admin“The salaries are so meagre that they are causing a lot of frustration among us and poor results for students. Absenteeism among teachers is back after the problem appeared to have been overcome soon after dollarisation. People are beginning to absent themselves from work to do menial jobs to earn an extra dollar. We are miserable; we are a laughing stock. A teacher living like this?”
He is in his late 30s, has up to 15 years’ experience and a family in Bulawayo. As a family man, he wants to visit his wife and kids in town as frequently as he can, but now only does that once a month. Most of the time he is in Inyathi, saving up for a round trip later on, often on payday.
“What is most frustrating,” he added, “is that yes the Government is taking its time to review our salaries, but we as civil servants, are defeating our own cause by fighting among ourselves. What for? Selfish interests which don’t benefit anyone but unionists at the top.”
Unionists in the civil service have for 12 months, been wrangling for positions in the Apex Council, the top structure that represents government workers in the National Joint Negotiating Council, which negotiates with their employer.
In terms of Section 3 (2) (b) of the Public Service Act the Apex Council must appoint nine members to represent civil servants at the NJNC. But with the Apex Council in disarray, it has been unable to second the nine members to the NJNC. Thus no legitimate salary negotiations have taken place between the Government and its workers since February last year.
“They are wasting our time. I am shocked that nine people are sacrificing the welfare of more than 240 000 civil servants,” said the Inyathi teacher.
The chaos started when Apex Council elections held in August last year yielded a contested leadership led by Mr David Dzatsunga, of the College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (COLAZ). While Mr Dzatsunga was elected president, Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) got the secretary-general’s post with the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ) landing the treasurer’s.
The Public Service Association (PSA) which represents civil servants other than educators rejected the outcome saying the elections had been riddled with irregularities. The PSA is unhappy that the Apex Council constitution was wrongly amended. The union’s president, Mrs Cecilia Alexander boycotted the elections.
She said at the time that the old constitution prior to its amendment, said it was the time for her organisation to assume the presidency of the Apex Council. In addition to that, an amendment that said each union must second two representatives to Apex Council elections was done within 14 days of notice instead of 40. She has maintained that the Apex Council led by Mr Dzatsunga is illegitimate.
The Minister of Public Service, Ms Lucia Matibenga agrees with her.
Early last month, the council suggested that the Government carries out salary talks with the old executive led by Zimta president, Mrs Tendai Chikowore, on a temporary mandate as it resolved its in-house fight. That proposal was rejected. Instead, Minister Matibenga proposed that the apex body re-appoints the Chikowore-led executive for another two years, instead of three months. Mr Dzatsunga has rejected this.
Zimta chief executive, Mr Sifiso Ndlovu acknowledged a crisis in the civil service, its negative effect on salary negotiations and worker welfare on the ground. He said PTUZ and TUZ joined the NJNC through unorthodox means and are the causes of the instability prevailing in the civil service.
“This is regrettable from the point of view of the ordinary worker,” he said.
“I can say what we see today has its roots going back to around 2000. We now have new players in the system and avenues were created for them to be registered. The Apex Council was traditionally constituted by two organisations, the PSA and Zimta, but we have seen the emergence of the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe. Their emergence brought about a lot of contestation for positions. We said ‘ok’ let’s have them in under established rules. That was around 2005 or so. When the inclusive government came, we have had certain unions supported by some parties and they (TUZ and PTUZ) used that situation to gate-crash into the NJNC yet they were supposed to be in Apex Council first.”
He said Zimta agreed to have TUZ and PTUZ incorporated because they were holding salary negotiations to ransom “so we said members cannot suffer because of politics.”
Civil servants complain that their salaries of between $296 and $400 are far below the poverty datum line of about $600. They want the Government to increase them. However, with the ongoing impasse among their unionists, no one is pressing their case.
In the run-up to the August elections, TUZ, PTUZ and COLAZ suggested that a constitutional amendment be made providing that each union be given two seats each in the Apex Council, regardless of the size of their membership. Zimta, said Mr Ndlovu, agreed to this but it later emerged that the three associations ganged up against it and PSA to elect themselves into office.
“Zimta is the biggest by membership, yet we were going to have an equal number of representatives with PTUZ which has 12 000, TUZ which has 6 000 and COLAZ which has 1 000 members. The three combined, don’t make up even half our membership of 40 000. PSA refused to have this arrangement in place. Zimta’s goodwill in allowing this clause has been squandered by these small unions. Now what we are saying is let’s go back to the drawing board and get neutral people, lawyers, the Government or experts in human resource management to facilitate dialogue on how to break this impasse.”
He acknowledged that the two-members per union clause was included into the Apex Council constitution prior to elections, but is not enforceable because “it has not been adopted by the Apex Council conference.”
He said while all civil servants are equal, it must be borne in mind that membership size must count as well. This, he said, means that teachers must lead and “we are not making any apologies about this.”
Mr Dzatsunga said his executive is legitimate. He said it came into office after it was felt that the Apex Council needed to be inclusive and that the old one had been in office for eight years which he said was too long.
“There was a suggestion to amend the constitution and everyone agreed, including PSA and Zimta,” he said.
“PSA and Zimta had been in office for too long exchanging the leadership of the Apex Council, which action is not provided for in the constitution. They gave us nothing but inept leadership. The rotation was a gentlemen’s agreement and had nothing to do with the Apex Council constitution. Then came the elections, I was voted for by 13 representatives of unions out of 14, but PSA said “no”. Mai Alexander said ‘this is my turn to be president and even wanted to deliver an acceptance speech. We said “no”. . . . I also want to emphasise that Zimta, which appears to be distancing itself from the elections, cannot successfully do so because they gave us the venue (Zimta House) for the elections and they voted for us.”
He accused the Government and PSA of conspiring against civil servants because each time the latter objects to an effort to break the impasse, the former agrees.
“There is that view, but there is only one Apex Council. It is now clear though who does not want civil servants to be given money; it is PSA. At the same time, the Government is dishonest to take advantage of this situation to deny us better salaries,” said Mr Dzatsunga.
With regards to the minister’s suggestion for government workers to re-appoint the Chikowore-led executive, Mr Dzatsunga dismissed it as “preposterous” arguing that the proposal would overthrow a democratic process that elected him.
“You tell me that Zimta say they don’t want so-called small unions to lead the Apex Council? That is again ridiculous because it is like saying Cape Verde, with its population of 500 000 people cannot chair the African Union. When we are in Apex Council we are equal; we represent unions.”
Mr Dzatsunga admitted that the leadership contest is disadvantaging members, a position shared by other unions.
“As a way forward,” said Mr Ndlovu, “we are writing to the ministry to say, pay what you are able to pay. Our constituency is suffering; they can’t continue suffering because of politics.”
Online Reporter