Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Several University of Zimbabwe (UZ) lecturers were arrested on Wednesday morning after staging a peaceful picket at their workplace, demanding a salary review from university authorities.
The arrested leaders of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) are Borncase Mwakorera, Obvious Vengeyi, and Desmond Ndedzu. They were taken to Avondale Police Station.
The lecturers, who are members of AUT, are calling for their salaries to be restored to pre-October 2018 levels, when a junior lecturer earned approximately US$2,500.
The arrests occurred despite AUT leaders having formally sought permission from both the police and university authorities to go on strike.
AUT legal adviser Munyaradzi Gwisai said the police claimed the picketing was unlawful. He said:
In terms of the law it is clear that the labour law allows registered trade unions to authorise a picket as long as the strike is lawful and this is exactly what happened.
It is a registered union and it authorises a picket and the university was advised and they refused to have the picket in their premises hence it was done outside… the police complicit with university authorities want to suppress a lawful and constitutional strike.
This is the second time in as many weeks that University of Zimbabwe lecturers have attempted to go on strike, after their initial effort was blocked by the parent ministry.
A lecturer, who spoke on to NewsDay condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said what angered staff the most was a visit by Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Fredrick Shava, during which he promised to align their salaries with regional standards—a promise that has yet to be fulfilled. Said the lecturer:
The Higher and Tertiary Education minister Fredrick Shava came to UZ after hearing through outspoken veteran Blessed Geza’s press conference that lecturers are earning the salary of garden boys.
That’s when the minister promised to pay us salaries equivalent to our regional peers.
University of Zimbabwe lecturers are currently earning around US$300, along with a ZiG component that, when converted, does not exceed US$200—far below the previous benchmark, when professors earned up to US$5,000.
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