Lecturers staged a job boycott on April 16, demanding that salaries be restored to pre-2018 levels. However, police responded by arresting three union leaders, including AUT Spokesperson Professor Obvious Vengeyi.
Speaking to the SABC, Vengeyi said, “Currently, University of Zimbabwe academic staff are getting just $230 US dollars. That’s a huge decline from $2,250 for junior lecturers in 2018.”
According to Vengeyi, the salary structure at UZ has completely collapsed, with all staff, from junior lecturers to senior professors , receiving the same amount as secretaries and security guards.
“At the moment, there is no grading system at the University of Zimbabwe. Everybody gets that $230. It’s just the same for secretaries, for security guards, for senior professors, junior professors, and junior lecturers,”he said.
The union is demanding a base salary of at least $2,500 per month for junior lecturers, which they say reflects what they earned before October 2018, when their salaries were slashed.
Vengeyi confirmed that the High Court of Zimbabwe issued an interdict barring the police, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, and the University of Zimbabwe from interfering with the lecturers’ peaceful protest.
“We are so proud that the High Court issued an interdict in our favour,” said Vengeyi. “This followed the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, who arrested us despite following the proper legal process to picket.”
He added that police have since complied with the court order, allowing protests to continue without incident.
“Yesterday we managed to picket without any incident and even today, we’ve just been to the picket lines and finished without disruption. The police are there in civilian clothes monitoring the situation, but they have not disturbed us in any way,” Vengeyi said.
AUT has vowed to continue pushing for salary adjustments and has warned that the strike could spread to other institutions if no meaningful engagement is made by government.
--ChannelAfrica--
