Teachers lash out at ministers, to strike

July 7, 2009

New Zimbabwe.com
By Lebo Nkatazo
7 July 2009

ZIMBABWE’S unity government was accused of a “careless squandering of goodwill” last night as teachers threatened a new wave of strikes for better pay.
One union said its members would also stop attending classes every Friday, starting this week, in protest at the alleged harassment of its members by Zanu PF militias.
Both the Progressive Teachers’ Union (PTUZ) and the bigger membership Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) gave the unity government up to the end of this month to swap their monthly US$100 allowances for substantive salaries.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti is expected to announce civil servants will be paid salaries starting this month in his mid-term policy statement on July 16.
But the PTUZ accuses the minister of failing to consult.
PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe said Biti had forgotten they were “together in the struggle”. There was no difference between him and his Zanu PF predecessor Herbert Murerwa, Majongwe charged at a press conference in Harare.
“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,” Majongwe said.
ZIMTA took aim at Education Minister David Coltart, dismissing his promises that he will attend to their demands was a “hoax”.
In a statement, the union said a meeting of its national executive committee on June 26 and 27 expressed concern that the review of the teachers’ remuneration was long overdue and that “the much talked about roadmap by Coltart was nothing but a hoax, and a diversionary tactic”.
The union said the government’s engagement of the donor community to pick up the bill for teachers’ salaries was “indefinite and undependable”.

It added: “ZIMRA will call for a nationwide strike if demands are not addressed. This is the last resort should current engagements with authorities fail to yield results this July.
“ZIMTA members have exhausted their patience and will soon find it irresistible to embark on industrial action. The national executive will be unable to restrain the educators’ backlash.”
The unity government says it needs US$8,3 billion over the next three years to stabilise the economy and meet its obligations after a decade-long recession.
Ministers fear a teacher walkout will spark more industrial action by the rest of the 140,000 civil servants who are also paid US$100 allowances monthly.