Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – The recently launched Zanu PF aligned teacher union called Teachers for Economic Development or Teachers4ED seems to have taken over recruitment and deployment of teachers as Zanu PF is soliciting for votes ahead of the 2023 general election.
Teachers4ED is one of the many ‘4ED’ organisations that include Varakashi4ED, Youngwomen4ED, Mahwindi4ED, and Councillors4ED among others.
The organization is growing its membership through recruiting trained unemployed teachers into its organization and they are being told that all recruitment will be done through affiliation to the organization as well as after undergoing indoctrinating training from the Hebert Chitepo School of Ideology.
A WhatsApp group invite link is circulating and is written that teachers awaiting deployment will undergo a five day capacity training workshop led by Teachers4ED.
“Graduate teachers awaiting deployment to attend a five day training workshop which will be led by teachers Trs4ED, ZIMFEP, Public Service and Hebert Chitepo School of Ideology. The programme is totally voluntary, join links below,” read the statement.
The new recruits are submitting their details, full name, sex, Employment Code and ID numbers, qualification, year of completion, province and district, vaccination status, email address, WhatsApp numbers and area or subject of specialization.
Participants will contribute USD$5 for food and other logistics during the training period.
Teachers 4ED is likely to take over or clash with another organization that was recently formed that had volunteered to do teacher mobilization called Patriotic and Patriotic Citizens of Zimbabwe (PPCZ).
PPCZ recently trained 350 teachers at ZCC Mbungo national shrine where participants were chanting Zanu PF slogans and were urged to join cells in their respective areas.
Speaking during the graduation of the trainees, PPCZ national chairperson Patson Murimoga said they wanted to help government to employ patriotic teachers who will not go on strike while getting paid.
“We want to help the government to employ patriotic teachers who will not go and sit in classes doing nothing yet they are getting paid, we can’t continue making our pupils suffer at the hands of the unpatriotic teachers who do not know their national duty while there are a lot of able but unemployed teachers,” said Murimoga
He went on to say they will have power to withdraw any teacher who would have been employed through their organization if he or she fail to tow the line.
“We will soon have power over our members, we will be able to recall any teacher who doesn’t toe the line after having been employed through us,” said Murimoga.
10 WhatsApp groups were formed recently for each province where the unemployed teachers are sending their details.
By the time of writing, Harare, Masvingo and Midlands Provinces led the pack with more than 1000 participants each.
Manicaland had around 600 participants, Mash West 400, Mash East 300, Mash Central 200, Bulawayo 350, Mat North 150, and Mat South had around 170 participants.
Contacted for comment on whether Teachers4ED is going to be used for recruitment, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Tumisang Thabela referred questions to Communications Director Taungana Ndoro who said recruitment is done by Public Service and they are better positioned to comment.
