CSC Given 5-Day Ultimatum To Fire Teacher For Contesting In Elections
A potential voter has issued a five-day ultimatum to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to take immediate action to effect the automatic resignation of a school teacher who was recently nominated to contest as a ZANU PF political party candidate in local government elections scheduled for next month.
The concerned voter, Only Katanda, enlisted the services of Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to assist in getting the CSC to take remedial action against Samuel Machumi, who is employed by CSC through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as a teacher at Nyamhondoro Secondary School in Guruve, Mashonaland Central province.
Chinopfukutwa wrote a letter to the CSC requesting that it urgently terminates Machumi’s employment contract as a teacher, as he cannot serve as both a civil servant and a politician. Despite being nominated to contest in the upcoming local government elections, Machumi has continued attending to his teaching duties at Nyamhondoro Secondary School.
Chinopfukutwa has given the CSC five days to institute measures to effect Machumi’s automatic resignation from the teaching job, failure of which he will consider instituting appropriate legal action to have him barred from continuing to discharge his duties as a teacher.
According to section 200(3)(a) and (b) of the Constitution, civil servants are prohibited from acting in a partisan manner and from advancing the interests of any political party or cause. Nevertheless, several civil servants have in the past expressed interest in or contested for political office.
There have also been reports that some employees of the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) were violating the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Act by actively participating in political activities and expressing support for the ruling party, ZANU PF. ZBC’s Chief Correspondent, Reuben Barwe, won the position of secretary for Information and Publicity in the ZANU PF District Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections held in December 2020.
Barwe’s victory when the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was investigating magistrate Milton Serima, who contested in ZANU PF’s DCC elections, while Gweru prosecutor Namatirai Chipere resigned after reports indicated that he was campaigning for a spot in the ZANU PF DCCs.
The criticism of public office holders participating in politics and the alleged biased reporting by state institutions, including the ZBC, has led to calls for reforms to ensure a level playing field and enhance the credibility of elections.
