THE escalating levels of poverty among underpaid civil
servants is forcing government workers to engage in criminal activities in
order to survive, a teachers’ union has said.
George Mushipe, president of the Zimbabwe Democratic
Teachers Union, said this after pictures of a man believed to be an acting
headmaster caught stealing maize cobs from a yet to be identified place in the
country.
It has since emerged that the “maize thief” is a science
teacher at a private school in Waterfalls on the outskirts of Harare,
identified as Jonathan Chatikobo.
But Mushipe said the incident was not an isolated case, but
several teachers and other members of the civil service had been implicated in
criminal activities, mainly thieving, fraud or robbery due to economic
hardships since their salaries are now sub-economic.
“While this can be an isolated case, I can tell you there
are many. Apart from him, we have two others who have committed suicide, and we
then said, never underestimate the level of poverty among teachers in Zimbabwe
and the entire civil service,” Mushipe said.
“We don’t condone thieving, but here is someone who had no
other options except pass through someone’s field and help himself.”
Of late, there has been an increase in cases of police and
military personnel being involved in robbery and fraud.
Several soldiers and police officers have been implicated
in illegal mining including forming part of the dreaded machete gangs,
popularly known as MaShurugwi, killing and robbing people in mining
communities.
Late last year, a police radio communication revealed that
some female police officers were visiting Mazowe’s Jumbo Mine soliciting for
transactional sex due to economic hardships.
Government workers now earn a minimum of about $3 000 after
the salary increase effected last month, but the figure is still too low —
equivalent to about US$100 on the parallel market — at a time the prices of
goods continue to rise using the greenback as the reference point.
Government workers, particularly doctors and nurses, are
leaving the country in droves in search of greener pastures mostly in South
Africa, Europe, the United States and other countries.
Added Mushipe: “We are trying to locate him, but not only
him, but we will try to use his case to bring to the attention of government
how their employees are suffering out there.
“We had teachers in Mbare and Epworth (in Harare) who we
had to assist after they were chucked out of their lodgings. They couldn’t
afford rentals. There are a lot of such cases, but this one has been brought to
the attention of many Zimbabweans through social media.” Newsday
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