Written by Sophie Mapuranga and Natsai Rwizi*
In February the government in Zimbabwe suspended 135 000, over 96 percent, of the country’s teachers. In trying to break the combative teachers, the Mnangagwa regime is robbing a generation of their education. The teachers went on strike to restore their deflated wages to a level they could live on, following just days on the reopening of schools after one of many months-long closures over the two years of the pandemic. Now, even though the government conceded a 20 percent pay rise and many teachers are back at work, schooling remains in a state of crisis.
When schools in Zimbabwe reopened on February 7, after a lockdown-extended summer break, they were mostly without teachers. Teachers explained that with monthly wages of about $100, they could not even afford to travel to work, or pay school fees for their own children, and demanded that their wages be restored to the 2018 level of $540. At the start of the strike, a loaf of bread cost about $1 (today twice as much).
With the economy in a permanent state of crisis, the teachers have been engaging in protest actions for years. In January, twelve teachers were arrested in a peaceful demonstration led by the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ).
State repression against workers is common. In 2021 teachers were assaulted by police and forced to mark end-of-year exams under armed supervision from state forces. In 2018 president Mnangagwa fired 16 000 nurses for embarking on a strike. ZANU-PF’s long history of violence against political opposition, played a role in determining the outcome of the recent by-elections. On the back of growing mass anger, the newly formed Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) shocked the ruling elite by winning the majority of the seats in the by-elections that took place in March this year. Although this provides a hint of potential big change in the upcoming general elections in 2023, the CCC was formed out of the factional remains of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and fundamentally will not challenge the capitalist system at the root of the deteriorating living conditions in Zimbabwe
Real wages were dramatically cut when the government in 2018 introduced a new currency, the RTGS, which officially replaced the US dollar and which rapidly devalued. Teachers’ average wages have since fallen from $540 to $100. Many teachers are unable to continue in the classroom. Some survive through remittances from relatives in the diaspora, while some have taken up two or more jobs or resort to earning an extra income in the Informal sector; something which compromises the quality of education and service delivery for the working class and poor in Zimbabwe. Teachers have been facing increasing difficulties with growing class sizes and decreasing resources in addition to pay cuts. At the same time, the ZANU-PF government boasts that the economy has “stabilised” and is yielding budget surpluses. And as the President of ARTUZ pointed out, the children of government officials are hardly affected as they are sent to learn abroad.
Teachers take defiant stand against low wages
Facing the threat of a total strike, the government had offered a 20 percent wage increase and other benefits, including a much-ridiculed allowance to import vehicles duty-free – showing how far removed from working class people’s reality the elite is. Three days into the strike, the largest teachers’ unions ZIMTA and PTUZ called it off. When the teachers still stayed on strike, the education minister suspended 135 000 – nearly all – teachers and implemented a “no work, no pay” policy.
Within days, the High Court declared the mass suspensions unconstitutional. The government did not officially back down but also did not enforce the suspensions. But for months, teachers still continued to stay away from work all but one of the days in the week, in a calm rebellion they explained by saying that they were “not on strike but simply incapacitated” from working. At time of writing, however, most teachers have returned to work and accepted the offer.
At the same time, an informal schooling system seems to be normalised. At some schools, parents pay the teachers extra to get them to stay and teach their children. Other teachers run “backyard schools”, from their homes for example, for children whose parents can afford it. Teachers in Zimbabwe have been dissatisfied with the state of the economy, mismanagement and lack of resources for years. The job security associated with public sector positions in the past is rapidly disappearing.
Deteriorating living conditions are driving mass anger
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the lives of Zimbabwean families. The strict lockdowns enforced by the government at the beginning of the pandemic affected many sectors including the education sector. Informal education became somewhat of a norm where children learnt online or through radio stations for instance. There is a general sense of worry concerning the quality of education children have been receiving since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The erosion of economic wellbeing has further led to distress and anxiety amongst families.
During the strike, some parents directed their anger and frustrations at the striking teachers while others understood it is the government that refuses to create healthy and sustainable working conditions for the teachers. Most people in Zimbabwe feel a general sense of discontent regarding reversed economic growth but do not directly blame the government. There is still some sense of hope and resilience amongst the larger population even though it is waning by the day.
ZANU-PF’s military regime has no solution to the economic crisis
Five years into Mnangagwa’s presidency, it is abundantly clear that whatever hopes were pinned on the coup that toppled Mugabe were baseless. There can be no illusion brilliant enough to hide that ZANU-PF is responsible for a most criminal betrayal of the struggle for liberation. Hyperinflation, high unemployment, low salaries and corruption have sustained the economic crisis. As a result, 7.9 million Zimbabweans fell into poverty in the last decade and millions are facing starvation.
Food and fuel prices are now rising even further because of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Half of the wheat imported by Zimbabwe comes from Russia. Since the Russian invasion started, the cost of bread has doubled to $2. Local retailers charge $4.60 for two litres of cooking oil while cross border traders charge $3.50 for cooking oil bought in South Africa. Retailers are forced by law to use the local currency (RTGS) but they also offer discounts for people buying with US dollars and they also employ people to buy foreign currency on the black market, in attempts to evade the government’s control of foreign currency. This gives a glimpse of why the teachers and other public sector workers demand salaries in US dollars.
The economy has barely recovered from the battering caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, extreme weather events such as flash floods that destroy crops, have become more frequent, forcing many villagers to relocate to urban areas. However, Zimbabwe’s industrial capacity is long since in ruins, resulting in the informal sector comprising two-thirds of the paid workforce. Resultantly, most of the young people are looking for opportunities to leave the country. In 2021, an estimated 2000 healthcare workers left Zimbabwe. Clearly, the masses cannot afford to pay for another crisis orchestrated by the ruling class.
The masses must prepare to lead the struggle
The teachers’ strike represents a watershed moment despite the stalemate in which it ended. It exposed clearly how far removed the ruling elites are from the realities faced by most people in Zimbabwe. It also showed on the one hand the gap between trade union leaders and the militant rank-and-file teachers, and on the other the massive potential strength of united workers’ struggle.
Public sector workers, most notably teachers and healthcare workers, embarked on industrial action on several occasions in the last five years. The willingness to struggle is strong, but trade unions have struggled to win significant victories against the state, partly due to repression but also because the share of workers who are formally employed is so low.
Workers need salary increases to match the rising cost of living. We support the teachers’ struggle for a living wage, but this struggle is unlikely to succeed without sustained pressure from other public sector workers. University employees from Great Zimbabwe University and the University of Zimbabwe also went on strike in February. Public sector workers must rally together in their call for a living wage and safe working conditions, including adequate PPE necessary for protection against the coronavirus, and reach out also to the workers in the mining and agriculture sectors, to patients, learners, caregivers and the whole working class for solidarity.
The capitalist system managed by ZANU-PF has destroyed Zimbabwe’s industrial capacity. ZANU loyalists dominate the remaining sectors. In the short term, the working class could force the government to make more concessions. If they bring the economy to a standstill, negotiations could bring some relief to the working class. However, the two things that the working class and poor in Zimbabwe desperately need are for the ZANU-PF regime to relinquish power and for a change to the economic system.
ZANU-PF will not relinquish power without a bloody conflict as they control the army and police. The MDC and CCC do not offer any real way out of the neoliberal dead end because they are rooted in the same capitalist ideology as ZANU-PF. The only hope for the masses is a movement armed with a socialist programme. True liberation for the people of Zimbabwe depends on the removal of ZANU-PF from power along with the dismantling of capitalism to make way for a socialist economy placing the country’s resources in the hands of the people. Additionally, it is possible to create a socialist confederation of Southern Africa built on working class solidarity across the region. Therefore, we must continue the struggle to replace the capitalist system with a socialist alternative to end poverty and oppression.
*ISA reporters in South Africa and Zimbabwe, using pen names for their security
