The government held crunch meetings with teachers on Friday night in a bid to end the week-long teachers’ strike. This comes as teachers unions claimed that over 80 per cent of their members were on strike.
Teachers have been on strike since February 5 over poor salaries. In meetings held previously, the government said that it had no capacity to pay salaries in US dollars or to raise them significantly.
Speaking to Newsday on Friday, Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe confirmed the meeting. He said:
Apparently, things have changed with regards to the future of our struggle. We are meeting with the government tonight.
The reason for the meeting is to see how best we can salvage this situation. We have been saying we want to engage the government and the fact that they have (agreed) to meet the education sector, which is on strike, the meeting will liberate ourselves.
We can’t pretend that things are right. Pupils need to learn yes, but teachers also need to be able to care for their families. We are saying time for dialogue is now.