Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
secretary-general, Raymond Majongwe (RM) says teachers are dying and committing
suicide due to stress-related illnesses brought about by overworking and poor
remuneration. In a wide-ranging interview with Standard senior reporter Blessed
Mhlanga (BM), Majongwe said teachers would not be reporting for duty when
schools open on Tuesday, saying the 97% salary increment offered by government
to civil servants was a mockery to their dignity.
Below are the excerpts from the interview
BM: Teachers have threatened to down tools when schools
open on Tuesday, has anything happened to change this position?
RM: As far as my reading goes, I have seen two unions Zimta
and PTUZ taking a very clear position and communicating to the Public Service
Commission and to their members that they will not be turning up for duty not
because they are going for a strike, but purely because they are too
incapacitated to do so. As for the PTUZ, we are coming from a congress that
took place from the 3rd to the 5th of January and it’s from that congress that
the members said we have been trying to engage government but government has
not been forthcoming. Government has not been engaging us in good faith and as
far as we observe the obtaining situation, going back to work is like saying to
government all is well. We need to be saying to government address the plight
and suffering of the teachers and listen to the concerns of the teachers.
BM: Government has said its coffers are dry and it has no
money, yet you continue to press for more?
RM: The real problem now is we have a country where the
leadership live in so much opulence and extravagance and people see it. You
open any newspaper and it says one Ministry of Defence official disappears with
$20 million and the $20 million is coming from somewhere nobody knows. A
teacher is saying give me $5 000 or $6 000 for me to look after my family and
save the country but you can’t give them, then we have a problem. The other
person who is the wife of the vice-president has access to US$1 million that
they can take from a drawer, what then is there for all of us who are not in
proximity to power and proximity to people who make decisions and proximity to
the availability of these resources? So we are simply saying we need to use our
labour. We need to use our collective force to make our demands and that’s why
teachers are saying come opening day, parents and pupils alike must really show
solidarity with the teachers. The real question is: Why would a teacher go and
teach the children of the rich when theirs can’t go to school?
BM: Can you paint the picture of how a teacher is managing
at the present moment?
RM: Before the government came up to say schools are not
allowed to increase fees, which ultimately they will, the basic charge for a
boarding school is not less than $10 000. Here is a government employee who is
being paid $700 — money that they got in December. They went through Christmas,
they went through New Year, they had to look after their children, extended
family from the same $700. They are expected to use that money to go to work,
as well as pay school fees, pay rentals and I think that is just asking for too
much.
BM: Government has offered you 97% salary hike, what does
that mean to you in terms of how government values teachers?
RM: It just shows that we have people who have no idea what
teachers are going through, because if you are going to offer us 97% of
whatever you are going to give us, it means you have almost doubled what we are
saying is insufficient. What we are saying is we live in a country where goods
and services have gone up by 5 000% and you give us a 97 % increase. In other
words, you are actually making sure that you are worsening our plight because
the moment people hear 97% increases, prices and services are going to go up
and the truth of the matter is it’s just not workable. I am just going to give
you two lines for the survival of teachers; for instance a family of four, they
need $600 a month for bread alone. That is one line only and you give that
person $2 000 it means ultimately will be $1400 richer and what does $1400 do?
You need transport. Transport for one person who is the breadwinner is close to
$600 a month. What of the kids? Because we are here to work for our kids, to
make sure that our children survive. As far as we are concerned, the 97%
actually worsens our situation.
BM: Government is known for wholesale dismissals of
striking workers like they have done with striking doctors. There are a lot of
teachers who are unemployed out there; don’t you fear that your members will
lose their jobs?
RM: The most important position that we are stating is that
we are not going on strike. Teachers are simply saying we are incapacitated and
as far as the law says, we want to see whoever, because you don’t need a gun or
a military man to tell us that you are going to fire us. The most important
point here is teachers are simply saying give us what is due to us and we will
report for duty. We are not on strike, we are incapacitated. The argument that
government wants to use the reserve army, the reserve soldiers, the teachers
who are unemployed out there, the most important point is that these teachers
they will bring on board if ever they are going to, they will behave exactly
like we are doing because it will only take them two months for them to realise
that they are being taken for a ride. We implore those teachers to refuse to be
used as substitutes for a failed system. Teachers must realise they are worth
something. They can’t honestly be told that they are going to replace people
because they have been dismissed for crying out loud for better salaries.
Government must be made aware that they will be courting trouble if they
proceed to dismiss teachers because they are asking for better salaries. They
have an election to consider and economic volatility in this country is
increasing every day. Economic and political frustration is increasing every
day, better they engage people and they give us what we are worth because we
are offering our labour to the country for the benefit of the nation. We need
solidarity from everybody, the kids, the parents and everybody out there. Why
do people want to justify that they will sit and smile as government behaves
like a bull in a china shop? You can’t tell me that somebody who is asking to
be paid
$6 000 for them to report for duty is asking for too much.
BM: You have met with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and if I
quote you well, you said he listened to you, has that meeting brought any joy
to teachers?
RM: The most important point that you put across is that
“he listened to”, but now we want him to go beyond listening. We want to see
the action. We brought to him the plight of the civil servants, we brought to
him the plight of teachers. We brought to him issues that shocked him, but
nothing has been done. As far as we are concerned, salaries have remained
unreasonably low. There is no evidence that if you work hard you will be
rewarded for it. There is also need to recognise that we have teachers who have
gone to school who hold high qualifications, who are now holders of masters
degrees, but that is not being recognised. Teachers are just bunched together.
It’s like government simply wants to frustrate its employees. We want the
president to do more than listening.
BM: You have been linked to the opposition, especially the
teaching profession and some believe this is why teachers are not well looked
after. What’s your response?
RM: That is nonsensical. PTUZ and Raymond Majongwe are very
apolitical and non-partisan entities. For instance, let me start with myself,
the last time that I went to meet Mnangagwa, the social media and many entities
of the media were awash with claims that Majongwe had become Zanu PF. This is
the tragedy that we have always been suffering; that if I go to engage Zanu PF,
I become Zanu PF. Only recently we had a congress and Nelson Chamisa came and
there was a huge backlash from people saying we are now MDC. Now how can I be
in two parties at the same time? If there are people in Zanu PF, let them be
rewarded. Let’s see the soldiers being given money so that we say yes, they are
partisan and they are pro-Zanu PF and they are being rewarded for it and
possibly we will consider to go and join Zanu PF. There is just no political
will to improve the plight and welfare of civil servants in this country. It’s
neither here nor there, even if all teachers were going to be Zanu PF today I
don’t want to believe that government would go and address their plight. There
is just no political will. Teachers have been labelled enemies of the state for
no reason yet teachers are non-partisan — they are patriotic and I want to
believe government must listen to them.
BM: What are the main challenges that your members are
facing owing to poor remuneration?
RM: The levels of attrition, deaths and suicides among
teachers have increased as far as we have noted as a union. Only last week we
lost about two or three teachers. Some commit suicide, some just died out of
depression and these are simple things that we are saying to President
Mnangagwa make sure that you address the plight of teachers so that they serve
their country well and everybody benefits. A country that does not respect its
own teachers is a country that does not progress because a teacher is to the
mind what a doctor is to the body. Standard
0 comments:
Post a Comment