TOUGH TIMES . . . Civil servants want better waes from President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai's administration

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s public workers on Friday embarked on an indefinite strike to press the cash-strapped unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s government to hike salaries. 

APEX council chairperson Tendai Chikowore was forced to bow down to pressure from angry civil servants – gathered at the Harare Gardens for feedback on the negotiations between government and the civil service unions – and announced the beginning of the job action.

“The so-called employer is clueless on how to solve the income and prices equation as demonstrated by the pathetic offer tabled at the negotiating table,” said Chikowore.

“When the GNU (government of national unity) was formed we rejoiced as we thought it was the panacea to our socio-political and economic challenges. But today we wonder whether this was a correct premise. Today there is bickering over this and that and the bickering seems to be more about the scramble to high-spending lifestyle of luxurious vehicles and many other symbols of wealth. The Zimbabwe civil servant has been neglected for a long time . . . Time has come that as workers we unite against capital. We are our own liberators.”

The APEX council brings together civil service unions – Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ZIMTA), Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ), College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (COLAZ) and Public Service Association (PSA) – and represents public workers in the negotiations with government.

The strike that is expected to shutdown public schools, hospitals, courts and other official departments will be a major test for the power-sharing government.

Chikowore had suggested that civil servants continue to work until after the unions’ meeting with the Public Service Commission in Bulawayo on Monday but the frustrated and long-suffering government workers would have none of that.

“There has hasn’t been a positive development to improve the offer the government gave us (in January) which has been rejected,” said Chikowore.

Civil servants haved asked government to pay $630 a month for the lowest paid worker from the current $120. But the cash-strapped government has offered $122 in February which would be raised to $134 in April.

“Government must meet our demands as we are tired of their mockery of paltry dog-tax disguised as salaries. Now is the time to shame the devil,” said Chikowore.

She said the government was trying to distract the civil servants from engaging in a productive strategy to have their grievances addressed.

“Forget about the media reports that seek to distract us from our action. What you decide now will stand,” she said.

The no-holds-barred meeting attended by close to 2 000 civil servants saw ordinary public workers dispute their leaders’ proposal to shelve the strike “until the appropriate time”.

“There is no more appropriate time like this. The time is now and we must act now. We are sick and tired of these things and we must confront this devil now. These are desperate scenarios that call for desperate measures. Enough is enough,” said of COLAZ president David Dzatsunga.

Other civil servants confronted and silenced Chikowore after she had hinted that they should wait for the outcome of an afternoon meeting and the Bulawayo meeting the union leaders were going to have with the government.

“Don’t sell out, we know you will be tricked and nothing will come out so as from now on we have no reason to go to work. If you can’t stand for us then you would have sold out,” said one visibly emotional civil servant before they erupted into song and dance protesting their leaders’ position before Chikowore relented and declared; “Zvido zvenyu kunyanya” (Your wishes first).

PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said they had no other alternative besides confronting their employer.

“This is the only language the government understands. They stretched our patients for a long. Enough is enough,” said Zhou.

The strike action is the first against the power-sharing government between two long-time foes who came together last year to end a long-running political crisis.

Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro when reached for comment said: “I am yet to get that information (of the industrial action). I am hopeful the deadlock will be broken. Our civil servants should earn a decent salary but we have financial constraints that they must consider too. We are going to meet the workers representatives and see if something positive can come up.”

But the government, which is already using 60 percent of total collected revenues on salaries, says it does not have money to fund any significant wage hikes.

Since the formation of the unity government, teachers had returned to work while state hospitals were admitting patients again as nurses and junior doctors resumed their duties.

But failure by the unity government to convince major Western nations to provide direct financial support could see basic services such as health and education collapse again as civil servants strike or, as before, resume the exodus to foreign countries where wages and livings conditions are better. – ZimOnline