For Immediate Release:
29 June 2026
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has today formally lodged a Public Interest Complaint before the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) against the Public Service Commission (PSC) over what we believe to be systemic labour rights violations that continue to impoverish public servants and expose them to life-threatening survival conditions.
The complaint arises from the tragic death of Mr. Progress Makamani, a teacher employed by the Public Service Commission at Dune Primary School in Buhera District, who lost his life on 9 June 2026 after an artisanal mine shaft collapsed. Mr. Makamani, like thousands of other Zimbabweans both employed and unemployed was pushed to risk life and limb in unsafe mining activities to supplement his meagre salary, which was insufficient to provide for his family’s basic needs.
ARTUZ maintains that Mr. Makamani’s death was not an unfortunate accident in isolation. It was the foreseeable consequence of years of institutional neglect, poverty wages, and the continued failure by the Public Service Commission to fulfil its constitutional and statutory obligations towards public servants.Teachers and other public servants continue to receive salaries that fall far below the Teacher’s Basket of Needs, which ARTUZ’s 2026 Teacher Basket of Needs Survey estimated at US$1,260 per month. Such wages are incapable of meeting even the most basic household needs and have forced thousands of workers into dangerous informal economic activities simply to survive.
The Commission cannot continue to preside over employment conditions that deny workers dignity while expecting professionalism and quality public service delivery. Workers earning poverty wages are left with impossible choices: endure chronic deprivation or expose themselves to dangerous livelihood activities. Mr. Makamani paid for this broken system with his life.
Through our complaint, ARTUZ has requested the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to investigate the gravity of the poverty wages being paid to public servants by the Public Service Commission and determine the extent to which prolonged underpayment has contributed to hazardous survival strategies, chronic indebtedness, and the erosion of workers’ constitutional rights.
The complaint further seeks recommendations compelling the Public Service Commission to align public sector salaries with the actual Teacher’s Basket of Needs, investigate exploitative salary deductions, including the Government Employees Mutual Savings (GEMS) scheme, and implement structural reforms that restore the dignity, safety, welfare, and labour rights of public servants.
ARTUZ believes that labour rights are fundamental human rights. The rights to life, dignity, fair remuneration, and safe working conditions cannot exist only on paper while workers continue to die in abandoned mine shafts, migrate in desperation, or sink deeper into poverty because of institutional failures.
The death of Mr. Progress Makamani must become a turning point in Zimbabwe’s public service. No teacher, nurse, extension officer, police officer, or any other public servant should ever be forced to risk their life simply to earn enough to provide for their family.We therefore call upon the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to urgently exercise its constitutional mandate by conducting an independent investigation into these systemic violations and recommending immediate corrective measures.
Justice for Progress Makamani means justice for every public servant.
Issued by:ARTUZ Information Department📧 ruraltrsunion@gmail.com📞 +263777473135 / 776129336 / 775643192Follow us: @ARTUZ_teachers
Cupid in Flight
48” x 48” Giclee print on archival paper.