By Staff Reporter
Harare – Police heavy-handedness was on display once again on Wednesday when they violently dispersed a demonstration by University of Zimbabwe (UZ) lecturers and arrested their leaders.
The detained Association of University Teachers (AUT) officials Borncase Mwakorera, Obvious Vengeyi, and Desmond Ndedzu were taken to Avondale Police Station.
The small but determined group of lecturers had gathered at their workplace to demand a salary review from university authorities.
The educators, represented by AUT, are pushing for their wages to be restored to pre-October 2018 levels, when junior lecturers earned US$2,500 per month.
The arrests occurred despite AUT leaders having secured prior permission from both police and university officials to hold the protest.
AUT legal adviser Munyaradzi Gwisai condemned the police action, stating that the picket was lawful.
“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,” Gwisai said.
“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 marks the second failed strike attempt in weeks, after the first was blocked by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.
Following the initial setback, AUT leaders regrouped—only to face suspensions and police clashes.
A lecturer, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, revealed that frustration peaked after higher education minister Fredrick Shava visited UZ and pledged to align salaries with regional standards.
“The Higher and Tertiary Education minister Fredrick Shava came to us after hearing through outspoken veteran Blessed Geza’s press conference that lecturers are earning the salary of garden boys,” the lecturer said.
“That’s when the minister promised to pay us salaries equivalent to our regional peers.”
Another lecturer lamented the erosion of dignity under current pay.
“Imagine to go to work I need US$250 for fuel which is my salary, so what do I eat, feed my family with yet I have three degrees, plus more than 40 publications?”
UZ lecturers now take home a meager US$300 including a ZiG component (worth under US$200), a major drop from the US$5,000 once earned by professors.
UZ Vice-Chancellor Paul Mapfumo was unavailable for comment.
