THE Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe has petitioned the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission over the tragic death of a civil servant and general impoverishment of educator blamed on the Public Service Commission.
The petition is dated 26 June 2026.
The Complainant is the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), a registered trade union representing public sector educators.
ARTUZ said it brought the complaint in terms of Section 85(1)(d) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe in the public interest.
“While the late Mr. Progress Makamani was not a member of ARTUZ, he was a public servant employed by the Public Service Commission (PSC). The systemic economic conditions that contributed to his untimely death mirror those affecting thousands of public servants represented by ARTUZ and others across Zimbabwe,” the union submitted.
“ARTUZ therefore brings this complaint to protect the constitutional rights, dignity, safety, and welfare of all public servants.”
The respondent is the Public Service Commission (PSC), established under Section 202 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and mandated by the Public Service Act [Chapter 16:04] to administer the Public Service, determine conditions of service, and ensure fair and reasonable employment conditions for public servants.
On 9 June 2026, Mr. Progress Makamani, a primary school teacher employed by the Public Service Commission at Dune Primary School in Buhera District, tragically lost his life after an artisanal mining shaft collapsed while he was engaged in informal mining activities in search of supplementary income.
Mr. Makamani’s death was not an isolated accident. It was the consequence of prolonged economic deprivation faced by public servants who continue to receive salaries far below the cost of living.
ARTUZ averred that average public service earnings remain grossly inadequate to meet the Teacher’s Basket of Needs, estimated at US$1,200 per month for a worker to maintain a basic standard of living. Consequently, many civil servants are forced to seek secondary sources of income through informal and often hazardous economic activities simply to survive.
The prolonged payment of poverty wages creates foreseeable and preventable consequences.
Workers are driven into dangerous survival strategies, including hazardous informal labour, while others become vulnerable to exploitative or unlawful means of supplementing their incomes. Mr. Makamani’s death illustrates the devastating human consequences of systemic underpayment and the failure to provide conditions of employment consistent with constitutional standards.
ARTUZ submits that the Public Service Commission has committed the following constitutional and statutory breaches:
Failure of Duty of Care under the Public Service Act [Chapter 16:04]
As the employer of public servants, the PSC has failed in its statutory duty to provide fair conditions of service and to safeguard the welfare, dignity, and professional standing of its employees. The persistent payment of poverty wages has directly displaced workers into
Violation of Section 65(1) of the Constitution (Labour Rights)
The Respondent remains in continuous breach of Section 65(1) of the Constitution by failing to provide fair and reasonable remuneration. Salaries that fall significantly below the Basket of Needs, deny workers the ability to live in dignity and undermine their constitutional right to fair labour standards.
Violation of Section 48 of the Constitution (Right to Life)
By maintaining employment conditions that make survival on an official salary impossible, the PSC has exposed public servants to foreseeable life-threatening risks. The tragic death of Mr. Progress Makamani demonstrates the fatal consequences of systemic economic deprivation and constitutes a serious infringement of the constitutional right to life.
INVESTIGATIVE ACTIONS SOUGHT FROM THE ZHRC
As a matter of urgent public interest affecting all public servants, ARTUZ respectfully requests the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to:
- Launch a Public Interest Investigation into the gravity of the slave wages being paid to public servants by the Public Service Commission and establish the relationship between sub-poverty remuneration and the dangerous survival strategies that public servants are being forced to adopt.
- Determine the extent to which prolonged underpayment has exposed public servants to life-threatening informal economic activities, chronic indebtedness, and other harmful survival mechanisms.
- Issue recommendations directing the Public Service Commission to align public sector salaries with the actual Basket of Needs, currently estimated at US$1,200 per month, and with constitutional standards of fairness, dignity, and reasonable remuneration.
- Investigate and review exploitative deductions, including the Government Employees Mutual Savings (GEMS) scheme, which continue to erode the already inadequate incomes of public servants.
- Recommend structural reforms that restore the dignity, welfare, safety, labour rights, and socio-economic security of all public servants in Zimbabwe. – STAFF.
