Zimbabwean News You Can Trust
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) President Obert Masaraure has distanced himself from the newly launched Job Sikhala’s national democratic movement, insisting he is not part of it.
Masaraure, who was the Chairman of the “Free Job Sikhala” movement when the former Zengeza West MP was incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, applauded Sikhala for launching a new political project, adding the vibrant politician would remain his close friend.
In an interview with 263Times Wednesday, Masaraure said Sikhala was welcome to work with organizations affiliated to him, but not on a personal level.
“At a personal level, I’m not going to work with him, but if he wants to work with organizations that l belong to, he can consult the leadership of those organizations,” said Masaraure.
“I’m leading ARTUZ, am part of the Zimbabwe solidarity movement, so if l come elsewhere and do whatever Job Sikhala is doing, l then stretch myself and end up not getting any results.”
The militant ARTUZ leader also said teachers were going embark on a full blown industrial action starting from next term, describing the recent salary increment by government as an “insult to teachers”.
“We are going to take the strike action, among other things, starting from Wednesday this week, but second term it will be a different game, as teachers are not going to open schools until salary issues are resolved,” he said.
Masaraure stressed they were to use different strategies to force the government to pay a decent living wage to teachers.
“We have a situation where teachers are failing to pay for basic needs like examination fees for their children, so we won’t take that and we are going to fight the government by any means necessary to force them to provide a decent living wage,” bemoaned Masaraure.
Obert Masaraure is the National President of ARTUZ, which works to defend the labor rights of teachers and to protect schools, students and teachers from political interference and manipulation.
