Strike reveals rivalry among teachers

Zimbabwe Times
3 September 2009

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s teachers launched a countrywide strike which coincided with the opening of schools for the third term on Wednesday.

But the uncoordinated strike action has exposed divisions between the two major teachers’ unions along what observers say are political lines.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) president, Tendai Chikowore, which called for the strike, said her association’s members heeded the call which saw teachers affiliated to other trade union groups going to work as normal.

The teachers are demanding a review of their salaries and allowances which they want to be adjusted progressively towards the poverty datum line – last month quoted at US$502 – by December 2009.
Currently teachers now earn US$155, itself an increase on last month’s flat allowance of US$100 paid to all civil servants since the formation of the unity government last February.

ZIMTA has also asked government to relax requirements for teachers returning to the service.
The teachers had left the profession to seek alternative sources of income in the informal sector and outside the country following Zimbabwe’s 10-year-old political and economic crisis.

ZIMTA also wants all outstanding applications for affected teachers immediately processed and their salaries paid within 30 days of their reinstatement.

Education Minister David Coltart says the demands by the teachers are unreasonable, given the current state of the economy in which government is spending nearly 70 percent of its monthly gross revenue towards the payment of civil servants’ salaries.

“The demands by the teachers are unreasonable,” Coltart said.

“We do not dispute that a salary of US$155 is not enough. But they have to consider it is in fact the same salary being given to all civic servants. These are part of the consequences we have lived through in the past 10 years.

“They should look at the plight of the children who have suffered most. They cannot be allowed to continue losing the most important thing in their lives which is education.”

Coltart, who was appointed minister from the Arthur Mutambara-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and is regarded by many as one of the hardest ministers in the government of national unity, said his ministry would continue to persuade the teachers to return to work.

But it is the simmering divisions among teachers’ unions that have revealed the continued polarisation among Zimbabweans of different political beliefs.

Coltart told The Zimbabwe Times Wednesday the strike was heeded by ZIMTA members while other teachers unions such as the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) reported for work.
ZIMTA, which commands a countrywide membership of 60 000, is believed to be aligned to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF while PTUZ is sympathetic to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.
A total of 16 000 teachers are affiliated to PTUZ.

Since the formation of the inclusive government, which has seen the MDC taking centre stage in redressing the country’s battered economy, the PTUZ has softened its hard-line stance towards government’s failure to remunerate its members accordingly.

On the other hand, ZIMTA has instead hardened its stance towards the same government amid allegations that Zanu-PF officials have urged the organisation to adopt a hard-line stance in order to undermine the MDC.

Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of State in the President’s Office and a top ally to President Mugabe last week accused the MDC of lying to Zimbabweans that the relative stability in the country’s economy was a result of its efforts. Mutasa is among Zanu-PF officials previously alleged to have incited teachers to go on strike.

Meanwhile, Chikowore said Tuesday her association would not approach other teachers’ groups to harmonise their approach towards government.

“It is ZIMTA which is in a crisis because there is a strike,” she said, “It is us who came up with the demands. It is wise for us to engage the Ministry (Education) independently and resolve the issues which affect us.”

ZIMTA is said to have boycotted a crisis meeting which was called by Coltart Tuesday. Representatives from the other teachers’ groups attended. Chikowore denied the teachers’ unions were rivals.

She however said, “It would not have made sense for us to attend the meeting and start fighting in the meeting because we are divided in terms of our demands.”

PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe said his organisation would not go on strike because they understood the current status of the economy in the country.

“A strike is something that is intended to achieve something at the end of the day,” said Majongwe.
“Currently it would be futile to go on strike as this will not change anything. The fact of the matter is that the government is broke.”

Members from his union have however been boycotting classes on Fridays since July also in protest against poor working conditions.