An influential Zimbabwean teachers’ lobby group on Tuesday said it was launching a protest for better pay and work conditions for the country’s estimated 110Â 000-strong teaching staff.
“From January 31 to February 2 teachers are directed to embark on a go-slow while we extend an olive branch to the government to engage us,” Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the radical Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said in a statement.
The majority of primary and secondary teachers are paid Z$100Â 000 (US$400) a month.
“We want better salaries and working conditions that would be in tandem with inflation rates and the poverty datum line,” Martin Mukanyi, acting chief executive of another lobby group, the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZTA), told AFP.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic recession characterised by four-digit inflation, massive unemployment and chronic shortages of food and basic foodstuffs. The poverty level is estimated at around 80%.
Mukanyi said: “We are pressuring the government to come to a round table with us to discuss the plight of teachers … There is a lot of dissatisfaction on the ground.”
He said the ZTA, the biggest teachers’ organisation in the country, had already “drafted issues” to thrash out with top education authorities.
But Majongwe warned that if the government “snubs our magnanimous gesture, a full throttle strike shall commence on February 5 … Teachers are hereby directed to sit in staffrooms to allow for self-monitoring and also help us expose enemies and sell-outs of the struggle.”
Junior doctors in Zimbabwe began a strike five weeks ago, demanding a salary raise from US$224 to about $1Â 000 a month. — AFP