Police in dawn raid on Majongwe house as teacher strike enters second day

By Lance Guma
01 February 2007

Police law and order officers launched a dawn raid on the Harare home of Raymond Majongwe, the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), as a go-slow strike by teachers entered its second day. According to Majongwe police officers arrived at his Cranborne home around 5am Thursday but only found his wife and children sleeping. After tense exchanges in which his wife told them Majongwe was not home, the police left a note, summoning him to report at Harare Central Police station, Law and Order Section, by 8am the same day.

The union leader refused to go and instead sent his lawyers to enquire why the police were looking for him. The police told his lawyers they will look for Majongwe on their own if the lawyers could not facilitate his hand over. The former student leader told Newsreel, ‘the industrial action is not my baby, it involves every other teacher working for the Ministry of Education, so I’m equally surprised as to what they are trying to achieve.’ On Wednesday, teachers affiliated to the PTUZ began a go-slow over poor salaries and say if there is no response from government they will begin a full-blown strike next week Monday.

Asked why they had opted for a go-slow first instead of a full strike Majongwe says they want the process to build momentum. He says their members are spread out across the country and this method of industrial action will allow word to gradually spread out and reach even the remote schools in the country before they call for an all-out strike. ‘We have schools 700 to 900 kilometres away from the major centres and we want them to know about this strike.’

On whether rival union Zimbabwe Teachers Union (ZIMTA) had also joined in the go-slow, Majongwe said information they had was a bit sketchy and still subject to confirmation. He did however say they were receiving disturbing reports from some areas of Matabeleland, Mashonaland West and Harare suggesting ZIMTA officials were telling teachers they had nothing to do with the strike. Majongwe said it was important for all teachers to realise that negotiations in Zimbabwe don’t work.

He says the government response has been to send state security agents disguised as members of the Public Service Inspectorate to monitor the work of teachers in the schools. ‘Some of us are going to be suspended, harassed brutalised, arrested and fired,’ Majongwe added but this he believes is a necessary sacrifice to improve the welfare of teachers.