TEACHERS still carry the hope that one day, the government will hear their cries.
They say their salaries have been reduced to a pittance.
Today, they earn around US$260 and a ZiG5 000 component — be it senior, junior or student teacher.
The grading system that used to be there in the past is gone.
It doesn’t exist anymore.
Just seven years ago, the lowest earner was getting US$540.
The situation is appalling.
Our educators are burdened by the fact that they can barely lead a decent life.
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They are struggling to put food on the table, to pay bills, to pay for school fees for their children, to raise enough transport fare for the month to and fro work.
Many are drowning their sorrows in cheap, illicit beers, which is causing a menace to the country’s mental health institutions.
“We have been reporting for duty on the understanding that our salaries shall be reviewed regularly until they are back to pre-October 2018 level,” said Educators Union in Zimbabwe secretary-general Tapedza Zhou.
“This reneging on salary reviews is an act of betrayal and provocation to the whole teaching fraternity.
“All teachers should unite towards the various calls to confront the employer for a living wage.”
The teachers are not alone.
Nurses, doctors, police, many other government workers are also struggling.
Cases of suicide are on the rise.
We have heard how government workers, youths and even older generations are frequenting betting shops to try their luck and raise a few shekels.
In March, a Gweru police officer committed suicide after losing borrowed money while chasing his sports betting dream.
All this is happening because capitalists are now in government, desecrating all labour laws that protected employees in the past.
The authorities have ears that hear, but are choosing to ignore the simple advice.
Politics is politics, the economy is the economy.
Sadly, private employers have now copied the government's stencil.
They are firing employees willy nilly, retrenching as they please.
From industry, to construction workers, media professionals, you name it, some employers are unilaterally changing contracts of their workers claiming they want to lower costs.
A top steel fabrication company in Southerton, Harare, this week gave many of its employees retrenchment letters all in the name of cutting costs.
Those who had reached retirement age were the first casualties.
How pathetic!
The capitalists have come to the government and some of them own these private companies, where they are employing these dirty tricks so they can get away with murder.
To make matters worse, the authorities have dismally failed in making the Zimbabwe Gold, a currency introduced last year after the Zimdollar had significantly lost value against major currencies, the currency of choice.
Quite a number of service providers are rejecting it.
The authorities have chosen to ignore the basics of the economy.
They employ dirty tactics to cover up their tricks.
They are opting to employ feja feja economics.
It’s not that they are ignorant, no, but they are turning a blind eye to realities on the ground.
In all this man-made confusion, they are lining their pockets and not making efforts to improve the livelihoods of government workers or their dependents.
They are giving each other multi-million dollar tenders, some which are not completed, many of them with inflated figures, all because they have an insatiable appetite to fill their pockets.
