Mutsekwa says they’ve no reason to stay in State houses

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

FOUR top judges and senior ZANU-PF officials occupying government houses at Gunhill Villas are being evicted at the high-security complex to make way for new tenants from the bloated coalition, which is battling to find accommodation for several bureaucrats.

Staff Reporter

AIR Zimbabwe (AirZim) planes were grounded yesterday as its pilots went on strike protesting the non-payment of allowances.

Kudzai Bare, Staff Reporter

TEACHERS yesterday served the government of national unity (GNU) with a formal notice to strike within a fortnight as civil servants intensify their fight for better remuneration and improved working conditions.
As schools continued sending children back home over unpaid fees and levies, teachers’ unions were busy strategising for another crippling industrial action.
The Teachers Union of Zimba-bwe (TUZ), a pressure group representing mostly secondary school teachers, dispatched a notice to the Public Service Commission (PSC) yesterday, alerting them of the impending industrial action tentatively set to start on the 28th of this month.
In a letter addressed to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Pretty Sunguro, and the PSC, TUZ said civil servants, especially teachers, have had enough of the coalition government’s empty promises.
“We herein notify the employer of our intention to embark on a nationwide industrial strike commencing on 28 September 2010 given that the employer has been given adequate time to pay teachers meaningful salaries, but to date has not moved an inch to improve the salaries,” reads part of the letter.
The underpaid workers, who presently take home an average of US$150 a month against a poverty datum line estimated at about US$500, have been piling pressure on the GNU to bankroll the next salary review from the proceeds of the sale of the Chiadzwa diamonds.
“Since 2008, teachers have been living on allowances, which are not pensionable and they are not able to send their own children to school when they are expected to teach others,” TUZ complained in their group complained in their letter, made available to this newspaper.
“The measures recommended by recent workshops including the Kariba (one) were just a time buyer and teachers feel cheated, betrayed, uncared for and enslaved to give free labour leaving their children with nothing.
“The establishment of task forces, which include the task force on resource mobilisation and cost drivers, were all but a hoax and a planned time buyer.”
The chief executive of TUZ, Manuel Nyawo, said they had also notified other unions representing government workers and are meeting tomorrow to map the way forward.

Njabulo Ncube, Assistant Editor

ZANU Ndonga has implored the three principals in the government of national unity (GNU) to review the hero status of the late nationalist, Ndabaningi Sithole, who was buried at his farm in Mount Selinda.

Dumisani Ndlela, Staff Reporter

THERE was one thing to look out for when travelling through Zimbabwe’s dreaded highways: The big potholes!

Kudzai Bare, Staff Reporter

THE Harare City Council suspects that former ZANU-PF commissioners appointed following the sacking of the previous Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-dominated council have not been paying their rates, thereby prejudicing the city of revenue.

Levi Mukarati, Senior Political Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS in South Africa without proper documentation should regularise their stay, or face imminent deportation, a Cabinet minister warned yesterday.

Staff Reporter
THE gagging of participants in the constitution-making pro-cess especially in the rural areas has intensified as political parties pull all the stops to drive home their views for incorporation into the country’s supreme law.

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

ZANU-PF Mashonaland West provincial Inter District conference held over the weekend endorsed President Robert Mugabe as the party’s candidate in the next election, sending a clear signal that there would be no changes or reforms in the party’s hierarchy any time soon.

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

KNIVES are out for Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara over allegations he misled South African President Jacob Zuma — the man trying to break the costly political impasse in Zimbabwe — that parties to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) had agreed that provincial governors would only be appointed simultaneously with the removal of sanctions slapped on ZANU-PF leaders by the United States and the European Union.