Parents and Guardians refuse to pay extra levies to contribute towards the payment of teachers’ salaries

Parents and guardians of Mzilikazi high school pupils have refused to pay an extra US$7 per month special levy towards the payment of teachers’ incentives. This came out during an extraordinary School Development Association (SDA) meeting held at the school on Saturday, 20 June 2009.

The meeting was called in response to a government directive that stipulates that SDAs should offer 10percent of their gross monthly income to teachers as allowances to cushion the educators against the high cost of living. Last month, the SDA gave teachers at the school US$8 and R18 each in the form of incentives, however, this payout was unbudgeted for hence the Saturday meeting was held.
In a case of open defiance of the directive, parents and guardians who were present at the meeting, who numbered less than 100 at a school with an enrolment of over 1 500 pupils, cited a number of reasons as to why they are not able to pay. Mzilikazi high school is located in Bulawayo’s second oldest high density suburb, Mzilikazi, with the majority of its pupil population drawn from the surrounding surbubs of Makokoba (the city’s oldest suburb), Barboufields, Nguboyenja and Thorngrove.

The meeting brought to my attention the grim reality of the educators plea in the new political dispensation. It was a sorry state. Teachers present at the meeting had to plead with parents and guardians to pay the extra special levy. The headmaster, Mr. Dube, had to take the stand on several occasions in a desperate attempt to forward the plight of teachers to an indifferent audience. At one such moment he explained to the meeting that he had foiled twice attempted work stoppages by teachers at the school in the past week.
The school continues to lose experienced staff to other schools offering better working conditions. Most schools in Bulawayo are now offering extra incentives to both teaching and non teaching staff. Teachers earn a monthly socialist allowance of US$100 together with the rest of civil servants in Zimbabwe.

One elderly parent summed up the proceedings, “nguphi ungcono phakathi kwalowo othala i-buns lalowo ongelalo, amateacher angcono ayathola iR1000 (sic) kulathi thina esingatholi lutho!” (half a loaf is better than nothing, teachers are at least earning a guaranteed salary of R1000 every month yet some of us have no means of raising money.