HOW MANY TEACHERS MUST DIE, BEFORE GOVT INTERVENES?
There is urgent need for Mr Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND government to address the growing number of suicide cases due to indebtedness amongst teachers, and other civil servants in the country.
It is evident that financial struggles and subsequently stress, anxiety and depression is taking a heavy toll on the mental health of most civil servants, especially teachers, some of whom, are resorting to committing suicide, owing to their failure to settle loans with various lending entities. It is also clear that many people nowadays are unable to sleep due to financial pressures. The country is losing more people every day because of the high cost of living, hypertension, and in extreme cases suicide, both of which are caused by stress.
Wherever one goes in Zambia today, the cries of the people are the same, and they are growing louder and louder every other day. Words fail me to best describe the level of grief, sadness, anger and hunger I have come into contact with during my visits to several and different households and communities across the country. In my trips to these communities, the sadness, brokenness and desperation, which the rise in cost of living has brought to our people is heartbreaking and painful. We have witnessed unprecedented levels of hunger, poverty and despair amongst citizens, which is difficult to comprehend and later on articulate in a way that best reflects what is currently happening in our nation.
It is a fact that the rising cost of living is more than an economic squeeze: it is a public health emergency, potentially on a par with the pandemic. Not being able to afford the essentials, such as food, rent, electricity or transport, has wide-ranging negative impacts on mental and physical health and well-being. Families are in distress. Basic daily feeding has become a very big challenge. Our mothers, our wives, our aunties, our sisters are failing to sleep. Blood pressures are rising exponentially with the rise in the cost of living. Far too many people in the country today can barely afford a meal or two in a day.
This may sound weird and baffling but that is the reality. It’s happening in many households. Families are stressed and are breaking as providers battle to deal with the mental trauma of losing a livelihood and the inability to cope with the situation and fend for their families. Without a doubt, it is this situation, which is compelling most of civil servants, teachers in particular, to opt for loans to survive, which is often leading to indebtedness, and subsequently suicide when they fail to service these loans.
Today, civil servants are in a very serious and painful debt trap that is benefitting their political leaders, who are connected to these money lending companies, which are mercilessly exploiting them. This is why cries and concerns by several institutions like the National Action for quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) are falling on deaf ears. Even attempts at debt swaps to bail out civil servants have been frustrated or thwarted because some people in the key leadership of this government are benefitting from this unbearable and painful reality facing civil servants. They are against any measures, which will help alleviate the indebtedness of our people because they are ripping huge profits out of this exploitation. What kind of leadership is this? What level of greed and self-interest is this?
Things can’t continue this way. We cannot be waking up to news of teachers and other civil servants committing suicide due to indebtedness and the leadership is treating this matter like its business as usual, no.
Enough is enough!
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party