one time, the minister said that the government has a surplus. How can you talk of surplus when the standard of living for the majority has not improved and they are earning peanuts?"

Is this not the same Joseph Chinotimba who spearheading the violent invasions of commercial farms in Zimbabwe. The same Chinotimba who headed the Zanu PF operatives in Buhera in 2008 responsible for the harassment, beatings, rape and brutal murder of Chokuse Mupango, popularly known as Nyoka.

Zimbabwe is a pariah state governed by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who have rigged elections to stay in power these last 41 years and counting. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s once promising economy in ruins. And as long as long Zimbabwe remain a pariah state there is no hope of any meaningful economic recovery, no hope of teachers, nurses, etc. being paid a living wage.

So, in the interest of national economic recovery and paying teachers a living wage; would the right honourable Joseph Chinotimba, Zanu PF MP for Chikomba, demand the implementation of democratic reforms, the pre-requisite for holding free and fair elections and ending the curse of rigged elections and pariah state?

Well, demanding that the pariah state should pay teachers a living wage without first demanding the dismantling of the pariah state is as nonsensical as expecting blood from a stone!

"An incentive is something which is given to somebody in order for that person to be motivated or to be encouraged so that they do more. The sad reality right now is that our civil servants don't have anything. Their salaries are paltry. They cannot do anything meaningful with their salaries," added Thokozani Khupe MDC-T.

The opposition MPs are no less hypocrites than their Zanu PF counterparts. Dr Khupe was a senior MDC leader in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one token democratic reform to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. This was the best chance the nation has ever had to end the dictatorship and MDC leaders wasted it. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office and the rest is history.

Ever since the GNU debacle MDC and the other opposition opportunists have participated in the flawed and illegal elections knowing fully well that doing so would give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. They also knew that Zanu PF was offering a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition; these they found irresistible!

Zimbabwe’s economic recovery comes with a price tag – meaningful democratic change. Neither the Zanu PF MPs nor the opposition MPs, want democratic change and free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF MPs know they will reform themselves out of office.

MDC MPs know they lost the chance to implement reforms during the GNU and an informed electorate will punish them for it. They have since settled for the scraps Zanu PF gives away to entice the opposition to participate in rigged elections and thus buy legitimacy.  

“Zanu-PF, MDC MPs unite over civil servants pay” They are united in paying lip service to economic recovery because they all know this will come at the price democratic change and holding of free and fair elections: a bridge too far for all of them!