Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) has urged the responsible authorities to conclude the salary issue and further desist from the tendency of throwing teachers and the rest of the civil service into cyclic industrial disharmony.
In a statement today, ZIMTA National President, Mr Richard Gundane said teachers are struggling to pay for their kids’ school fees as their salaries are not enough.
“The salary levels earned in January 2022 is inadequate to support transport needs for commuting to various stations in the rural areas and to support daily commuting by teachers in urban areas.
“Educators have failed to pay school fees and buy uniforms for their children, let alone failure to subsist as families, a scenario that has pushed educators to moonlight,” ZIMTA said.
Gundane added that educators have no way of going back to assume their duties without meaningful salary increase.
“The response of the government in the last NJNC meeting did not give an aorta of hope, instead it squandered all the goodwill that the educators had credited the negotiating platform with.
“Teachers now postulate that the $75,00 Covid-19 allowance was a make believe gesture meant to pull wool over their faces so that the state would appear it cared about teachers’ welfare.
“Teachers’ patience has been overstretched and now feel provoked, underrated, thought off and abused, a strong feeling of disclaim has been generated on the negotiating structures,” added Gundane.
Schools are set to reopen on February 7 following a decrease in new COVID-19 infections.
