Zimta under fire over CEO salary

Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) has come under fire from members of the public after it emerged in a leaked pay slip, alleged to be of its chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu that he earns a monthly salary of around $10 000 before deductions.

Mr Ndlovu however, did not confirm if the payslip was authentic. The salary has shocked many teachers and sympathisers out of their wits with questions of moral values raised in a country where teachers, whose interests Zimta represents, are getting a salary far much less than $1 000.

The association is sustained through deductions from members (teachers) across the country. The leaked pay slip was posted on micro-blogging platform — Twitter and those that commented questioned the rationale of paying a CEO such an “obscene” amount when those that were contributing were “wallowing in poverty”.

They said a CEO who was cushioned and insulated from the shocks of the harsh economy characterised by a price madness was never going to be able to stand for the workers effectively. Some, however, hinted that the leaked pay slip was nothing out of the ordinary as that was the norm with worker representative organisations and parastatal bosses.

A Twitter user said, “This is robbery at its best. Teachers are earning something less than $450 take home yet someone is grossing around $10 000 from their contributions. There should be a degree of proportionality in these salaries to those of the teacher union members.”

Some felt with such a huge salary there won’t be much motivation to fight for the teachers unless that salary was under threat.

The leaked pay slip dated 31 January 2019 showed that Mr Ndlovu got allowance back pay of $1 386, a fuel allowance of $780, a communication allowance of $2 000, a transport allowance of $200, a representation allowance of $761, a back pay of $1 615, a grocery allowance of $82 and a housing allowance of $258 to add to his basic salary of $3 808.

Some of the people who commented questioned the wisdom of having a fuel allowance and a transport allowance especially that he was using union vehicles that were serviced by the union.

Contacted for comment Mr Ndlovu could neither confirm nor deny the leaked pay slip. He said he has not seen it but had heard about it from Facebook.

“I haven’t seen it. I just heard about it so for me to say it’s my pay slip I will be lying,” he said.

Asked if the figures were true, he said he wouldn’t want to confirm or deny what was there but said he would appreciate if people respected his privacy.

“I am a private individual and I would have loved my privacy to be respected,” he added.

Mr Ndlovu said he was not perturbed by whoever posted it and what they think. However, he said he wanted to know why they decided to do so now when he had been working for Zimta for the past 27 years and nothing of that sort ever happened.

“I am not worried. I was last year awarded with an accolade for being the top union leader and for someone to try and drag my name in the mud and undo such kind of recognition at this critical time when we are fighting for our members’ welfare is both unfair and unfortunate. Why not leak pay slips of directors in Zanu-PF or MDC who are more of public figures than wasting so much energy on me,” he queried.