Teachers protest over unpaid salaries

Zimbabwe Times
By Owen Chikari
5 July 2009

MASVINGO – A group of about 50 teachers took to the streets of Masvingo on Friday, while protesting over the non-payment of salaries by the inclusive government since its formation in February this year.

david-coltartEducation Minister David Coltart
Teachers in Zimbabwe and the rest of the civil service are currently entitled to earnings of $100 in monthly allowances. The protesting teachers say they have not been paid the promised allowances since the beginning of the year when Zimbabwe dollarised its economy.
The teachers mainly women marched through the streets of the city on Friday waving placards and singing songs.
They later gathered at the Ministry of Education offices at Wigley House where they handed over a petition addressed to the ministers of Education, Sport and Culture, Senator David Coltart and Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, the Minister of the Public Service.
In the one-page petition the teachers gave the inclusive government two weeks to solve their grievances, failing which would boycott classes every Thursday and Friday.
“Concerned by the government’s failure to pay us salaries and failure to address our grievances we therefore give the government two weeks to address our plight, failing which we will not report for work every Thursdays and Fridays,” reads part of the petition.
“We demand that we be paid a monthly salary of USD 500 and that our working conditions be improved.”
In the petition the teachers also alleged that their colleagues who were re-engaged following an amnesty by the ministry have not received their salaries and allowances since March this year.
In February the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture granted all teachers who had left the civil service a blanket amnesty in which they were allowed to re-apply for re-engagement without any questions being asked.
The ministry had realised that nearly half of the teachers had left the profession and left the country for greener pastures.
“We demand that teachers who were re-engaged by the government should unconditionally be paid their allowances and salaries with immediate effect”, said the petition.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe PTUZ President Takavafira Zhou said on Friday that his organisation had organised the demonstration.
“We are saying teachers should be paid decent salaries,” said Zhou. “The $100 allowance they are getting is too little to cater for their daily needs.
“We demand a monthly salary of USD 500 and that all teachers who were re-engaged after leaving the civil service should be paid their dues.”
PTUZ says the burden to pay teachers is now being shouldered by parents who are forking out money to pay teachers so that they come to work.
“We realise the right for children to learn but we are saying parents are not our employers,” said Zhou.
A teacher at a rural school said some parents, who could not afford cash payments, were offering the teachers crops such as maize and sweet-potatoes as payment for their services.
Neither Coltart nor Mukonoweshuro could be reached for comment on Friday.
Mukonoweshuro is, however, on record as saying he would address the problem of salaries within the civil service once more funds were made available.