A strike by university lecturers may soon come to an end following assurances from Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba that the Government is addressing their welfare concerns.
Speaking last week, Charamba acknowledged that the lecturers’ grievances were “genuine”. In an update on Monday, he said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had “long approved” a proposal to resolve the crisis at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), but blamed unnamed officials for delaying its implementation.
Posting on social media platform X under his handle Jamwanda, Charamba said:
YOU HAVE BEEN HEARD!!! Government is addressing the welfare of University Lecturers. Just as well they raised the matter publicly. It turns out the Chancellor, Dr E.D. Mnangagwa, had long approved recommendations which should have put this matter well behind us. Inertia gathered somewhere and OPC will cause movement. Thank you Comrades for acting responsibly!
This comes after the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has threatened to expand industrial action to all 14 state universities within the next 10 days unless the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the government address their concerns over inadequate wages.
The AUT is demanding that the government and UZ restore lecturers’ salaries to their levels before October 2018, when a junior lecturer earned US$2,250, before the pay was drastically reduced to US$230.
AUT spokesperson, Professor Obvious Vengeyi, told New Zimbabwe that the UZ administration has been refusing to engage with lecturers.
The week before last, Professor Vengeyi and two of his colleagues were arrested at the University of Zimbabwe for protesting against poor wages. They were released after spending a night in police custody and each paying a fine of US$15.
The lecturers subsequently obtained a High Court order preventing the police from interfering with their peaceful protest. As a result, they decided to suspend all lectures on Thursday and Friday last week.
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