Zimbabwe BlackBook
26 January 2010
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro is due to hold make-or-break talks with civil servants in a last-ditch bid to avert a general strike.
Workers have set a strike date of next Tuesday unless their demands for higher salaries are met.
Ministers are desperate to avert a general strike, which would take Zimbabwe back to the bad old days of the last decade.
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, who is Minister of Public Service and a member of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, is scheduled to meet union officials on Tuesday.
Many teachers are on a go-slow at the moment because their salaries are only around R1500. They want four times that amount.
The head of the Progressive Teachers Union, Raymond Majongwe, told Eyewitness News he had a meeting with Prime Minister Tsvangirai.
He said he is hopeful some sort of compromise can be reached.
However the cash-strapped government is in a difficult position.
Education Minister David Coltart’s suggestion was to ask state utilities to cut their fees so that teachers’ salaries are not gobbled up quite as quickly.