Sithembinkosi L Jiyane
Political Reporter
www.zimgbcnews.co.zw<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u200eThe Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has launched a fierce campaign against the government, demanding the immediate return of printed pay advice slips and warning against the proposed Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill of 2026, which they say entrenches inequality and hypocrisy.
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\u200eARTUZ Secretary General Robson Chere described the current digital-only payslip system as a \u201cblatant attack on transparency,\u201d leaving thousands of teachers, especially in rural areas, vulnerable to fraudulent deductions and financial exclusion.
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\u200eMany educators cannot afford the high costs of mobile data or even access the online portal, making it difficult to verify salary deductions or obtain proof of income for credit and other essential services.
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\u200e\u201cTheir hard-earned salaries are being hidden behind a broken system,\u201d Chere said.
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\u200eThe union has demanded the immediate and urgent reinstatement of printed payslips and urged teachers to document any unexplained deductions while authorities stall.
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\u200eBut the union\u2019s fight does not end with salaries. ARTUZ has also condemned the government\u2019s plan to allow traditional leaders to openly affiliate with political parties, arguing that it creates a \u201ctiered system of citizenship\u201d that muzzles teachers and Civil Servants while giving Chiefs political privileges.
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\u200eThe proposed amendment to Section 281 of the Constitution states that \u201cNotwithstanding any other provision, Traditional Leaders shall, in the exercise of their cultural and customary functions, be permitted to affiliate with and support the political party of their choice to ensure national stability and the preservation of traditional values.\u201d
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\u200eARTUZ says the amendment is a total betrayal of the 2013 Constitution, legalizing partisanship for Chiefs while Section 200 continues to cage Civil Servants, forbidding them from acting in a partisan manner or engaging in political activities.
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\u200eThe union argues that if the government believes that national stability requires Chiefs to be partisan, the same logic must apply to the workers who keep the country running. Teachers, the union insists, are being treated as second-class citizens while those in traditional leadership positions are granted privileges denied to ordinary civil servants.
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\u200eThe union is demanding equal political rights for all Civil Servants. Educators must be allowed to contest in national and local elections without being forced to resign, and any teacher who chooses to enter the political arena should be entitled to return to their position should they lose the election, rather than being cast aside for exercising democratic rights.
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\u200eARTUZ emphasized that these demands are not a call for partisanship. \u201cAs teachers, we have no aspiration to be political. Our duty is to the children of Zimbabwe, regardless of their parents\u2019 political leanings. However, we make these demands to expose the sheer ridiculousness and hypocrisy of the proposed amendments,\u201d read part of the statement.
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\u200eARTUZ maintains that both campaigns, the restoration of printed pay slips and the fight for equal political rights, highlight the broader need for transparency, fairness, and protection of Civil Servants\u2019 rights in Zimbabwe.
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\u200eThe union has called on all citizens to reject any amendments that create a tiered system of citizenship and to demand a nation where both Civil Servants and Traditional Chiefs serve the people with impartiality, dignity, and professional integrity.
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\u200e\u201cHands off our Constitution! Equal rights for all workers!\u201d the union declared.
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Stay Connected with Zim GBC News: Sithembinkosi L JiyanePolitical Reporterwww.zimgbcnews.co.zw \u200eThe Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has launched a fierce campaign against the government, demanding the immediate return of printed pay advice slips and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12328,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326\/revisions\/12328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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