×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

We have to break Zanu PF yoke

Opinion & Analysis
It was going to be understandable if the government was providing teaching/ learning materials. Teachers are to supplement the learning environment by purchasing essential teaching materials for effective learning to take place.

THE only way to restore the teachers’ dignity is by voting out President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF in 2023.

Mnangagwa is insensitive to teachers plight. Teachers are slaves under Zanu PF government.

Teachers are expected to teach a class of over 50 students while other Sadc countries are reducing the teacher-pupil ratio.

It was going to be understandable if the government was providing teaching/ learning materials. Teachers are to supplement the learning environment by purchasing essential teaching materials for effective learning to take place.

The accommodation for rural school teachers leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the houses for teachers in resettlement and rural areas is not fit for human habitation. In all this, the patriotism exhibited by teachers is beyond human imagination.

The paltry salary for teachers is an insult to their commitment, dedication and patriotism. With a salary which can’t feed a family for a week, but still for the love of their nation, teachers have continued to work. If Mnangagwa was to spend a week as a teacher on such a salary, truly he would have no option, but to wage a bloody war against the government.

Zanu PF must know teachers can’t feed on patriotism, but they want food, clothes, school fees for their families. The teachers have an obligation to liberate themselves from Zanu PF slavery.

It is upon every school head and teacher to encourage and make sure every staff member and their families at their station are registered to vote for change.

The biggest culprits are the greedy teachers who sacrifice lifetime liberty by supporting Zanu PF.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will recruit teachers as election officers.

Some teachers, for the love of one-day allowances, are prepared to be deployed as election agents away from their polling station, making them unable to vote.

In 2018, Zec presidential results show that then MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa failed to force Zanu PF candidate Mnangagwa to a run-off with less than 32 000 votes.

Zec displaced five teachers per each of the 11 000 polling stations in the country as a rigging strategy.

In 2023, teachers must liberate themselves. There is no reason for teachers to fail to encourage rural voters to participate and vote for change.

Teachers are agents of change. No change which can be effective and fruitful without teachers.Patriotic Papa JC

Misa Zim condemns journo harassment

FREELANCE journalist Simbarashe Sithole on June 7, 2022 filed a police report following threats he reportedly received over a story he wrote on alleged corruption in Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe’s Mazowe West constituency.

In a call recording, a caller, who identified himself as Saunyama, threatened to assault the journalist and to also “deal with him on social media”.

The caller expressed his displeasure with the stories that Sithole has been writing pertaining to Kazembe and even asked Sithole to disclose his location threatening to assault him.

In the police report filed at Mvurwi Police Station, Sithole said he is fearing for his life following the threats and harassment by Saunyama who is a political activist.

Misa Zimbabwe condemns any form of violence, threats, intimidation and harassment of journalists and media workers, more so, during the course of their professional duties.

Journalists have a constitutional mandate and right to seek, receive and impart information without hindrance and such violations (threats) are an unjustifiable infringement in the exercise of their right to media freedom.

Misa Zimbabwe urges any persons with complaints over stories written by journalists to approach the Zimbabwe Media Commission or the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe for redress.Misa Zimbabwe

Price of bread to humble Mnangagwa

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new dispensation should always play a track from Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu’s album Survival — it is informative and educative.

This is a well-choreographed song which talks about the rising cost of living where the singer was advising the government not to raise the price of bread. People are suffering, they cannot afford the basics.

It was a national disaster when the people celebrated a marriage of citizens and the army to push for the unconstitutional removal of the late former President Robert Mugabe from office in November 2017.

The country set a bad precedence. Mnangagwa is a good example of how a leader can fail to run a country.

People had high hopes in him taking over from Mugabe, hoping that he would break from the past, but everything has fallen apart. Mnangagwa has failed to build trust with Zimbabweans and chances for him to win next year’s election are unrealistic.

Hyper-inflation is back with a bang, with exchange rates shooting through the roof. Unemployment is at an all-time high.

Last year, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube did the unthinkable when he suspended publication of inflation data.

A few years ago, faced with bread shortages, Zanu PF introduced Stone Age bakeries which failed to stand the test of time by meeting the people’s demands. This new dispensation’s  fly-by-night economic policies have backfired.

The economy is on autopilot. The new republic can’t craft blueprints to revamp and restructure this economic morass. Wages have been wiped away by inflation and civil servants are literally earning peanuts. The cost of living is at an all-time high, with savings shrinking.

With the recent sharp increase in prices of fuel, disaster is looming. This is going to trigger another round of price increases. For Zimbabweans, it never rains, but pours.

Zimbabwe has so far experienced the worst brain drain in history. Professionals, especially in the health sector, are leaving in droves to European countries where they are better appreciated.

People are hungry and the government is at sixes and sevens to offer solutions.

Pensions and savings have been eroded.  Everything left by the former colonial master has been run down.

Hospitals have run out of drugs.

Teachers have since 2019 been go-slow. They are offering their services for free and no one cares.

Hard word  no longer pays. Businesses can only thrive based on the connections of their owners.  It is now free-for-all as vultures have encircled what is left of Zimbabwe.

The Zanu PF government must do something. There is likely to be a protest vote in 2023 as people are inching to punish the new dispensation and bury it six feet down.Leonard Koni