Mutasa accused of inciting teachers’ strike

Zimbabwe Times
20 May 2009
By Our Correspondent

Harare – The Public Service Association, PSA, the umbrella body representing civil servants in the country has applied for police permission to march in protest at failure by the government to address their remuneration concerns.

In the PSA application, which is addressed to the officer commanding Harare Central, and a copy of which we have in our possession, the march is expected to be ‘peaceful’.

The application which was signed by Edmore Tichareva, the PSA executive secretary, states: “The procession is intended to show the responsible ministry, the Public Service, the concerns of civil servants which have not been addressed or resolved as the national joint negotiating council faces collapse and negotiations have not taken place since January 2009.”

The civil servants are also riled by the fact that the government, through the Minister of education, Senator David Coltart and the donor community, are giving teachers preferential treatment.

Two weeks ago, Coltart announced that children of government school teachers would no longer pay school fees while all teachers in the civil service would not have to pay bank charges when withdrawing their US$100 monthly allowance.

The PSA had given the government until May 15 to improve their working conditions, failure of which would result in work stoppage.

In a statement issued last week, the PSA said: “We have been patient enough to make this inclusive government work and be able to produce results that will be appreciated by SADC and the world at large but it looks like the government is ignoring the machinery that is supposed to produce results for the inclusive government to work.”

Meanwhile, from Bulawayo our correspondent reports that the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Secretary General has accused two top Zanu-PF officials of inciting teachers to go back on strike.

Speaking at a Bulawayo Agenda-organized public meeting Majongwe said he was shocked that Didymus Mutasa, the former Security Minister and Jeremiah Bvirindi, a Zanu-PF Budiriro losing candidate in the March 2008 parliamentary elections, were going around the country’s provinces pushing teachers to go back on strike.

He said this was surprising since Zanu-PF was the same party which used to urge the police to arrest and brutalize their members for embarking on strike during the era of President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
“Mutasa and Bvirindi are pushing our members to go back on strike,” said Majongwe. “These are the same people who used to kidnap arrest and torture teachers for embarking on strike. This shows that Zanu-PF wants to destroy the new unity government with the MDC.

“There are not happy to see MDC raising funds to pay teachers and build the economy. They can see MDC is becoming very strong in government by raising funds to rebuild the nation they destroyed.”

Majongwe said, “PTUZ will give the inclusive government a chance and are not going to call for another teachers’ strike soon”

Speaking at the same meeting, Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) president, Clever Bere said there was no democracy in sight as long as President Robert Mugabe was still in government.
“Mugabe is still behaving the same way,” Bere said. “Zimbabweans should not dream of a New Zimbabwe coming soon as long as (Mugabe) is still in government. There are still arrests, torture and detention without trial of MDC activists, journalists and human rights lawyers, but we are saying we have a government of national unity.”

Bere also said “few students from Matabeleland region were currently enrolled at universities and colleges around the country because the former Mugabe regime had not bothered to develop the region and there were few high schools in the region”.