Lecturers at State Universities have threatened to go on strike citing the government’s failure to address their deplorable working conditions.
Zimbabwe State Universities Union of Academics (ZISUUA) president, Alois Muzvuwe, in a statement said that the parent Ministry has failed to deal with the myriad of challenges lecturers are facing. He said:
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development has failed to provide answers or solutions to low standards of living that are being experienced by the state Universities teaching staff.
It was noted that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MFED), had produced a supplementary budget in which a 300% increment on commodities price was noted, although this is not commensurate to efforts of adjusting salaries of the entire higher and tertiary education sector.
At this meeting it was also said that in spite of the state universities having submitted a salary review paper through the Zimbabwe State Universities Negotiating Forum, with Professor Ncube assuring the negotiating forum’s technical committee that is position paper would be considered in the July 2019 supplementary budget and the plight of all state universities workers was not addressed in the supplementary budget.
State workers and those from state-assisted institutions have, for some time been agitating for a pay rise following runaway inflation and a steep rise in the cost of living.