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Magistrate quits, rants at govt over poor salaries

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A BULAWAYO magistrate tendered his resignation recently in protest over his poor salary and challenged other civil servants to tell President Robert Mugabe they were not happy with the measly salaries they were getting.

A BULAWAYO magistrate tendered his resignation recently in protest over his poor salary and challenged other civil servants to tell President Robert Mugabe they were not happy with the measly salaries they were getting.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

Batanai Tuwe, who has joined private practice, took to social media, where he attacked his former employers, the Judicial Service Commission and the Finance ministry, for underpaying magistrates, while judges were living large, pampered with a lot of perks.

“Why not tell mdara (Mugabe) the truth. Why won’t soldiers, who earn $400, tell the President that the money you are giving us is peanuts,” he tweeted.

“All the magistrates are tired of your lies. God is not happy though because you killed my dream. I swore an oath to God when I was appointed. You made me corrupt.”

Tuwe said chief magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe had begged him not to quit, and promised him heaven on earth, but he could not work without pay.

“I cannot serve that which I no longer believe. I just want to feel human. That’s all.”

Tuwe said the paltry $650 monthly salaries paid to magistrates were unsustainable and had driven most of them into corruption.

“Why should any magistrate send a person who earns $1 200 to jail when they can offer the magistrate $600 and still have more than the magistrate? A magistrate in Zimbabwe earns $650 dollars,” he continued in his rant.

Tuwe also called on other civil servants to down tools until they are paid their December salaries, which the government said it will pay in January, before challenging Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to be honest about the government’s financial problems.

“Please Chinamasa. Just tell us. Have pity on us. We are now even too tired to protest. Why should we. Why not talk honestly. Just tell us the truth we won’t revolt, we’ve tried that, you will shoot us. You have guns we don’t. But can you shoot your own son for [the]truth.”

Tuwe said he no longer believed in the judiciary and had, therefore, quit his job in search for greener pastures.