President of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Raymond Majongwe, has expressed dismay at reports his union has received of teachers being victimised and threatened with extreme violence since President Robert Mugabe announced elections would take place in 2011.
Political violence
Majongwe has expressed his union’s fears for teachers’ lives because of escalating state-sanctioned violence and intimidation. He said: “We want to put on record that the situation in and around schools is disturbing us. The election that is coming will not solve any problems facing teachers. In fact, the election will increase graveyards and orphans.”
Six teachers from Gwangwava Primary School in Rushinga were forcibly transferred to other schools in Bindura after war veterans and supporters of the President Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) said that they did not want the teachers in their community.
Zimbabwean teachers, especially in rural areas, have been the victims of political violence and extortion by war veterans and ZANU-PF supporters who accuse them of supporting the pro-democracy, opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.
Majongwe confirms that PTUZ has received reports of teachers being targeted to join ZANU-PF, with hundreds of teachers being forced to hand over their earnings as punishment if they refuse to do so. The situation has prompted many of Zimbabwe’s teachers to flee the country and seek refuge in neighbouring states like South Africa and Botswana, or to go to countries overseas.
This has deepened the crisis already facing schools in the country which have been starved of funding and which are hard-pressed to meet education for all targets.
Support to Zimbabwean teachers
Teacher trade unionists from around the world have shown solidarity with colleagues in Zimbabwe. Dr. Patrick Roach, an EI Executive Board member and the Deputy General Secretary of NASUWT, an EI affiliate in Britain, said: “NASUWT is deeply concerned by the continuing attacks on teachers in Zimbabwe. We stand in solidarity with the PTUZ in calling for these politically motivated attacks on teachers to stop now.”
Convenor of the Commonwealth Teachers’ Group (CTG), Christine Blower, added: “The CTG is extremely concerned about attacks on teachers and their unions in Zimbabwe. We condemn all attempts by the Government of Zimbabwe to silence the democratic and human rights of teachers and their unions to act in the best interests of their members, their schools and children. These attacks are clearly politically motivated and must stop.”
EI is urging all affiliate members to lobby their Zimbabwean authorities, through their national embassies, to end the violence and intimidation against teachers and ensure that all schools are safe sanctuaries.
To download the booklet “Schools shall be safe sanctuaries” in PDF please go to: www.ei-ie.org/go/a
By National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), UK
This article was published in Worlds of Education, Issue 37, April 2011.
