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Violence in the schools
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
May 11, 2008

What Mr. Mugabe, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, SADC and AU leaders, churches and all Zimbabweans must know about violence in schools:

Our role as teachers is one of developing the human mind for the benefit of mankind. Unfortunately we have some people whose muscles are more developed than their brains - the instance bigger muscles and small brains. It is the section of our community that resorts to violence in order to dominate others. As teachers we unreservedly and strongly condemn violence by anyone against anybody. We find violence to be a primitive tactic of acquiring and protecting power. It is criminal, demonic and entrenches hatred in communities. Some of the ethnic and tribal conflicts that we grapple with today are a result of violent conflicts among those who lived before us. We should act to prevent our children from inheriting conflicts that we could have avoided.

Violence on any Zimbabwean, any teacher or any innocent child is an unforgivable injustice. Teachers have various strategies of dealing with the political attacks some of which could be very drastic but would want to give dialogue a chance. Extending the dispute between teachers and ZANU PF to the political front would worsen the situation of the learners as most have not been able to attend lessons when schools opened on 29 April due to the upsurge of political violence in the countryside. We shudder to ask how teaching and learning can take place when the following is happening in our schools:

• Militias and war veterans are beating teachers. There are cases where teachers were either beaten in front of school pupils or community members.
• Political meetings are being convened at schools during working hours. Teachers and parents are coerced to attend. During these meetings hate against teachers is being propagated. Hate and inflammatory speeches like; 'Pasi nematicha. Maticha murimbwa. Maticha makatengesa nyika. Vana vemahure,' are being uttered.
• Teachers' cottages are violently broken into during the night with the intention of abducting teachers, looting property and groceries and carrying out arson attacks.
• Classroom instructors are systematically being threatened with unspecified action. Politicians moving in Mitsubishi, Mahindra, Rhino C.A.M. trucks without number plates are getting access into schools to address and threaten teachers.
• Some schools have been turned into militia and torture bases.
• Pupils, male and female, fifteen years and above are being forced to toyi-toyi and attend all night vigils where we understand a lot of sexual abuse is taking place.

The schools listed in the table below have been affected by at least one of the above-listed forms of political disturbances. The list is limited to reported and confirmed cases only. There are several others whose reports have not been received and other cases where collaborative information is still being gathered.

The perpetrators' message to teachers is consistent; teachers will not be allowed to vote in the perpetrators' communities and will not be enrolled as polling officers in the presidential election run-off. They allege that teachers plotted the downfall of ZANU PF by going on strike in the pre-29 March election period and influenced the otherwise loyal rural folk to vote for the opposition.

It also has to be put on record that there are teachers and headmasters, some occupying senior positions in sister unions, who are actively working in cahoots with rabid political thugs in creating hit lists and attacking teachers. The impact of the high-crested wave of political aggression has been colossal. Among other consequences, the glaring ones are:

• Sixty seven teachers who have been hospitalized in Harare, Kotwa, Karoi, Rusape, Bonda, Howard, Guruve, Marondera and many other clinics.
• Two teachers who have been detained after being accused of political violence - a case of victims being accused of being victimizers.
• One hundred and thirty nine teachers who have been separated from their children and spouses when they fled their schools.
• At an average school enrolment of five hundred, the projected number of pupils without instruction due to displacement of teachers is two hundred and fifty thousand.
• Two hundred and thirty nine teachers' houses have been destroyed.
• An undisclosed number of teachers have fled into neighboring countries and are likely not to return.

To SADC and AU
Teachers in Zimbabwe believe the SADC and AU are institutions through which regional and continental solidarity is given to the suffering and oppressed Africans. It frustrates teachers to see SADC and the AU slowly sliding into institutions of leadership solidarity as opposed to people solidarity. We are very disappointed by the manner in which our African brothers and sisters have handled the Zimbabwean crisis. Zimbabweans are made of flesh and blood; they do not need westerners to tell them that they are being beaten. SADC and AU must stop chasing the shadow of the imperialist ghost and listen to what the majority of Zimbabweans are saying. When our nationalist leaders say they are reclaiming land from the white minority we take it that the land is needed for farming and not to bury us when we die of hunger and politically motivated violence.

We appeal to SADC and the AU to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe so that the claims we have stated can be proved or disapproved.

To parents, communities and churches

• Stand up and make sure that children go to school. Communities should realize that the perpetrators of violence against teachers are not residents in the violence ravaged settlements and have nothing to lose if learning programmes are disrupted in these settlements.
• Expose schemes by politicians to attack teachers.
• Not to pay school fees until you are sure that school attendance and learning are certain to proceed without being disrupted by political disturbances.

Advice to fellow teachers affected by political threats and violence

• Make four copies of written reports informing your Headmaster, District Education Officer and staff association or trade union that you cannot report for duty due to political disturbances. It is important for the copies to be date stamped as proof of service on the responsible offices and for you to retain the fourth copy.
• Do not fill in vacation leave forms. You are not absent from duty at your own preference.
• Where possible report these cases to the police even if they will not proceed to arrest the perpetrators. If attended to by a doctor keep the medical report at a secure place. We know there are disturbing reports of police officers who are allegedly refusing to cooperate and assist victims of violence.
• Inform the Head or DEO of your whereabouts on a weekly basis. Make sure there is proof of this communication.

Otherwise go vote wherever a presidential run-off is held. Take your wounds to the polling station for healing. Teachers are public servants. In the presidential run-off we should be more than willing to serve as polling officers even without payment.

Management committee
Concerned citizens and teachers are urged to inform the PTUZ of any political disturbances in their schools by text messages or by phoning the Hotline Nos. +263912880307, +263912880308, +263912440584, +263912811907, +263912811908, +263912358274, 04-741937, 04-2912485, 09-881418, 054-229177

Visit the PTUZ fact sheet

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