The Herald
1st May 2008
Harare — Government and teachers’ unions held a crisis meeting yesterday over salaries following a decision by teachers not to report for work when the second term begins next week.
A further round of talks will be held on Monday where donors are expected to join in the discussions.
Education, Arts, Sports and Culture Minister David Coltart and Acting Finance Minister Elton Mangoma, who is also Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, represented the Government while teachers were represented by the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association and the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe.
In an interview after the three-hour-long meeting, Minister Coltart described the talks as constructive.
He said they deferred the talks to next Monday to allow the donor community, who include Unicef and other co-operating partners, to participate and explore ways in which they could assist Government pay teachers.
“We had a constructive meeting with the trade unions of teachers today. There will be another meeting to be attended by Unicef and other representatives of the donor community where we hope they will enter into a discussion to pay incentives for teachers,” Minister Coltart said.
“I am going to chair the meeting and hope the donor community will commit itself in principle to pay their allowances. It was a very productive meeting that I had with them.”
Minister Coltart said no figures were discussed at yesterday’s meeting.
“Minister Mangoma explained to the teachers the difficulties the Government is facing and what is being done,” he said.
Contacted for comment, Zimta secretary-general Mr Richard Gundani also described the meeting as positive.
He said Government had agreed to look into issues they had raised like exempting teachers from paying school fees for their children.
Mr Gundani said they had also complained about bank charges on foreign currency accounts, which ranged between 10 and 15 percent.
Minister Mangoma said banks were in breach of an agreement with the Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe which stipulated that no commission would be levied on teachers’ accounts.
“The minister has also agreed to review school fees because the current ones are unaffordable. Teachers would be exempted from paying school fees for their children as a stop-gap measure,” he said.
“Government said at the moment they had no capacity to increase the US$100 monthly allowance and the only route was to engage the donor community.”
Zimta resolved at its annual congress in Bulawayo last weekend that teachers would not report for duty next week. The association demanded a review of the US$100 allowance, which they said was inadequate to meet basic requirements like rent and transport costs.
Government has urged civil servants to be patient over salaries, saying these would only improve once the economy starts ticking and the tax revenue base expands correspondingly.