TEACHERS have threatened to boycott both the invigilation and marking of public examinations if the government maintains its stance to suspend civil servants bonuses until 2017.
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
Progress Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou told Newsday yesterday that the government must get rid of ghost workers and find other means of increasing revenue.
He said the scrapping of civil servants’ bonuses was the worst decision ever made in the country by the highest office.
“We don’t have overstaffing, but rather we have ghost civil servants who number close to 80 000 and we know that most of them are in the Youth ministry,” Zhou said.
“Our position is very clear that if there is no bonus, there is no marking of public examinations, there is no invigilation of public examinations because we are teachers and we are not employed by Zimsec. “That’s our position.”
Zhou insisted that the government could realise a lot of revenue if it got rid of ghost workers planted at various State institutions.
He also proposed reduction of provinces from 10 to five to reduce government expenditure.
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“It once had five provinces —Matabeleland, the Midlands, Masvingo, Mashonaland and Manicaland — but simply because of political expediency, there has been multiplication of provinces in order to gain friends,” Zhou said. “We can even reduce the ministries. There is no reason to have four ministries focussing on education. We have the Sport, Psychomotor, Primary and Secondary Education, and Higher and Tertiary ministries, yet this could be one ministry.”
He noted that the government was unnecessarily increasing the country’s wage bill by having a high and unreasonable number of legislators.
“The Parliament is bloated. We cannot have five MPs in a district. Why not have one?” he asked.
“It’s not a question that there is no money in Zimbabwe, we have lots of resources. Zimbabwe has 25% of the world’s diamond yet it cannot pay its civil servants, that is an anomaly.”
