RBZ Governor Gideon Gono: The Bush Economist who impoverished the national working class is the one Civil servants must confront head on with demands for pay increments as he knows where the national wealth was stashed by Zanu PF and not the Premier as demanded by the striking Civil Servants. Investor confidence is low because foreign investors mistrust Gono and are holding back their cash meanwhile Gono is living pretty on much more than the US $7000 falsely claimed to be paid to staff in the Premier's office
The illegality of the strike was declared by none other than staunch Zanu PF apologist and PSC chairman Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah.
But the Herald went on to disclose that “Dr Nzuwah’s statement came as unionists described Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s remarks that civil servants should not complain about the salaries they are getting as "irresponsible" and the utterances of a "heartless politician".
We now have it on record that the utterances against the Premier were by Zanu PF aligned unionists in the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) and Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ)chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo.
Nyawo in particular accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of running a parallel government whose workers are alleged to be earning a hefty $7 000 compared to low wages of between $122 and $236 being offered by government to other civil servants.
“PM Tsvangirai should redirect money being spent on parallel government staff to genuine civil servants. The Prime Minister should divert money running the alleged parallel government to treasury as he was creating divisions among civil servants.” bleated Nyawo.
For the first time the TUZ has closed ranks with the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe to mount a united challenge to the government over “poor salaries” paid to teachers.
Hitherto and during the monolithic government of the country by the Zanu PF party and its Junta alliance, the TUZ was reputed for opposing any collective job action by the Teachers and teaming up with Zanu PF youth militia to not only beat up striking teachers but also flog them to the PSC to ensure they were dismissed from Public service as their motives in striking were political and in support of the MDC regime change agenda.
The same teachers he was dissuading from participating in collective job action against the government were earning no more than 50 US cents per month denominated in trillions of worthless Zimbabwe currency expressly printed by the Reserve Bank under the stewardship of bush economist Dr Gideon Gono.
The trillions of Zimbabwe currency they were being paid could not be drawn from their accounts in cash and worse when one managed to lay hands on them there was nothing in retail shops that they could buy forcing them to resort to a thriving black market run by connected Zanu PF zealots like Nyawo.
Now that the same teachers are earning no less than US$150.00 per month and can walk into any retail outlet and complete a monthly shopping errand in one place and still remain with some cash for transport, municipal services and energy bills for those working in urban centres as well as save for periodic payments such as school fees and provisions, Nyawo urges them to strike for even more.
He rallied striking Civil servants to press on with their strike action around a familiar and dishonest accusation that the Premier was running parallel government structures in his office that must be dismantled as they were benefiting incumbents of positions therein to the tune of US$7000 per month when all other Civil Servants were receiving a paltry US$122 to US$ 236 for the same month’s work.
Nyawo did not produce a shred of evidence to back his accusations against the Premier nor did he explain which government the Premier’s office was running parallel structures to as for all we know there is one government in the country led by the same Premier whom Nyawo is up in arms against.
The Office tasked with looking after the affairs of the Civil servants Nyawo claims to be leading in strike action is the PSC chaired by Nzuwah and not Premier Tsvangirai.
If government is failing to pay its employees adequately the blame must lie squarely on Nzuwah’s shoulders and he must secure adequate funds for them from Cabinet and not the Premier or President’s Office.
If he is failing to deliver that then we must advise Nyawo and those who believe in his cause to call for the resignation of Nzuwah and his replacement by someone capable of sourcing adequate funds for their satisfactory remuneration if there is ever such a thing.
But Nzuwah has already made his position clear leaving Nyawo and those of his ilk quacking in their pants and seeking out the Premier for a weakling they can vent their anger on because of his tolerance and soft heart for workers.
Dr Nzuwah said: "In terms of the law, and by their admission, there is no deadlock between the employer and the public service employees.
"Accordingly, any strike or industrial action by civil servants is premature and illegal in terms of the law.
"In light of the foregoing, the Public Service Commission notifies members of the public service who are not reporting for duty that they are doing so in violation of the standing regulations and statutes.
"Any member of the public service who does not report for duty should be prepared to face the consequences of his or her actions."
That is what Nyawo and friends must confront and not the foolish politicking about parallel government structures in the Premier’s office that he has no shred of evidence exist.
Even if the Premier was paying his office staff the exorbitant amounts claimed by Nyawo which is highly unlikely, if he were to disband his entire staff that does not exceed 100 employees and all the money is given to Gideon Gono how much percentage wise will it benefit the entire Public Service for salary increment purposes?
That is the problem TUZ members must ask their leader to clarify before joining him in a fallacious job action that will yield nothing for them.
All along the TUZ has collaborated with the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, Pubic Service Association the ZFTU and Zanu PF youth militia in supporting government’s onslaught against Civil Servants incomes and is more to blame for the current poor levels of remuneration obtaining for Public servants than the Premier and his so called parallel government structures if its membership needs our honest assessment of their grievances.
Attacking the Premier for the decadence in government is ill advised and ill not improve the plight of public servants by an iota.
What is needed is an understanding that is obviously lacking and has always been lacking in these Zanunised unions that supporting unaccountable governments will have negative consequences for them and the sooner they come to terms with what the coalition government is trying to achieve and is being frustrated from achieving the better.
Their best shot at improving their incomes lies more in them closing their political divisions and becoming focused on delivering services to the nation that encourage foreign direct investment and not crafting legislation that dissuades same as is evident from the Indigenisation and Empowerment rules that were recently gazetted by the government.
As Raymond Majongwe of PTUZ succinctly put it;
"Some of our comrades are bringing in unnecessary accusations against personalities in government.
"It would be a tragedy to continue blaming people whom we know are not ultimately responsible. There has been accusations on the Prime Minister for allegedly running a parallel government whose workers are paid handsomely. Some of the ascensions have not been substantiated at all,"
And we may add that there is absolutely no reason why the Premier’s office or any other for that matter must be paying its staff as all Civil Servants must draw income from the Treasury via the Salary Service Bureau.
All the staff required by the Premier must be assimilated in the PSC establishment and put on the government payroll but if the PSC cannot perform such a small and straightforward staffing matter as creating a new establishment for the premier’s office a year after the Department was constitutionally Approved then let the blame fall on the PSC for failing to staff the office and the Premier must be congratulated for staffing his office and paying them without resorting to taxpayer funds from the treasury.
Without the staff the Premier would not be able to function and that is not desirable for anyone other than his political foes.
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