{"id":2214,"date":"2019-01-21T15:31:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2019-01-21T15:31:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:31:04","slug":"teachers-strike-starts-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today","title":{"rendered":"Teachers&#8217; strike starts today"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\u00a0As government battles to contain growing civil unrest in the country, the nation\u2019s biggest teachers\u2019 union \u2014 the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) \u2014 says its members will go on strike with effect from today, due to the worsening local economic rot.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Zimta\u2019s announcement yesterday was made as other unions also warned that they would embark on a nationwide strike at the lapse of their 14-day notice on Friday this week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This comes after the government dangled a $300 million total incentive to its agitated workforce last week, which unions said translated to measly increments for their individual members.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On their part, civil servants have demanded to be paid a minimum of $1 700 a month \u2014 a figure which they say matches the current economic situation in the country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe situation remains the same and we remain incapacitated. Government has not done anything to address the plight of teachers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSo come tomorrow, Monday (today) teachers will not report for work because they are incapacitated \u2026 that is the official position,\u201d Zimta chief executive officer Sifiso Sibanda told the Daily News yesterday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe have totally rejected the offer that the government has made as it is insignificant and does not address our needs. The employer must understand that we are workers and we need to survive.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSome of the teachers have to spend $10 per day on transport and that takes away all their earnings. It is the duty of the government to source for money to pay its employees,\u201d Sibanda added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) also said its members were preparing to go on strike at the expiry of the two-week ultimatum which they gave to the government a fortnight ago.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe had given government a 14-day ultimatum and that will lapse this Friday. Come Monday, we are definitely going to take action.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWhat government is doing is simply fire-fighting. We don\u2019t think they have a solution. Some of the issues being raised by teachers can be solved using nonmonetary means.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cGovernment is failing the teachers by coming up with micky-mouse improvements &#8230; There are some teachers who are going into retirement and they have nothing, which is worrying,\u201d PTUZ secretary-general Raymond Majongwe said.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment has several resources that it can use to gratify teachers. It can consider issues like tax exemption, exemption of school fees payment for teachers\u2019 children and availing housing or farms for teachers.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe problem is that government is not thinking outside the box. They should engage people with ideas that will proffer solutions to the teachers\u2019 problems.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cJust like they dealt with the issue of land with war veterans, they can do the same to address the problems faced by teachers. There are also many teachers in mining or farming areas and they can benefit from those resources,\u201d Majongwe added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Apex Council, which represents hundreds of thousands of civil servants across the public sector, is adamant that the government should pay its workers a minimum of $1 733 a month, or the equivalent in US dollars.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>The civil servants are also not happy with the government\u2019s decision to pay their bonuses on the basis of their basic salaries, as well as making them pay vehicle import duty in US dollars.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This comes as President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government have come under growing pressure to breathe life into the country\u2019s sickly economy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The current economic crisis was further underlined by last week\u2019s deadly riots which broke out in Harare and other towns, as angry protesters flooded the streets in protest at the recent fuel price hikes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>More than 70 people were shot and injured by security forces when they used live ammunition during the riots which left 17 people needing life-saving surgeries, and at least 12 others dead.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The riots were sparked by Mnangagwa\u2019s surprise decision to treble the prices of petrol and diesel ahead of his trips to Eastern Europe.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Meanwhile, and despite the sharp fuel price increases, the government has failed to end the fuel crisis as motorists and transporters are still spending endless hours queuing at dry garages.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0As government battles to contain growing civil unrest in the country, the nation\u2019s biggest teachers\u2019 union \u2014 the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) \u2014 says its members will go on strike with effect from today, due to the worsening local economic rot. Zimta\u2019s announcement yesterday was made as other unions also warned that they would embark [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,35,12],"tags":[111,245,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-2214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-homepage-english","10":"category-policy","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-striking-teachers","13":"tag-teachers"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teachers&#039; strike starts today - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teachers&#039; strike starts today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0As government battles to contain growing civil unrest in the country, the nation\u2019s biggest teachers\u2019 union \u2014 the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) \u2014 says its members will go on strike with effect from today, due to the worsening local economic rot. Zimta\u2019s announcement yesterday was made as other unions also warned that they would embark [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today\",\"name\":\"Teachers' strike starts today - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Teachers&#8217; strike starts today\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teachers' strike starts today - zimbabwe","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teachers' strike starts today","og_description":"\u00a0As government battles to contain growing civil unrest in the country, the nation\u2019s biggest teachers\u2019 union \u2014 the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) \u2014 says its members will go on strike with effect from today, due to the worsening local economic rot. Zimta\u2019s announcement yesterday was made as other unions also warned that they would embark [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today","name":"Teachers' strike starts today - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-21T15:31:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Teachers-Demo-2.jpg","width":1024,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/teachers-strike-starts-today#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Teachers&#8217; strike starts today"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}