Patriotic Zimbabweans condemn the blanket suspension of striking teachers
PATRIOT: Patriotic Zimbabweans President Charles Muchineripi Mutama
…as Madhuku dismisses the suspension as illegal
Patriotic Zimbabweans (PZ) President, Charles Muchinerepi Mutama has condemned the suspension of teachers as a government arm-twisting response to genuine request for decent salary by the teachers.
“The government should give teachers equal opportunities by responding positively to their sincere demand for decent salary,” said PZ President Mutama.
Mutama’s utterance followed after Primary and Secondary Education Minister Evelyn Ndlovu on Thursday announced the suspension of all teachers who failed to report for duty when schools opened on Monday.
Mutama called for sanity to prevail between the teachers unions and government adding that confrontations won’t take Zimbabwe forwards.
“As PZ we envisage a situation where unions and government sit around the table and try to find each other, The on-going impasse between the two parties is affecting our children whose future should be protected by adults. We can’t afford the luxury of a debate at the expense of our children’s future,” said the leader of the patriots.
Meanwhile a respected UZ law lecturer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, dismissed the suspension of teachers as illegal.
Prof Madhuku said the Minister does not have the authority to suspend teachers because they are employees of the Public Service Commission (PSC).
Wrote Madhuku on Twitter:
Teachers cannot be suspended from work by a Govt Minister: they are employed by the PSC.
Even the PSC itself has no power whatsoever to effect a blanket and mass suspension.
The purported suspensions are unacceptable. Govt must dialogue with teachers’ unions and address issues.
In a statement, Ndlovu said that all the striking teachers will be suspended for three months without pay. The statement read:
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education would like to inform the Nation and its valued stakeholders that all officials within the Ministry who absented themselves from duty since the official opening of schools on 7 February 2022 have been suspended without pay forthwith, for a period of three months.
During this period of suspension, members are not to hinder or interfere with any investigation or evidence relating to the alleged misconduct.
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