By Thandiwe Garusa
FORMER Finance Minister Tendai Biti has slammed University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Vice Chancellor Paul Mapfumo’s decision to dismiss striking lecturers and suspend student activists supporting the job action.
He described sanctions against the striking tutors and students union leaders as “failure from an arrogant and incompetent leader.”
A few days back, six students who are members of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) were suspended for holding a demonstration in May in support of their striking lecturers, who have been on an ongoing industrial action since April 16.
Two weeks earlier, the UZ administration fired four leaders of the ongoing lecturers strike for using the great hall without approval from authorities, a dismissal that they felt was a way to stop the strike.
“The suspension of student activists and the dismissal of leaders of the Association of University Teachers UZ is another blatant example of the failure and high-handedness of the vacuous, incompetent leadership of the UZ.
“Prof Mapfumo is an arrogant incompetent Vice Chancellor who mirrors the glaring ignorance and fascism of those he serves.
“Universities are citadels of the highest forms of cerebral engagement. They cannot be reduced to rag tag sub committees of a corrupt kleptocratic ruling party taken over by a greedy illiterate parasitic elite,” Biti said.
The lecturers are demanding a salary increase to at least US$2,250 from their current US$250 as well as improved working conditions.
Meanwhile, Gift ‘Ostallos’ Siziba, the former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Member of Parliament for Pelandaba Tshabala constituency, called for an immediate reinstatement of six suspended students and demanded justice for lecturers facing hardship and unpaid salaries.
“We stand in solidarity with ZINASU and join the call for justice for students and lecturers who have endured months of hardship, including unpaid salaries.
“We will not stand idly by as the future of our youth and the integrity of our academic institutions are compromised,” Siziba said.