Opinion / Columnist
Apologist condemn Teachers' strike because gvt 'over burdened by wage bill' - no it is overwhelmed by corruption
13 Jan 2016 at 14:31hrs | Views
One of the prices Zimbabweans have paid for having no free media and no freedom of expression is that the nation has been bombarded by Zanu PF apologists and propagandist in the country's party controlled Public media, it is little wonder we are brainwashed nation. The apologists and propagandists have started spilling over into the little private media with their bombastic nonsense, with the same intention of brainwashing the readers.
"The move by the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) to urge its members to engage in a go-slow beginning this week as a way of pushing government to improve their working conditions through, amongst other things reducing last month pension deductions from $40 to $10 per month as well as salary increments is ill-advised and detrimental to an already over-burdened wage bill," wrote one such Mugabe apologist, Chido Chikuni in Bulawayo24.
It is true that government is "already over-burdened by wage bill" but what you are failing to understand is that most of the civil servants' wages are already below the breadline. In a country where 90% plus are unemployed, these civil servants are the only bread winner of their family and extended family. There is no doubt that to most of these civil servants are too over-burdened already and the $30 less in their pay means a lot.
It should be noted that the government is in the pickle because of 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. President Mugabe alone, not to mention the rest of his cronies involved, is getting $ 2 billion a year from the Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds bonanza. If the money was added to Finance Minister's $3.8 billion annual budget government can afford to increase's expenditure by a whopping 53% across the board. No civil servant will be paid starving wages!
So which of the two, a corrupt and wasteful government and the starving civil servant crying out for help, which deserves a rational human being's sympathy and support?
Before you answer that, remember that we are dealing here with a regime whose appetite for wealth is insatiable we have reached the point now where Mugabe is commandeering 53% of the nation's resources for his own exclusive use and he is still not satisfied. Right now he is on his annual one-month long holiday in the Far East at a cost of $ 3 million plus. Guess what? He will expect the nation to pay the bill from the $3.8 billion whilst his $ 2 billion remains untouched!
His looted wealth is to be used to fund his lavish lifestyle and multi-billion dollar vote rigging devilish schemes.
It is dumb to ask someone to sacrifice their very lives for a cause for which they stand to gain nothing but only a moron would ask for such sacrifice knowing in making the sacrifice they are empowering a tyrant who is after whatever little they still have left!
Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of not just having a corrupt and murderous tyrant as head of state; the situation was made worse by having corrupt and incompetent ministers, MPs and other leaders all grovelling to the tyrant ready and willing to do his bidding day and night; and, worst still, have a whole army of apologists and propagandists like Chido Chikuni always twisting the facts and truth to brainwashing the people into seeing Mugabe as good and not the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is.
"The move by the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) to urge its members to engage in a go-slow beginning this week as a way of pushing government to improve their working conditions through, amongst other things reducing last month pension deductions from $40 to $10 per month as well as salary increments is ill-advised and detrimental to an already over-burdened wage bill," wrote one such Mugabe apologist, Chido Chikuni in Bulawayo24.
It is true that government is "already over-burdened by wage bill" but what you are failing to understand is that most of the civil servants' wages are already below the breadline. In a country where 90% plus are unemployed, these civil servants are the only bread winner of their family and extended family. There is no doubt that to most of these civil servants are too over-burdened already and the $30 less in their pay means a lot.
It should be noted that the government is in the pickle because of 36 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. President Mugabe alone, not to mention the rest of his cronies involved, is getting $ 2 billion a year from the Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds bonanza. If the money was added to Finance Minister's $3.8 billion annual budget government can afford to increase's expenditure by a whopping 53% across the board. No civil servant will be paid starving wages!
So which of the two, a corrupt and wasteful government and the starving civil servant crying out for help, which deserves a rational human being's sympathy and support?
His looted wealth is to be used to fund his lavish lifestyle and multi-billion dollar vote rigging devilish schemes.
It is dumb to ask someone to sacrifice their very lives for a cause for which they stand to gain nothing but only a moron would ask for such sacrifice knowing in making the sacrifice they are empowering a tyrant who is after whatever little they still have left!
Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of not just having a corrupt and murderous tyrant as head of state; the situation was made worse by having corrupt and incompetent ministers, MPs and other leaders all grovelling to the tyrant ready and willing to do his bidding day and night; and, worst still, have a whole army of apologists and propagandists like Chido Chikuni always twisting the facts and truth to brainwashing the people into seeing Mugabe as good and not the corrupt and murderous tyrant he is.
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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