Education Minister and teachers meet as strike action threatened

SW Radio Africa
By Alex Bell
29 April 2009

An ultimatum set by the country’s leading teachers unions, for government to produce a proper salary structure for teachers, ran out on Thursday. This has set the scene for an anticipated strike next week, when schools reopen on Tuesday.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) have both threatened mass action for the start of the new semester next week, because of poor salaries. Teachers are demanding, among other things, a salary increase of up to US$2300 a month, a highly unrealistic figure for a continent where state teachers generally earn very little. The Finance Ministry has already indicated it cannot meet even the minimum demand of an increase to US$780 per month, because of a lack of government funds, and a strike as of next week appears imminent.

Shortly after the unity government was formed in February, education and finance officials stepped in to end an ongoing strike, by offering teachers and other civil servants a US$100 monthly payout, on top of their local Zimbabwe dollar wages. The government promptly introduced a voucher system to make good on its promise, with civil servants able to redeem the vouchers for goods in participating shops. The vouchers also became redeemable for cash. But with the economy completely dollarised and the local dollar being abandoned in favour of foreign currency, the US$100 payout has not been able to keep teachers and their families financially afloat in an increasingly expensive market.

Education Minister Senator David Coltart conceded on Wednesday that the teachers threatened strike action would be a serious blow to the stability of the unity government, as encouraging teachers back to work was the coalition’s first perceived success. Coltart has also previously indicated that the government is unable to meet the salary demands of teachers, effectively declaring a stalemate in the education sector. He has admitted that the current salaries are inadequate, but has said that the government’s “hands are tied.”

The Education Minister met with both teachers’ groups on Thursday in an effort to avert next week’s strike.

Leading the movement against the government is the ZANU PF friendly ZIMTA, that for years has refused to challenge the Mugabe led government on various issues, despite earning pittance wages before February. Many critics say this sudden change of heart and desire to be involved in a wage protest, could be part of ZANU PF’s game plan to try to discredit the MDC.

The MDC, as part of the unity government, now has the heavy responsibility of sorting out both the collapsed Finance and Education ministries. The Education ministry cannot meet teachers’ demands for higher salaries until there is no money in the government coffers, due to years of chronic mismanagement and corruption by ZANU PF. And understandably, foreign investors are holding back development aid to the unity government until real change is visible on the ground, change that is yet to come and change that is still being blocked by Mugabe.

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