The Zimbabwe government has reinstated more than half the 627 teachers it dismissed two weeks ago for taking part in a strike, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere told the state-controlled Herald that less than 300 teachers had been charged for supporting a strike called by the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) for better pay and dubbed illegal by the government.
Zimbabwe’s teachers are the lowest paid in the region. A high school teacher takes home 20 000 Zimbabwe dollars ($364) a month. The PTUZ demanded a 100% salary increase backdated to January and a 100% cost of living adjustment backdated to June.
Salary increases for teachers are expected to be reflected in the national budget due next month, Chigwedere added. Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of the PTUZ dismissed Chigwedere’s comments as ”public relations” and said the government was ”hoodwinking the nation”.
He said that ”over 400 teachers have been served with letters of suspension” and that classes in some schools had been severely disrupted.
The suspension letters were intended to ”intimidate the teachers into submission”, Majongwe added. – Sapa-AFP