By A Correspondent| Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure has threatened to mobilise teachers to march against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s move to extend retirement age of civil servants to 70.

Speaking to a local daily, Masaraure in the absence of co-ordinated resistance, Mnangagwa’s regime had become notorious for unilaterally making anti-poor policy decisions.

“Citizens are still to come to terms with Mthuli’s anti-poor budget which pledges to squeeze the last dollar from the poor and deliver hot air in return.

“On age limit Artuz calls for a national protest on January 14, 2025, rejecting the nonsense. The government looted pension funds and now they want to force us to work to the grave. We won’t accept that,” Masaraure said.

He said it was unreasonable to raise the pensionable age-limit, while salaries remained stagnant.

“Underpaid civil servants got more promises of salary increments than the increment itself. At the close of the year salaries still remain at a paltry US$300.

“The underpaid civil servants are now heavily in debt and over 90% hardly take home US$200. Shockingly, as poverty levels shoot through the ceiling, the ruling elite and the politically exposed seem to be accumulating more wealth. Citizens should be forgiven for wishing colonialism back.

“Unfortunately the nightmare of Mnangagwa’s leadership appears to be set to last longer than the Constitution anticipated and, of course, what citizens had budgeted for.”

Masaraure expressed fear that the agenda to extend Mnangagwa’s term in office could be forced on the citizens, but called for total rejection of the unconstitutional raising of the pensionable age limit.