adminLovemore Kadzura
POLITICAL upstarts and opposition parties must not capitalise on the challenges being faced by rural teachers to gain undeserved mileage to launch political careers and revive waning political fortunes respectively.
Rural teachers have warned opposition forces, both old and new to stop hijacking civil servants, particularly rural teachers’ plight for their selfish political gains.
In the past weeks, there were attempts by some opposition figures masquerading as rural teachers representatives to stage demonstrations in the country which all spectacularly flopped as all the teachers ignored them.
The country’s oldest and largest rural teachers’ representative body, the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers’ Union, has distanced itself from a group of opposition members who pretended to be rural teachers and attempted to stage a demo.
Founding president of the union, Mr Martin Chaburumunda, said they believed in a round table talks approach rather than engaging in running battles on the streets.
Mr Chaburumunda further added that teachers were educated, professional and reasonable members of the society who are held in high esteem by the communities they operate in and therefore could not be seen stooping so low to throw stones and hurling insults at the employer when negotiations have not failed.
“We want to make it crystal clear that all those who are vocal calling on teachers to down tools because of late payments of salaries and uncertainty of our 2015 bonuses are not even teachers. We know what their motives are. They want to use our plight to gain political mileage. The politicising of labour issues is not the way to resolve issues.
“Yes, rural teachers have very serious concerns which need urgent attention from the employer, but we don’t need to politicise everything. The employer has never shut the doors on us. We need to continue to engage in robust and frank negotiations over our conditions of service.
“Gone are the days when the labour movement was used as a political tool. This is the 21st century where no-one is willing to fight for a cause he will not reap rewards from. Teachers are educated people who are highly respected in the society and they also behave exemplary to the pupils they teach. If we became violent, rowdy and vulgar, then what message are we sending to the pupils who look up to us for inspiration?”
Mr Chaburumunda said all rural teachers, despite challenges, have reported for duty at their stations and lessons are going on smoothly as usual.
He also called their employer to address some of their concerns such as rural allowances, accommodation, clean water and electricity among others.
“I can confirm that all our members have reported for duty and learning is going on well. As rural teachers we did not call for a strike or a go slow as we believe we have a duty to uplift the lives of rural children through education.
“However, we are still calling on Government who is our employer to improve our working conditions. We want the employer to re-introduce the rural allowances, provide adequate accommodation, clean water and electricity. As the union representing rural teachers, we will keep on pressuring Government to attend to our concerns,” he said.
Online Reporter