Half of Zimbabwe teachers are victims of violence

ZimOnline

By Peter Marimudza

13 February 2012

More than half of Zimbabwe’s teachers have at one point during the past decade experienced some form of political violence including being threatened, beaten up, tortured or raped, according to a new report released at the weekend.

The report prepared by the Progressive Teachers of Union Zimbabwe (PTUZ) is based on the findings of a survey carried out between April and June 2011 involving 1 200 teachers randomly selected from across the country, but with particular bias to rural areas that have suffered the most political violence since 2000.

The document details how militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party, war veterans, soldiers and other state security agents have at every major election attacked teachers, with hundreds forced to flee schools mid-term in fear for their lives.

The report said: “51percent (of) teachers (interviewed) reported that they have directly experienced political violence of one form or another, and 55 percent stated that they had been forced to vote for a particular political party because of violence or threats of violence, with the worst election for such intimidation being June 2008.

“Sixty-eight percent stated that they had experienced violence in the June 2008 election, but high percentages also reported direct experience of violence in 2000 and also the March 2008 election.”

Too influential

According to the report, intimidation and being forced to attend political meetings were the most common forms of violation, but there was also a high incidence of assault, torture, extortion, being barred from voting, and forced displacement of teachers.

The report that calls on the coalition government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to ban political parties from carrying out their activities at schools says teachers were targeted because they were: “either seen as opposition supporters, too influential in the community, or not actively supporting ZANU PF.”

With Zimbabwe expected to hold fresh elections either later this year or in 2013, the report warns of possible mass resignations from schools especially in rural areas unless the governments enacts “laws that restrict and criminalise the use or occupation of schools for political activities”.

According to the report, when respondents were asked what they would do if violence recurred, “a large percentage (50 percent) responded by saying they would flee the area and move to urban schools.”

ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo could not be reached last night for comment on the matter. But Mugabe’s party has in the past denied reports linking it or its supporters to political violence as untrue and mere propaganda meant to tarnish the former liberation movement’s image.

Education Minister David Coltart was also not immediately available for comment on the matter. Coltart, from the smaller breakaway MDC faction led by Industry Minister Welshman Ncube , has in the past called on all political parties to stop using schools as venues for meetings or any other political activity.

Routine violence

Political violence and human rights abuses, especially during elections, have become routine in Zimbabwe since the 1999 emergence of Tsvangirai and his MDC as the most potent threat ever to Mugabe and ZANU PF’s decades-long hold on power.

Teachers, their spouses and families have borne the brunt of the violence and rights abuses.

For example, the PTUZ report details how teachers at Muzinda and Machiva schools in Zaka district in Masvingo province were during the run-up to the June 2008 presidential run-off election seriously beaten up as punishment for allegedly campaigning for Tsvangirai and his MDC who were then in opposition.

“On this tragic day, the 2^nd of June 2008, (the) teachers were accused of campaigning for the MDC. The attack resulted in one teacher, Taurai Gwenzi (not real name) being severely injured and hospitalised at St. Antony’s Mission Hospital,” said the report.

The report also narrates an incident when a female teacher from a school in the Midlands province town of Kwekwe was “flaunted before a gathering of over one thousand people” at a sports stadium and threatened with severe but unspecified punishment because her husband was an MDC supporter.

“The (ZANU PF) party officials went on to charge that the teacher should dig a small hole in the ground using her fingers and spit into it in a typical cultural gesture to show deep repentance for one’s sins,” the  report said.

New constitution

The report that among other key recommendations calls for the creation of school protection committees and for civil society and teachers unions to develop early warning systems to raise alarm when teachers come under attack says in several cases teachers were told how to vote during the presidential run-off election.

Zimbabwe witnessed some of its worst ever political violence during the run up to the June 2008 vote that was being held after Mugabe was defeated by Tsvangirai in an earlier vote the previous March. But Tsvangirai failed to achieve the margin required to take power and avoid a second round run-off vote.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off ballot citing state–sponsored attacks against his supporters and in the process, leaving Mugabe to win as sole candidate.

But the election was universally condemned, with African countries that had refrained from criticising Mugabe in the past also denouncing the violence-marred election – a situation that forced the veteran President to open negotiations to share power with Tsvangirai.

The coalition government is writing a new constitution for Zimbabwe after which fresh polls will be held.

Zimbabweans hope the new constitution will not only guarantee their rights and freedoms but would also act as a bulwark against political violence.

However analysts say new incidents of violence — including the murder last Tuesday of an MDC activist, Sharukai Mukwena, from Zaka — that have been reported in recent months are sign that the next polls could yet again be marred by violence even with a new constitution in place.

Recommendations:

Meanwhile, to curb violence against teachers the PTUZ, which is one of three unions representing teachers in Zimbabwe, recommended that:

1. The Government of Zimbabwe must immediately declare schools as zones of peace and as such enact laws that restrict and criminalise the use or occupation of schools for political activities, especially during the electoral period.

2. Civic society and teacher unions must develop monitoring systems to detect early warning systems of attacks on education and to report political disturbances in schools in compliance with UN Resolution No. 1612 with additional modifications relevant to the situation in Zimbabwe.

3. The Ministry of Education in conjunction with critical stakeholders like the police, parents and teacher unions must set up school protection committees so that social services rendered by schools are not interrupted during times of conflict like elections

4. The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) must actively investigate all reports involving political violence and intimidation against teachers, and at schools.

5. The government must uphold strictly provisions of paragraph 20 to the First Schedule of Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 (Public Service Regulations, 2000) and clauses 79, 80 and 81 of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendations concerning the Status of Teachers to negate the current insistence on teachers being compelled to support only one political party.

6. The Ministry of Education must introduce civic education in the primary and secondary school curriculum which promotes national cohesion, peace and tolerance;

7. The process of national healing, if ever it is ever going to take off meaningfully, should have a thematic area dealing with the education sector in order to restore the social bond between teachers and communities which has been weakened by recurrent election violence and politicisation of the public service.

8. Overall compliance with the spirit and letter of the GPA is strongly recommended in order to curb on institutionalised violence.