In
2018 a Zimbabwe teacher was paid US$540 per month in US$. Since then, government
paid them the equivalent in local currency but never bother to adjust the
amount to keep pace with inflation.
The
year-on-year inflation rate was as follows:
2018 10%
2019 255%
2020 557%
2021 92%
2022 30% (projected)
With
all the wage increases over the same period the teachers now earn US$ 35 in
local currency down from US$540 in 2018.
It
is little wonder that the teachers have been asking for the wages to revert to
the 2018 level and paid in US$ or paid in local currency but pegged to the US$
at the black-market exchange rate.
Government
has offered 20% wage increase on the current wage paid in local currency plus
add on benefit such as allowing to teachers to import cars duty-free. A sick
joke! How many teachers earning US$35 per month can afford to buy a car?
It
is no surprise that teachers rejected the insulting government offer and voted
with their feet – stayed home, missing opening day for the new academic year.
Government
has responded and suspended without pay for three months all teachers and
officials who did not turn up for work when schools opened on Monday.
There
is no denying that this government has thrown the teachers, nurses and other
civil servants without the same political muscle as soldiers and others overboard.
The teachers’ wages have been allowed to slip further and further back compared
to the soldiers and Police. Why? They are both human beings with the same basic
needs of food, shelter, transport, health care, education for their children,
etc. They are both employed by the same taskmaster and paid from the same pot!
Besides,
the whole country knows that corruption remains a serious problem, the nation
is losing US$1.2 billion per year through gold smuggling. Zimbabwe has the
wealth to afford all its people a decent living if only something is done to
end the criminal waste of resources through mismanagement and corruption. After
the 2017 military coup, President Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance to
corruption”! It is now four years since he made the promise, he must deliver on
his promise or ship out!
The
idea that government can continue to cut wages of teachers, nurses, etc. – this
is what inflation does, it cuts one’s wages – and still expect the worker to
continue working regardless is absurd. If the fuel tank is empty, the engine
will stop; this is exactly what the teachers mean by incapacitation.
Suspending
incapacitated teachers will make no difference, it’s flogging a horse so weak
and feeble it cannot stand much less carry the bloated rider!
Many
teachers and nurses have been forced to leave the profession and/or country to
seek a living because of the poor wages and working conditions in Zimbabwe. Many
of those still working would have left too if there were other employment
opportunities; with unemployment rate a nauseating 90% plus, there are no jobs.
Lest
we forget, this teachers’ strike is disrupting the student’s education over and
above the many disruptions cause by corona virus these last two years. All
these students will be forced to the next grade even if they learned very
little these last two years because education is a conveyer belt that does not
stop. This is a whole generation that will be playing catch-up and many never
will catch-up and realise their full human potential. Never!
Government
has kicked the problem of slave wages for teachers, nurses, etc. down the
street for donkey years it is crunch-time, address the problem. Government is
to blame for this crisis and suspending the teachers is not going to solve
anything. Enough is enough!
Tendai Biti calls Mnangagwa a thief!
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years. Not even one! And ever since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have participated in elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Tendai Biti and company are participating in these 2023 elections knowing fully well with no reforms, Zanu PF will rig the elections denying the ordinary people a say in the governance of the country. He is burning the midnight oil because he is desperate to get back on the gravy train and damn the consequences.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that without free and fair elections nothing will change and wake up to the reality that Tendai Biti and company no longer care about free elections, they have their own agenda.
We, Zimbabweans, are a naïve and gullible lot; we will believe anything we are told by our leaders even if it is contrary to what we can see with our own eyes.
ReplyDeleteMugabe never tired of eulogizing about mass prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji!” and many Zimbabweans believed him even in the face of growing mass poverty.
Mnangagwa came up with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra and promise of the country attaining upper middle-income status by 2030, Vision 2030! Again, many Zimbabweans believed him with individuals like journalist Hopewell Chinono seizing the baton and run with it, asking the nation to give him a chance.
There was absolutely nothing to suggest anything had changed from the pariah state of Mugabe days. Other than the dictator being removed and replaced by his henchman and a shaffling of the deck nothing had changed; Zimbabwe was still under the iron grip of corrupt, incompetent, and murderous thugs who were rigging elections to stay in power.
Zimbabwe’s health and education services collapsed years ago and we pretended not to notice! There is a skills shortage of 80% in such areas as engineering, agriculture, education, health and the other sciences. It beggars belief how anyone would believe in Vision 2030 when the country was failing to educate its children generation after generation.
Zimbabweans must wake up and deal with the problem of criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources with the sense of urgency the matter demands!
@ Mbofana
ReplyDelete“Yes, we have all encountered such spoilt brats - who seem to think the world revolves around them, and if they do not get their way, they throw a huge nasty tantrum.
It is always an embarrassing sight - which makes me wonder how some parents raise their children, as such are traits of gross indiscipline and waywardness... which, in all likelihood (and left unchecked) will result in an uncontrollable and possibly violent adult, who finds it hard to manage life's challenges.
Anyway, let us say, it is not the child who throws this despicable and disgraceful tantrum - but, the parents themselves, who shamelessly break things up in the supermarket, and horrendously beat their child to a pulp - simply because he refused the toy they had chosen for him!
Now, that would be a most disturbing and shocking sight - wouldn't it?”
What we have here is the classical case of the wolf accusing the lamb, down-stream, of mudding the water! We have a government that has enjoyed absolute power for 42 years and counting and has ridden roughshod of the people denying them their freedoms, rights, and human dignity. This is a regime, the abusive husband beating and kicking the wife screaming “Shut up! I said shut up!” when the only other sound is her coughing out blood!
The big issue before us all is how long are we going to tolerate that these taskmasters, spoilt brats, can deny us even the right to die with some semblance of human dignity – they demand we die on our assigned post and in silence like sheep in a slaughterhouse!
Presiding over the historic signing ceremony of performance contracts for Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries, as well as chairpersons and chief executive officers of public entities and local authorities, the President said his administration is determined to serve the masses and ensure attainment of Vision 2030 of becoming an upper middle class economy.
ReplyDeleteThe second cycle of performance contracts was yesterday extended to Cabinet ministers including Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr John Mangudya, with results of permanent secretaries who were spotlighted under the first cycle being made public in the spirit of transparency and accountability.
Apart from Cabinet ministers, the second cycle of the performance contracts has been expanded to also cover chairpersons and chief executives of public entities and local authorities as an expression of the Second Republic's determination to wholeheartedly serve and deliver a better quality of life to all the citizenry of this country.
This is just the wittering of someone who cannot accept that his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra is long dead and with it the hope of the economic recovery. Only an idiot would believe the country who health and education services have all but completely collapsed can attain this Vision 2030, upper middle-class economy.
How ironic that the country is in the middle of the teachers’ strike after decades of failing to pay them a living wage and with no hope of doing so because the country’s economy is itself in total meltdown – and the head of the head continue wittering about vision 2030 oblivious of the reality on the ground. Vision 2030 is not just a mirage but an impossible one – a mirage in pinch darkness!
“This is the Hon Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in Zimbabwe. She has just unilaterally suspended teachers, and by extension, education in public schools. We all ask her, which public schools do your children go to? Are their teachers also paid RTGS$20k?”
ReplyDeleteThis government is seeking to contain inflation by paying teachers and nurses slave-wages and in doing so forcing the complete collapse of these services. A nation with no health care and education services is doomed!
Before independence every white child had "O" level education and 80% plus would go on to get higher qualifications. For the black children things were different 40%, at best, got primary education, 5% or so had "O" levels and 1% or so had university degree.
ReplyDeleteAfter independence the number of students increased in leaps and bounds. By the late 1980s 90% of the children had primary education, 60% went on to do "O" levels and 30% had degree education. The only tragedy with Zanu PF's education drive was that it all about quantity and no quality. The regime increased the student intake without providing a corresponding increasing in funding for staff and infrastructure. It soon became impossible to supply quality education even with the best will in the world!
In 2019 Chiredzi South constituency the best performing schools at all levels from grade seven to "A" levels had a 3% pass rate with many posting 0%. The schools in other area were the same.
The quality of education has gone down so much that it is common to find a "O" and even "A" level student who does not know what a verb is! Any one who completed primary school before 1980 will know was a verb is and a lot more besides. For decades now, the regime has pretended to pay the teachers and they, in turn, have pretended to work and the end product is students who don't even know what a verb is after 11 to 13 years of formal education! What a criminal waste of human and material resources!
It is laughable President Mnangagwa keeps wittering about Zimbabwe becoming a upper middle income nation by 2030, vision 2030. Yeah right! Develop the country will an ill educated population when you ruined it with and educated one! Of course, Zimbabwe is in serious trouble.
Below are some of the resolutions:
ReplyDelete"A 20 percent review on gross emoluments (basic salary + transport allowance + housing allowance + representation where applicable) backdated to 1 January 2022 and to be paid on February 2022 pay date.
"Introduction of US$100 salary to be paid in hard currency across the board with effect from 1 March 2022. This is up and above the ZWL$ salary and continuation of payment of US$75 Covid-19 Allowance for civil servants, payable in hard currency with effect from 1 January 2022. This brings the total USD monthly pay component to US$175," read the statement.
On non-monetary incentives, the Treasury had said that teachers will benefit from payment of school fees by Government for up to three biological children per teaching family with an upper limit of $20 000 per child per term to be paid directly to the school.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who have rigged elections to stay in power. The criminal waste of human and material resources of the last 42 years have crippled the country’s once upon a time robust and promising economy. It has been very difficult to do business in the country hence the reason why many companies have closed sending unemployment soaring. Many basic services such as health care and education have collapsed, and millions now live in abject poverty.
As long as Zimbabwe a pariah state, civil servants will remain on slave wages; government pretends to pay them and they pretend to work.
President Mnangagwa keeps wittering about Zimbabwe becoming an upper middle-income nation by 2030, vision 2030. This is just a mirage by starlight! Zanu PF has destroyed the country’s economy with a well-educated populous and now claim to rebuild it from ruins with an ill-educated population after generation of denying our people a decent education.
At least three pharmacies have been shut while four managers lost licences for selling expired and unregistered medicines to unsuspecting patients, as the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) gets tough on such offenders.
ReplyDeleteExpired medical products can be less effective or risky due to a change in chemical composition or a decrease in strength.
Certain expired medicines are at risk of bacterial growth and sub-potent antibiotics can fail to treat infections, leading to more serious illnesses and antibiotic resistance.
The expiration date is a critical part of deciding if the product is safe to use and will work as intended.
MCAZ Acting Director-General Mr Richard Rukwata said the cancellation of licences and closure of business in respect of the offenders will lapse around November this year.
He warned other operators against selling unregistered and expired drugs saying the authority recently adopted a new policy of naming and shaming offenders
Zimbabwe’s health care services has all but collapsed!
The implications of the Kenyan elections on Zimbabwe could be far-reaching, especially if Odinga wins. With South Africa’s relations with Zimbabwe icy of late over protracted political and economic problems north of the Limpopo, Chamisa could get more allies in the region, including Zambia, Malawi and Kenya.
ReplyDeleteHichilema and President Lazarus Chakwera’s victories in Zambia last year and in Malawi in 2020 respectively changed the electoral narrative in the region where incumbents hardly lost power through polls; they usually rig or steal the polls.
“There is grave concern in government about this because the geo-political shift flowing from elections in Malawi, Zambia and possibly Kenya might boost the Zimbabwean opposition’s electoral prospects. It is a well-known fact that Hichilema is close to Chamisa and Biti; so his ascendancy is a political and electoral advantage for them. There are fears Hichilema could help to fund or mobilise resources for them,” a government official told The NewsHawks.
Nelson Chamisa and company had the opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to stop the Zanu PF vote rigging juggernaut once and once for all. They sold out and failed to implement even one reform and, to make matters worse, have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Zanu PF is not going to lose an election in which it has carte blanche powers to rig; that is never going to happen. Chamisa and company know that and are banking on the economic situation forcing the people onto the street in violent protest out of desperation.
Zanu PF would be history if MDC had implemented the reforms during the GNU. The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MDC into power on the promise the party will deliver the democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship individuals. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, it is none other than MDC leaders who are keeping Zanu PF in power and are stifling all efforts to have reforms implemented so there can be peaceful change. MDC leaders are the ones angling for violent change! What a nightmare!
VOTER registration is off to a sluggish start. If the apathy continues, this country will be reduced to a wasteland. It appears young people lack important information on voter registration.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people — in both state institutions and civil society organisations — who are tasked with enticing youths to register are themselves not young people.
This is a false narrative of the political reality in Zimbabwe! Zanu PF has been winning elections in the past not because of voter apathy but because the party has carte blanche powers to rig elections. How suspected opposition supporters have tried to register to vote only to find their way barred, register but find their name missing in the voters’ roll, etc., etc.? Zanu PF supporters have found no such problems and some are even able to cast multiple votes!
Zanu PF is rigging these elections and to pretend otherwise is insane!
MORE than 45 nurses last year left Bulawayo City Council-owned clinics, a situation that has greatly affected the local authority's health delivery services.
ReplyDeleteThis has seen the local authority's health service department embarking on a recruitment drive where they aim at employing 50 more nurses to fill in the gaps. Council requires a staff complement of 186 nursing staff to operate at full capacity, but of late the city has been operating with staffing levels of between 49 and 61 percent. According to the latest council report, the 45 nurses that left the local authority's employ last year were either due to resignation, retirement or death.
Anyone who accept a job offer with the council or government will only be doing so whilst looking for alternative employment; no one can live on the slave-wages offered!
“They think what was done in Zambia by Hakainde Hichilema will happen again here in Zimbabwe. Go and tell these opposition guys that if a person decides to walk to China, he will arrive first before the opposition reaches state house,” Mnangagwa said, drawing acclamation from the animated crowd.
ReplyDelete“The CCC will never rule, what is CCC. They are sell-outs being used by other countries. We can never allow them to get anywhere near power,” Mnangagwa said.
“Harare has been in the hands of MDC for 20 years and it is in a mess. They are useless, rubbish is not being collected, raw sewage is flowing everywhere yet they continue saying CCC.”
“There is rampant corruption and stealing in councils, and now we have ways to remove them from council through voting, just your X on Zanu PF, over half of Harare council officials are facing theft and fraud charges,” Mnangagwa said.
Zanu PF has enjoyed carte blanche powers to rig elections. MDC/CCC had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and end the dictatorial powers during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, and they failed to get even one token reform implemented. Ever since the GNU debacle CCC have claimed to have "winning in rigged elections strategies"! All hot air because none of the strategies have ever worked.
How anyone, anyone at all with half a working brain, would believe in the oxymoronic nonsense of winning in rigged elections, especially after 42 years of Zanu PF rigging, beggars belief!
By participating in these flawed elections CCC is giving legitimacy to Zanu PF and Chamisa and company get a share of the spoils of power as their reward. Indeed, Chamisa and company did not implement even one reform in five years of the GNU for the same reason - greed.
"You are demonstrating to the whole world that the country should be run by its people and not puppets. Zimbabweans should elect their leaders. I am aware that when we had primary elections there were challenges, however, the ruling party has no place for crooks. If you are among such people, stop that behaviour forthwith because you joined the party that was always there before you and a party that has its rules."
ReplyDeleteCalling the opposition puppets is the Zanu PF leaders’ signal to its ruthless thugs to attack; the equivalent of a splashing a hyena with goat blood the incensed clan will smell goat and attack regardless of what their eyes say!
In his doctorate thesis on policing in post independent Zimbabwe former Police Commission Augustine Chihuri admitted the Zimbabwe Republic Police consider the opposition to be the enemies of the state, as if the Police were enforcing a court order in which the opposition have been charge, tried and convicted, and the Police was enforcing the court judgement!
It is not only the Police that have their “attack!” order; ZEC, the Courts, war veterans, Zanu PF militia, etc., etc. will all hear the order and response accordingly.
The tragic irony is the MDC opposition had the golden opportunity during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the reforms and end the dictatorial control Zanu PF had on the Police, etc. Chamisa et al failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with trappings of high office and the rest was history.
Indeed, Chamisa and company are the ones giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy by participating in these flawed elections for the sake of the few gravy train seats bribe!
According to Citizens’ Coalition For Change, Makuzva was attacked while conducting a voter registration exercise at Makarara Business Centre.
ReplyDelete“CCC candidate for Ward 13, Wedza District, JAMES MAKUZVA, was assaulted badly by 6 known Zanu PF thugs on Friday at Makarara Business Centre where he had gone to mobilize residents to register to vote. A report was made to @PoliceZimbabwe but no arrests have been effected.
WE DEMAND @ZECzim REFORM,” Citizens’ Coalition For Change said in a statement.
The party also challenged the Zanu PF regime to implement electoral reforms before the coming polls.
MDC/CCC leaders must stop hiding their real intention - i.e. selling out by participating in these flawed elections no matter what for the sake of the gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering - by giving nonsensical statements. "We demand reform!", they say and yet everyone knows that they are hell bent on participating in these elections without even a token reform implemented.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends must stop treating everyone the same way they treat their wildebeest herd party supporters who have no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold out. Chamisa and company are only paying lip-service to reforms because they are the ones who failed to implement even one reform in five years!
Mnangagwa was cocksure his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" mantra was going to revive the Zimbabwe economy but after four years even he must know by now that is is dead in the water. The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown and the ordinary Zimbabweans who are at the coal-face of the soaring economic hardships are getting restless and are desperate for change. Desperate people do desperate things and that is what Mnangagwa is rightly worried about.
ReplyDeleteThe economic situation and millions of people living in abject poverty are socially and politically unsustainable. Change is coming, Mnangagwa knows it and fears it!