Government fails to put together lecturers' 2014 bonus

Lecturers from Zimbabwe's state universities look set to resume the industrial action they called off last week after it emerged that workers' representatives were 'reliably' made clear beyond any measureable doubt that Government had failed to put together the 2014 bonus promised last week.

In an e-mail to lecturers and non-teaching staff, Blessing T. Jona, the outgoing Nusteda Secretary General claims that the government was now concentrating (once again) on raising the February 2015 salary, which is just around the corner.

More deliberations on the issue will be conducted on Thursday 5 March 2015 after voting our new executive in power

The lecturers and non-teaching staff went on strike in January after the government failed to pay them salaries and bonuses.

After being paid salaries, they vowed not to return to work until the bonus had been paid as well.

The lecturers said they were the only civil servants who had not received the 13th cheque and said in future, they would not report for work if government did not deposit their salaries in time.

The industrial action had resulted in suspension of classes at NUST, Great Zimbabwe, Bindura, Gwanda, Chinhoyi and Lupane state universities.


Below is the e-mail sent to the lecturers and non-teaching staff.

Dear Cdes,

On Friday 27 February 2015 I left the office with dampening news that I had finally received from President Muzvuwe. After Cde Muzvuwe finally got through to contacts at Treasury, it was reliably made clear beyond any measureable doubt that Government had failed to put together the 2014 bonus promised last week, and Government was now concentrating (once again) on raising the February 2015 salary, which is just around the corner.

The contacts who spoke to Cde Muzvuwe told him that Government is committed to paying the remaining government grant aided institutions their bonuses, highlighting to Cde Muzvuwe that last week when we thought we would receive our bonuses, Government only managed to pay other government grant aided institutions such as Zimstats, and so forth. Cde Muzvuwe was also told that state universities are the only group that remains to be paid in the bracket of government aided institutions.

Having said this, the outgoing Nusteda Executive had seen it fit for the way forward on this matter to be deliberated on Thursday 5 March 2015 after voting our new executive in power, during the Annual General Meeting that was scheduled and announced 3 weeks ago to the Nusteda constituency. It Is of no consequence to have another meeting before the AGM. It is the fervent hope of the outgoing executive that the incoming executive will take the bull by its horns, and take advantage of the election gathering to map the way forward as Nusteda in addressing these unpaid bonuses.

Remember Cde Njekeya's important contribution that, "We need to make decisions as a group , our scope of thinking is wide considering the number and level of academics we have as members , so we need fair labour practices .We need democratic decisions please , even some political parties try to "stage manage" democracy by having their policies and decisions endorsed by their members at meetings or at-------" The new executive will definitely need members' contributions on the way forward concerning these bonuses so please attend the AGM in number for once.

Aluta continua.

Kind regards,

Blessing T. Jona
Outgoing Nusteda Secretary General, and Retiring Politician