In a press statement, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association has insisted that its members will be on strike as planned until their grievances are addressed. The teachers insisted that they will not be intimidated by government officials to stop them from exercising their Constitutional rights. We publish the statement below in full.
1. The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) hereby categorically states that no amount of threats or illegal declarations from individuals in government will stop or intimidate teachers from exercising their Constitutional and legal right to participate in the industrial Job action.
2. For the avoidance of doubt, members must not be intimidated or threatened by service Ministers’ such as Professor Paul Mavima, whose Ministry has been on record as not having the mandate to address workers’ conditions of service because they are not the employer.
3. We also believe that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the Minister also abide by the same Zimbabwean Constitution which teachers subscribe to, and which gives workers the right to withdraw their labour, wherever and whenever working conditions are nowhere near satisfactory.
4. Threats and allegations that link collective job action to political parties are just unfortunate and meant to strangle and suppress workers’ rights in a democratic country such as Zimbabwe.
5. ZIMTA wishes to remind the education Minister Professor Paul Mavima that Unions in education exist for the sole mandate of representing the welfare of members and are in no way; a rival to political parties or to him as a head of a service Ministry. Maybe (sic) guided accordingly.
30 APRIL 2018
WE EDUCATE THE NATION