FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube claims government has done a lot to improve the welfare of teachers and insisted that their demands for US$540 salaries were misleading.
“Coming to salaries, there is also a fallacy and we keep
hearing a figure of US$540, but that is not correct because back then, the
effective salary was in fact half of that. It was about US$275 and I can prove
it,” Ncube told Parliament on Thursday.
“Nurses have similar slew of non-monetary benefits as well.
Surely, we have really applied our minds and done a lot to support our
hardworking civil servants.
“I just wanted to debunk the thinking that we have not
reached the kind of October 2018 levels of salary because even that figure is
actually fallacious.”
Teachers and other civil servants are pleading
incapacitation as they push for United States dollar-indexed salaries as the
local currency continues to lose value.
Government has said it is unable to meet their demands, and
has reacted by suspending teachers that go on strike.
But teacher unions said they will respond to Ncube with a
crippling strike action.
“The statement (by Ncube) is reckless and hinges on
arrogance. It is a fact that the cost of living is rising both in foreign and
local currency terms,” Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president
Obert Masaraure said.
“Teachers will demand justice by going on full-blown strike
if the government fails to resolve the salary crisis.”
Meanwhile, government has released $2,68 billion towards
the payment of tuition fees for teachers’ children.
“Details of 103 556 children of some 52 171 teachers from
all the 10 provinces have so far been identified by schools as eligible for
this benefit,” the Public Service Commission said yesterday. “Parents whose
children’s details have been provided will shortly receive the benefits in
respect of term one, which will be followed by the disbursement by government
of fees due for term two.”
In February, government pledged to pay tuition fees for
children of teachers with a maximum three children per teacher getting $20 000.
Newsday
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