ZimOnline
by Chenai Maramba
14 July 2009
MAGUNJE – Temporary teachers in Mashonaland West province’s Hurungwe district have pulled out of schools after working for the past five months without receiving their allowances from the government, ZimOnline has learnt.
The teachers accused education ministry officials at Magunje growth point – some 245 kilometres north-west of Harare – of “bungling and failing to submit their (contract) forms to Salary Services Bureau (SSB) on time”, resulting in the teachers going for almost half a year without receiving the monthly US$100 allowance government pays all public workers.
The SSB processes payment for all government employees centrally in the capital Harare.
”I have given up continuing to work on voluntary basis as I can not get even the allowances given to all civil servants for the past five months and officials here are refusing to let me have my forms so that I can take them to Harare,” said a frustrated untrained teacher from Zvimonja Secondary School, a further 50km from Magunje, speaking on condition he was not named.
Ministry of Education officials at Magunje admitted that there were hundreds of contract forms gathering dust at their offices after they were returned from the SSB because they had some information missing.
”It’s unfortunate that hundreds of contract forms of both trained and untrained teachers are gathering dust here as they need to be completed with vital information but nothing is being done to have them delivered to concerned individuals,” said one source at Magunje.
He added that some forms had been lying at the offices since February after they were returned from the SSB so that the applicants could fill in details of their foreign currency accounts following government’s introduction of use of foreign currencies.
Hurungwe district education officer Muchineripi Ndewere refused to comment on the matter and provincial education officer Sylvester Mashayamombe only said ”Mashonaland West has enough trained teachers” before hanging up the phone.
However Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou admitted that some teachers including those on full time employment contracts were yet to get their allowances from government since the beginning of the year.
”We have at least 10 000 members including trained teachers who are yet to get their allowances because of bungling by district education officers around the country. While government is yet to pay salaries we thought the allowances must be uniform and disbursed quickly to the concerned teachers,†the PTUZ boss said.
He added that most of those affected were those who were re-assigned when they rejoined the education ministry after absconding due to political and economic challenges afflicting Zimbabwe over the past decade.
Last week teachers said they would boycott classes every Friday in protest against government’s failure to adjust their salaries and vowed to intensify the industrial action if government did not address their concerns.
The teachers are demanding a salary of US$454 per month, up from the current US$100 a month.
Education Minister David Coltart was not immediately available for comment on the matter.
While Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe’s unity government formed in February has managed to reopen schools and hospitals, its failure to attract aid from rich donor countries has left the administration struggling for cash to meet day-to-day running costs.