Military

DATE=3/14/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ZIMBABWE / UNIVERSITY (L-O)

NUMBER=2-300706

BYLINE=TENDAI MAPHOSA

DATELINE=HARARE

CONTENT =

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Zimbabwe government ordered students at the University of Zimbabwe to vacate the campus Friday. As Tendai Maphose reports from Harare, the closure of the school follows months of dispute over pay between university authorities and faculty.

TEXT: The faculty at the university has been trying since last year to get a salary increase to help compensate for Zimbabwe's soaring inflation. When no offer was coming from the university, many lecturers refused to resume their teaching duties when the academic year began in February. In the weeks since then, negotiations between the faculty and the administration have failed to break the deadlock.

Before the dispute over pay began, the university, the oldest in Zimbabwe, had a faculty of about one-thousand teachers. It is estimated that half the teachers have left in recent months.

James Mahlaule of the Association of University Teachers says the biggest problem is that the university has failed to live up to a promise made by an official who is no longer affiliated with the university.

The former official, Graham Hill, promised the teachers they would receive a 50 percent pay allowance starting at the beginning of the year. The allowance was meant to cushion the lecturers against the rising costs of living in Zimbabwe while their salaries were being reviewed. But Mr. Mahlaule, who is the spokesman for the Association of University Teachers, says not all the teachers received the allowance.

/// MAHLAULE ACT ///

When we had meetings with the new administration their point was that Professor Hill's undertaking was not binding because what he was proposing to pay was not part of the current budget that they are operating on.

/// END ACT ///

The situation at the university has been made worse by what Mr. Mahlaule called selective awarding of the allowance to some but not all the lecturers.

Mr. Mahlaule says failure to address the concerns of the lecturers will force more of them to leave. He also says that if the university carries out its threat of disciplinary action against the teachers, such as not paying them, the university could lose its entire teaching staff.

/// 2nd MAHLAULE ACT ///

Once we don't get our salary these letters of resignation which people are holding onto will be handed in and by the time they realize that they want to open the university there may not be any staff to run the university.

/// END ACT ///

The university authorities say this week's closure is temporary and comes after the lecturers defied a ministerial order to return to work by March 13th. The lecturers say they will only return to work after they get the promised allowance. (Signed)

NEB/TM/KL/RH/FC