Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, ARTUZ is irked by the barbaric conduct of some school administrators in the Midlands province who are victimizing our members. The misguided school authorities are becoming law unto themselves, disregarding human rights of teachers and inciting communities to victimize our members.
The most recent case of Mr Manzungu, a hard working teacher at Simana Primary School in Silobela, Kwekwe district. Cde Manzungu is living in the bush after the school headmaster working in cahoots with some community members, evicted our member from school residence. One community member called Mthoko has threatened to kill Mr Manzungu. Our member’s crime is being incapacitated leading to failure to report for duty.
Mr Manzungu was evicted on 23 January 2020 and he filed a police report at Silobela station at 0800hrs the same day, requesting state protection. Unfortunately the police have not acted to restrain the rabid Mthoko who is still free and threatening to kill our member.
Our member has requested to be transferred from this hazardous workstation but some human resources officials at Kwekwe district offices have flatly refused and further declared that Mr Manzungu should go back to Simana and face the music.
The barbaric conduct of the education officials is shocking and will not go unchallenged. We are working flat out to guarantee the safety of our member and ensure that all perpetrators are forced to account.
In September 2019 we had a similar case of Cde Gerald Tapera a Maths teacher at Mapfungautsi Secondary school in Gokwe. Cde Gerald was evicted from school residence and barred from attending to his duties by the school headmaster working with ZANU PF members in the community. Mr Tapera went to report to the District officials seeking recourse. No action was taken and his salary was ceased for absenteeism at a time he was being blocked from performing his professional duties. They chased him from the school and charged him for being absent.
We are battling to get justice for Cde Tapera, with education officials at Gokwe district being antagonistic and disregarding the legitimate concerns of our member.
These two cases are just a tip of the iceberg, we are documenting a lot of cases from this province. We are reliably informed that state agents in Midlands have boasted that they are cleaning the President’s province. These agents are inciting school authorities and communities to victimize our members.
We will not be deterred by these cowardly acts, we will descent on Midlands province and confront these cowards until justice is served.
We call upon the Minister of Education and his permanent Secretary to whip their subordinates into line all risk lawsuits.
Source: Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ)
