By Dr Takavafira Zhou.
(News of The South) – Zimbabwe Presidential spokesperson’s explanation of salary discrepancies between armed forces and civil servants leaves a lot to be desired. To assume that civil servants, particularly teachers would accept the flimsy explanation from Charamba that teachers with more than 5 ‘O’ levels, ‘A’ level, three years of training at College or University, many even with Masters and Doctrate Degrees, who received an allowance ranging from $1200 to $1400 from the President of the country while soldiers who have recently finished six months of training got $5700 and long serving members $7000, as normal is unbelievable.
The definition of this normalcy would be coming from a dictionary of fools. What Charamba is simply confirming is that there is a marked difference between soldiers’ salaries and that of other civil servants, particularly teachers. We certainly dont begrudge the salary of soldiers, as it is still less than the October 2018 US$550 earned by teachers. But Charamba must never take teachers for fools. Salaries in government are paid in terms of a person’s qualifications, years of experience, responsibilities and promotion. By implication Charamba would want to convince us that soldiers are more qualified than teachers and have greater responsibilities than teachers. Such homelitic bellicose is not expected from a person of Charamba’s calibre and more so given his responsibility in gvt and to the President of the country. One wonders whether this is his personal opinion or the President’s brief to him. If it is his personal opinion then it must be thrown outside the window, but if its President Mnangagwa’s view, it is unfortunate coming from a person who enunciated the dawn of a new era following the demise of Robert Mugabe’s regime. This oppressive generosity is unacceptable Mr President. Mr Charamba, dont urinate upon civil servants and tell them it’s raining. What collective bargaining are you talking of when you are aware that gvt has since 2013 ignored section 65 of the constitution in order to perpetuate collective begging under an obsolete and archaic Statutory Instrument 141 of 1997? What is in Apex Council other than a moribund organisation used for firefighting antics by gvt.
Charamba must be reminded of the importance of harmonious civil military relations. His insinuation that President Mnangagwa’s allowance is merely paternalistic and legitimate despite the discrepancies between soldiers and other civil servants is a security threat in a country where the majority of civil servants have tested positive to poverty.
To our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in the army, be reminded that national security can only be guaranteed with harmonious civil military relations. The new dispensation’s trajectory of dividing the army from the general populace is not palatable. We salute your responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of our nation. But that responsibility must never be abused to alienate you from the general populace of Zimbabwe. The army, just like other civil servants, remains underpaid and its recent reward must never be a justification for dividing it from the generality of Zimbabweans.
To President Mnangagwa, our humble submission is that you have unnecessarily alienated our army from the rest of the poor Zimbabweans. This is not because you have pampered our army, but you have robbed other civil servants in order to slightly make the reward to the army better than civilians. The issue of equity in the distribution of national resources remains a noble principle. Civil servants cannot continue to tighten their belts when others are loosening. Teachers have no immunity to poverty and the earlier the gvt addresses their plight the better. The inherent challenges faced by teachers must never be reduced to the 31 July Movenent as they predate this movement. It would be dangerous to silence teachers by this labelling when they have genuine grievances that must be addressed as of yesterday by responsible leaders.
Once again we reiterate that reopening of schools cannot take place without guaranteeing the health and safety of students and teachers, let alone the welfare of the latter. There is no one that wants pupils back in schools more than teachers, but we want to open schools safely and also ensure that gvt respects the welfare of teachers. Any shortcuts and disrespect of health, safety and welfare of teachers would be resisted by teachers in their quest to live and keep their heads above water.
Venceremos
Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)
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