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Harare Poly lecturers go on strike
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
May 25, 2011

Party time lectures at the Harare Polytechnic college have gone on strike over salary non-payment. Lectures at the country's biggest and oldest polytechnic have not been conducting lecturers since the opening of the second term of the academic year 2011 which started on the 9th of May saying the Principal Steven Raza had refused to obey a ministry directive that party time lecturers be paid by the institutions.

Raza well known for not being receptive to ideas has been running the institution using an iron fist, denying the students the right to representation, as well as politicizing the operating environment for members of the staff and this has been his greatest tool to conceal acts of maladministration and corruption hence a number of lecturers have been forced to leave after dissenting to his iron hand.

In her 2009 report the Comptroller General Mildred Chari highlighted that the Harare Poly administration could not account for more than three thousand American dollars, in the following year more than $10 000 was mysteriously stolen from the accounts department. Again in 2009 a fight erupted between Raza and members of the staff after it was discovered that Raza had swindled money designed to be an incentive to lecturers.

Raza has been using his iron muscle to asphyxiate anyone who might be a challenge or capable of exposing such acts. For a number of years the students at the institution have been denied the right to representation (Student Representative Council) imposing his own puppets regardless of genuine and consistent calls for proper representation by students.

ZINASU is disturbed by such events where students who sacrificed their belongings such as cattle and goats in order to raise fees are denied their academic rights and freedoms. Equally ZINASU views the concerns of the lecturers as legitimate and sincere, it is thus imperative that efforts to rejects Raza's repression be conducted in unison. Raza's veil of repression must collectively be pierced now. ZINASU is thus urging the students of Harare poly to rise in demand of protection of their right to education.ZINASU also calls for a full investigation and forensic audit of the Raza administration.

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