THE
poor
remuneration
and
deplorable
conditions
of
service
for
academic
staff
at
Zimbabwe’s
state
universities,
which
has
led
to
the
highly
publicised
indefinite
strike
by
the
teaching
staff
at
the
University
of
Zimbabwe
(UZ)
smacks
of
a
shocking
administrative
failure
and
abuse
of
duty
by
the
authorities
at
the
state
universities;
with
the
embarrassing
complicity
of
the
Ministry
of
Higher
and
Tertiary
Education,
Innovation,
Science
and
Technology
Development.
At
the
core
of
their
long
unresolved
multifaceted
grievances,
the
striking
UZ
academic
staff
are
demanding
the
restoration
of
their
pre-October
2018
salary
levels,
when
the
basic
salary
of
a
junior
lecturer
was
circa
US$2,250
to
$2,500
per
month.
This
fair
demand
arises
from
the
fact
that
in
October
2018,
the
university
authorities
inexplicably
slashed
the
US$2,250
to
$2,500
per
month;
to
what
is
today
a
paltry
average
of
US$230
to
$300
per
month.
The
reduction
has
been
by
a
cruel
87
percent.
The
current
reduced
salary
has
a
local
currency
component,
averaging
ZWG
6,000
to
8,000,
and
amounting
to
less
than
US$200.
No-one
needs
any
advice
from
a
rocket
scientist
to
understand
that
this
deplorable
situation
has
left
the
academic
staff
unable
to
make
ends
meet,
as
they
cannot
afford
basic
necessities
like
housing,
food,
transport,
healthcare,
school
fees
and
the
like;
in
an
economy
whose
generally
harsh
environment
has
been
worsened
by
inflation
and
currency
devaluation.
Through
their
union
representative,
the
Association
of
University
Teachers
(AUT),
the
academic
staff
at
UZ
have
given
the
public
a
compelling
case
about
their
slave
wages
and
deplorable
conditions,
and
the
staff
describe
their
pitiful
financial
situation
as
rendering
them
“incapacitated”
to
perform
their
duties
effectively
and
efficiently.
Although
there
are
many
disturbing
facets
that
the
academic
staff
have
shared
about
their
salary
dire
straits,
notably,
two
of
their
grievances
expose
the
rot
at
UZ
in
particularly
telling
and
worrying
ways.
First,
the
AUT
says
while
the
UZ
academic
staff
have
been
wallowing
in
enforced
poverty
due
to
the
unilateral
slashing
of
their
salaries
in
2018,
in
the
interim
the
UZ
management
has
awarded
itself
lavish
packages
that
have
included
luxury
cars
and
hefty
US
dollar
perks,
while
prioritising
the
pursuit
of
non-essential
projects
at
the
expense
of
the
welfare
and
working
conditions
of
the
academic
staff.
Second,
the
AUT
says
that
UZ
authorities
have
been
refusing
to
engage
the
association,
and
claims
that,
since
2018,
the
association
has
written
over
27
letters
to
UZ
management
asking
for
salary
reviews,
and
has
received
only
one
negative
response,
and
has
been
granted
only
two
inconclusive
meetings
in
seven
years.
The
AUT
characterises
the
managerial
approach
and
attitude
of
the
UZ
as
always
“prescriptive’
and
never
“consultative”
or
“explorative”
to
find
solutions.
And
this
begs
the
question:
where
has
the
Ministry
of
Higher
and
Tertiary
Education,
Innovation,
Science
and
Technology
Development
been
in
this
fiasco
over
seven
years?
All
told,
the
2018
reduction
of
the
salaries
of
academic
staff
by
a
staggering
87
percent
can
only
be
described
as
unfair,
unjust
and
indefensible.
This
is
the
case
not
only
of
the
striking
academic
staff
at
UZ
but
also
of
academic
staff
at
all
state
universities.
The
devastating
impact
on
the
livelihoods
of
the
academic
staff
has
hit
the
bottom
of
the
barrel;
as
they
are
no
longer
able
to
fend
for
themselves
and
their
families
or,
as
per
their
vocation,
no
longer
able
to
adequately
and
meaningfully
teach
their
students;
let
alone
to
do
any
research
to
produce
the
intellectual
property
that
is
necessary
for
the
country’s
industrialisation
and
modernisation.
While
it
was
terribly
bad
for
the
university
universities
—
with
the
complicity
of
the
Ministry
of
Higher
and
Tertiary
Education,
Innovation,
Science
and
Technology
Development
—
to
have
superintended
over
this
debacle
in
the
first
place,
it
is
worse
that
they
have
done
nothing
to
reverse
and
redress
the
situation
over
a
very
long
seven
years.
It’s
a
shameful
debacle.
The
university
authorities
and
the
ministry
cannot
escape
the
indictment
that
their
inability
to
redress
the
situation
is
a
shocking
administrative
failure
and
abuse
of
duty,
which
has
resulted
in
an
intolerable
violation
of
the
human
dignity
of
the
academic
staff
at
state
universities.
Not
only
is
this
a
national
embarrassment,
but
it
is
also
a
threat
to
the
country’s
economic
interests
with
national
security
implications.
One
thing
should
be
clear:
the
poor
remuneration
of
academic
staff
at
state
universities,
which
is
emblematic
of
an
insidious
marginalisation
of
higher
education
and
its
treatment
as
some
largely
irrelevant
ivory
tower
occupation
—
that
can
be
ignored
in
the
prioritisation
of
national
resource
allocation
—
needs
to
stop,
in
the
national
interest.
It
would
be
impossible
for
Zimbabwe
to
defeat
the
enemies
of
the
people,
namely
hunger,
poverty,
disease,
ignorance
and
corruption
without
the
kid
of
intellectual
property
that
can
only
come
from
higher
education;
particularly
but
not
only
through
Science,
Technology,
Engineering
and
Mathematics
(STEM).
The
impression
often
given
that
the
solutions
to
hunger,
poverty,
disease,
ignorance
and
corruption
will
come
from
civil
servants
and
politicians
is
misguided,
misplaced
and
wrong.
In
the
final
analysis,
countries
develop
and
compete
on
the
basis
and
strength
of
their
intellectual
capacity
and
intellectual
property.
The
most
closely
guarded
national
secrets
in
geopolitics
is
intellectual
property
that
makes
the
world
go
round;
it’s
not
secrets
about
who
said
what,
who
sleeps
with
who
or
who
has
stolen
what.
It’s
intellectual
property.
The
trade
beef
between
the
US
and
China
is
not
about
tariffs,
it
is
over
the
ownership
of
intellectual
property.
It
is
in
this
connection
that
the
most
important
institutions
–
and
indeed
persons
–
in
society
are
the
producers
of
intellectual
property,
and
the
most
common
and
most
reliable
of
these
institutions
are
universities.
A
society
that
does
not
adequately
remunerate
or
reward
its
academic
staff
at
its
institutions
of
higher
education,
and
which
treats
its
universities
merely
as
teaching
and
learning
institutions,
and
not
as
producers
of
cutting-edge
intellectual
property
that’s
patentable
and
commercially
useable,
is
its
own
worst
enemy.
The
poor
remuneration,
marginalisation
and
mistreatment
of
academic
staff
at
state
universities
in
the
country
is
a
national
crisis.
It
needs
to
be
fixed
as
a
matter
of
urgency!
Professor
Jonathan
Moyo
is
a
former
minister
of
a
Higher
and
Tertiary
Education,
Innovation,
Science
and
Technology
Development