SW Radio Africa
By Lance Guma
10 July 2009
Over 200 teachers under the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) took to the streets of Masvingo Friday morning, demonstrating for a review of their US$100 allowances. Earlier in the week the PTUZ called for a class boycott beginning July 10 and this is to be repeated next week on the 17th July. President Takavafira Zhou said the campaign was code-named Operation Friday/Chisi/Inzilo and further boycotts would stretch to the 23rd July if government did not increase their allowances.
On the first day of the campaign Zhou led the group of teachers from the PTUZ offices into the city centre. They took a petition to the provincial offices of the Public Service Commission. For a country accustomed to riot police beating up any protestors it was surprising to see police actually escorting the demonstrating teachers on the streets. The unions want teachers salaries raised from US$100 to US$500 saying this was well in line with figures released by the Central Statistical Office stating that an average family required over US$500 to survive.
Newsreel spoke to the Acting chief executive officer of the larger, Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), Sifiso Ndlovu, and he told us their union would only call for a strike at the end of July if government ignored their demands. Ndlovu said they were committed to the process of current negotiations through the National Joint Negotiating Council. He also said they intend to make Education Minister David Coltart and Finance Minister Tendai Biti hold onto their promise that salaries would be reviewed. Ndlovu denied speculation they would demonstrate in the middle of July, before Biti’s budget presentation, to put pressure on government.
The relationship between the coalition government and teachers has been very shaky for the past few months. Two months ago government averted a strike by promising to review teacher’s salaries and offered them incentives, like free education for their children. The slow pace in reviewing the US$100 allowances has however strained relations. PTUZ Secretary General Raymond Majongwe this week lashed out at Biti saying; ‘The minister of Finance is now behaving like we were not together all along. He is behaving like a Catholic priest giving pieces of bread to a woman with closed eyes.’
The government has meanwhile sought to assure teachers that they are engaging the donor community to encourage them to pick up the bill for their salaries. The unions however say such pledges are ‘indefinite and undependable’.