adminZimbabwe’s drafting of a new constitution, a referendum to test its validity and acceptability, general elections and if the threat is implemented the resettling of Zimbabweans whom South Africa says it will expel en masse for failing to regularise their stay during the first phase of normalising their residence in that country.
In this pen’s mind, therefore, Mr Charamba’s remarks imply that no additional load should be piled up on 2012 but should instead be directed to the negotiating table as a pathway to resolve any other contentious issues, be they in governmental, parastatal, civic or private institutions. In the matter in point, after a warning one-day strike last week, the civil servants might not have embarked on a five-day industrial action from Monday had the parties concerned stayed on at the negotiating table, however wide, their differences.
Regrettably, however, an apparent indifference to the need for both sides to keep their heads together, as shown by the Government’s representative in Mrs Lucia Matibenga, also Minister of the Public Service, incensed the civil servants who had hitherto appeared patient enough, to lose their cool and trust in the Minister, resulting in the longer work stoppage.
After failing as earlier promised to meet the civil servants to present the government’s position on salaries that are the bone of contention, the Minister was quoted in this newspaper on 18 January as saying: “I am not willing to discuss anything with anyone anytime soon or whenever.”
Surely, such a remark at such a delicate period of negotiations will appear to a right thinking person as nothing short of a snub and public servants are right thinking people, otherwise they would not be in schools producing tomorrow’s leaders and discharging equally important duties in government offices across the state.
In light of this, this pen is humbly persuaded to suggest that leaders whose attitude is averse to mediating conflicts to the sweet or bitter end, as the case might be, and who also display an attitude bordering on the insensitive, should be kept away
from the negotiating table and be replaced by those who regard the other side as equal partners, however riddled the road they walk might be.
Indeed, the economic path that Zimbabwe is walking is riddled by illegal western sanctions that have resulted in company closures and loss of jobs to thousands of workers with those still employed in commerce and industry living from hand to mouth, like lowly paid civil servants among those who struck this week for better pay.
That being the case, our loyal civil servants should also take cognisance of the economic hardships the country is facing because of inadequate funds, and not behave as though they live in an oasis in a desert. Of course, their demands for a reasonable reward for their labour is as genuine as can be, but they have to raise their heads buried in the sand of their grievances to realise that in no way has their employer the magic wand to harvest money from trees to redress their plight.
Be that as it may, the employer should not conceal any of its cards on the negotiating table. The civil servants are most likely to moderate their demands if shown the skeletal position of the fiscus at this moment in time. No, this pen does not in any way suggest that finance Minister Mr Tendai Biti should mount the rooftop and publish a measly balance in the kitty to all and sundry. Alas, any information exposing the country’s weak economic state can only inspire those baying and salivating for Zimbabwe’s liver to do their damnedest to try to bring the government down.
But by the same token, Treasury should not withhold from the civil servants the country’s true financial position and then run in a helter-skelter when the fire starts raging to draw water in perforated cans in a bid to extinguish the conflagration.
That is what happens now when Mr Biti rushes to the US government asking it to rescind the sanctions it has imposed on diamond mining companies in Zimbabwe in a bid to make our economy “scream” and hopefully cause the regime change that the
Americans and the British and their cousins in continental Europe are dying to effect in this country in their desperate attempt to remove Zanu-PF and President Mugabe from power in preference for those in the inclusive government whom the imperialists fondly kiss.
Minister Biti represents MDC-T which Americans back in the coalition government. And that party invited the imposition of sanctions which some MDC-T leaders have publicly said they still support. As such, it will surprise many in this country and elsewhere should obdurate America not dismiss Mr Biti’s letter as a mere smokescreen but instead grant his wish and the wish of the rest of Zimbabweans for revenue from sales of diamonds to start rolling in without let or hindrance.
Therefore, the response by Washington to Biti’s request being unmistakably predictable, it is logical and imperative given the mounting pressure on the government by public servants for a handsome pay packet.
Online Reporter