Police have arrested three University of Zimbabwe (UZ) academics – Obvious Vengeyi, Desmond Ndedzu and Boncase Mwakorera, an air force group captain – for a strike over salaries and working conditions at the country’s oldest and leading institution of higher learning in Harare.
The three were arrested at the UZ main entrance this morning.
Vengeyi is a professor at the UZ Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy; Ndedzu a public finance expert in the Economics Department and Mwakorera an aeronautical engineering lecturer.
Mwakorera is also an Air Force of Zimbabwe Group Captain and Computer Science and Software Engineering Department chairperson at the Zimbabwe National Defence University.
This follows a series of events at UZ where a battle has been raging between the Professor Paul Mapfumo administration and lecturers represented by the Association of University Teachers (AUT).
Mapfumo has been UZ vice-chancellor since 2018 and his tenure has been turbulent over salaries and academic freedom.
Lecturers are demanding that their salaries be reinstated to pre-October 2018 levels of US$2 250 a month for a junior.
They currently earn US$230 and a local currency component of not more than ZiG8000; less than US$$200 a month.
The salaries were drastically slashed by 87% in 2018, leaving the lecturers struggling to meet basic needs such as housing, food, transport, health and education for their children.
AUT says it sent more than 27 letters to the university management since 2018, requesting salary adjustments but received only one response.
This ultimately forced the lecturers to resolve to go on strike today. Government responded with the usual and typical authoritarian repression instinct – arresting them.
Dr Munyaradzi Gwisai, also UZ lecturer, was dispatched to Avondale police station to seek his colleagues’ release.
Prior to this, UZ administrators had suspended some lecturers over the decision to strike.
Those suspended were AUT President Phillemon Munyaradzi Chamburuka and fellow union leaders Justin Tandire, Mwakorera, Vengeyi, and Gwisai. Yesterday, AUT issued an emotional and scathing statement on today’s labour action, rallying its stakeholder troops to battle.
Describing the UZ administration as oppressive, parasitic and arrogant, AUT said:
“Colleagues, the 16th of April 2025 is a game changer! The strike is on! It is indefinite! The University of Zimbabwe has done nothing to meet our demands for a reasonable, fair and just salary increment. We have demanded for a pre-October 2018 salary whereby a junior lecturer was paid USD$2 250 per month. But they have been adamant and continued to pay USD$230 and a ZiG component of not more than ZW$8000 equivalent to less than USD$200. We have served this University with great distinction. We have subsidised this University for more than seven years. On the contrary, they have plundered it. They have been unpatriotic. They have awarded themselves with all the luxuries. Taking for personal use even the resources we gathered. Colleagues, from the 16th of April, we are withdrawing not only our labour but also our tools of work. We shall henceforth withdraw our computers, mobile phones and data! We shall henceforth stop participating in research, teaching and university service! Enough is enough!!!.”
Addressing students in their statement, the lecturers added:
“As we said in our previous communique, we love you and we love our profession. But there comes a time when it is no longer possible to continue business as usual. For the past seven years we have endured humiliation from the University administration that reduced us to paupers. We your educators are no longer able to be your role models! We can’t afford to pay for our own children to attend this very University; we can’t afford to drive let alone buy cars. We have stood under the rains with you on queues for Mushikashika hitch-hiking to and from university. We have met and jostled for second hand clothes (mazitye) at Mbare Musika and various other Kotamai boutiques in Harare. Our strike is not to harm you. It is for your good. We wish to provide you quality education. But the University of Zimbabwe administration is standing in the way. We wish to thank you for solidarity messages and the patience and understanding you have demonstrated so far. Most of us now walk from town to university. Most of us no longer can afford lunch even the one served at the university. Our message to you is, from the 16th of April 2025, we your educators shall embark on a legal and peaceful strike. We shall not teach you! We shall not invigilate your exams! We shall not mark your exams! We shall not be available for consultation physically and via emails and phones. We have withdrawn our tools of work and our labour until the University of Zimbabwe administration restores our dignity. We are sorry for the inconvenience! We shall be picketing at the University of Zimbabwe from the 16th of April until our demands are met. You are invited to support us. You are free to stop by and wave in support. You are free to hoot in solidarity. More importantly, please talk to students and fellow guardians to support our efforts. We are doing this for all of us.”
The entire AUT executive was suspended with effect from 7 April 2025, but the suspension letters were received starting from 8 April in the afternoon.
The executive met on 9 April and concluded suspensions were futile and frantic efforts by the university to frustrate the looming strike today.
The lecturers say they will fight for their rights and not retreat from now onwards until their grievances are addressed.
The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions have issued solidarity messages with the UZ lecturers and academic fighting for better salaries and working conditions.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in the doldrums and citizens living in abject poverty for decades now due to Zanu PF leadership, governance and policy failures, as well as corruption and incompetence.
