MSU lecturers down tools

By The Standard | Mar. 2, 2020 | 2 Min read

MIDLANDS State University (MSU) lecturers have joined the growing list of State universities’ workers who have downed tools in the past few days following a meeting on February 28.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

MIDLANDS State University (MSU) lecturers have joined the growing list of State universities’ workers who have downed tools in the past few days following a meeting on February 28.

MSU employees on Friday wrote a letter to the university’s council and Vice-Chancellor informing them about the decision to suspend lectures until their grievances are addressed.

“We write to advise that we had a joint general assembly meeting for both teaching and non-teaching staff today (28-02-2020) in the Great Hall at the main campus. Members made and adopted the following resolution: That all employees at Midlands State University are incapacitated to come to work with immediate effect,” read part of the resolutions by the workers.

The lecturers also resolved that they will only report back to work after they have been capacitated.

“That all members will be waiting for the employer to capacitate them so that they report for work. That all heads of departments should allow subordinates to receive capacitation before coming to report for duty and should not force or victimise them,” the workers said.

The workers also demanded their salaries should tally with what regional universities are paying fellow lecturers.

The MSU’s job action comes after students from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) last year staged a demonstration and 15 students were arrested for protesting against the continued industrial action by lecturers who are demanding a pay hike.

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Last semester, MSU lecturers were reportedly conducting lectures from Monday to Wednesday only, while NUST lecturers were only conducting lessons for the conventional students. On Tuesday, lecturers at NUST in Bulawayo stopped conducting lectures citing incapacitation.

Lecturers at the Zimbabwe Open University have also reportedly informed authorities that they were downing tools.