Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:30 pm
Civil servants are not happy with Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s failure to urgently deal with the issue of their remuneration, with a teachers’ union calling him a human epidemic.
Recently, Ncube announced that government workers will get their 13th cheque, come November this year.
However, the Apex Council, an umbrella body for all civil service labour unions, said that bonuses were an entitlement. Council spokesperson, David Dzatsunga said:
_While in our considered view, a bonus is an entitlement and thus needs not be touted, the priority right now is the urgent need to restore the seriously eroded value of incomes._
The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has castigated Ncube for being “a human epidemic”. The Union’s president, Takavafira Zhou said:
Mthuli Ncube never ceases to surprise us and is fast revealing that he is a humanvepidemic…
It is Mthuli Ncube’s warped neo-liberal policies that have caused great poverty and penury among the teaching fraternity.
Indeed, Ncube’s austerity measures are a prescription that treats the disease by killing the patient.
It has ensured prosperity for elites and immiseration, disarticulation and marginalisation of teachers.
… His misconceptions and outright lies that teachers are happy are analytically unproductive, vogue and vacuous.
He must be reminded that he has virtually destroyed Zimbabwean economy, ruined the lives of teachers, in particular, and Zimbabweans in general.
He has unilaterally added his name to several teachers’ enemies by his reckless statements and misplaced priorities that are tantamount to cold and calculated education vandalism. He must just shut up if he has nothing to offer than insult teachers.
