MDC Statement on civil service overhaul

The recently approved civil service overhaul which is going to see major cuts in civil service benefits and retrenchments of private school teachers underscores the moral bankruptcy of the Zanu-PF government and lack of care for teachers who are already suffering from abject poverty due to government's failure to generate revenue for the nation.

The MDC's position is that there are many other sources of revenue which government could focus on rather than shifting the burden to struggling teachers. We find it incomprehensible that this move seems to be only targeting teachers when nothing is being done about Zanu-PF youth officers who are on a civil service salary while doing absolutely nothing to benefit the nation.

It is our contention that as long as government does not first deal with the incessant spending of its bloated cabinet, unnecessary and pointless foreign trips by President Robert Mugabe and his equally bloated entourage and put a lid on corruption, all its talk of cutting unnecessary spending is insincere. We view this as a new low for President Robert Mugabe's government, whose wife Grace's flaunting of  obscene wealth through dishing out all sorts of goodies at Zanu-PF rallies is in direct contrast to the country's failing economy.

This is a clear example of how the Zanu-PF government's commitment to putting Zanu-PF first comes at a high price for ordinary Zimbabweans. It is apparent that the country's funds meant for provisions in education are being redirected into big wigs' pockets . The government has failed dismally to come up with a plan to finance education for all and bring sanity into the labour sector because it is obsessed with milking citizens of the little they still have for the personal benefit of a few individuals.

Kurauone Chihwayi
MDC National Spokesperson