Some Zimbabwean teachers stayed at home while others went
slow on the job as a strike at state schools got off to a patchy start amid
fears of further intimidation by security forces who cracked down hard on last
month’s protests.
Zimbabwe is grappling with an economic crisis marked by
cash shortages and rising prices of basic goods after President Emmerson
Mnangagwa hiked fuel costs 150 percent last month.
That brought demonstrations and looting, plus a brutal
response from security agents, which rights groups say left 12 people dead.
Police put the figure at three.
In schools near central Harare, most teachers appeared to
have turned up for work, but some were not conducting lessons in adherence with
the strike, witnesses said.
In a classroom at a primary school in Harare’s Mbare
township, a Reuters photographer saw one teacher eating from her lunch box in
the morning while pupils sat quietly. She and the
headmistress declined to be interviewed. "Stay home, be safe. Don't be
intimi
dated by police and CIOs (Central Intelligence Organisation)," the
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), the biggest teachers' union, said in a
circular to members.
Zimbabwe has more than 100,000 public sector teachers. The Bulawayo-based online news site, Centre for Innovation
and Technology, said teachers at several schools in the country's second
biggest city did not turn up for work and parents had to collect their
children.
"Some teachers are in class but there is no meaningful
teaching going on," ZIMTA president Richard Gundane told Reuters.
Government workers are demanding wage rises and payments in
U.S. dollars to cope with soaring inflation and an economic crisis that has
sapped supplies of fuel and medicines.
Many Zimbabweans, who have seen purchasing power eroded
despite adopting the dollar in 2009, say Mnangagwa has not delivered on
pre-election pledges to kick-start growth after the exit of Robert Mugabe in
2017.
Despite their demands for better pay, other public workers
declined to join teachers on strike because they are fearful of the volatile
security situation and want to continue negotiations with the government.
Economic hardships have seen the government allowing nurses
to work just three days a week because they do not have enough money for bus
fares, the nurses union said on
Tuesday.
The government has pleaded with teachers' unions to give
talks a chance, saying children will be prejudiced.
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