BULAWAYO – Nearly 200 pupils at Njube High School in Bulawayo staged a surprise protest on Monday, complaining over tuition fees increases and poor pay for their teachers.
Carrying a portrait of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and waving the Zimbabwe flag – both items taken from the school – the pupils sang “education is ours” as they marched on through Njube, Mpopoma and Entumbane suburbs, before they were urged to return to school by their headmaster.
Police said they were looking for a Biology teacher at the school, Brian Mutsiba, who is accused of instigating the protest.
The pupils who took part in the march had their details collected by police after being made to write statements about their role in the protest in the presence of education officials.
The pupils poured out into Benjamin Burombo Road shortly after 10AM before joining the busy Luveve Road as motorists blew their car horns in solidarity.
Stopping near the Entumbane Shopping Complex, the pupils gathered and sang various songs, including ‘Imfundo Ngeyethu’ (Education is Ours) and ‘Into Oyenzayo Siyayizonda’ (We Don’t Like What You Are Doing).
Some of the pupils carried placards which read, ‘Where is UNICEF?’; ‘SOS Save Our Souls’ and ‘This Is For Every Zimbabwean Child’.
Getting to the intersection of Luveve Road and Masiyephambili Drive, the pupils went down on their knees and sang the old national anthem, ‘Nkosi Sikelela iAfrika’.
With Mutsiba leading the pupils, they punched the air in unison while chanting ‘Amandla! Ngawethu!’ (Power! It’s Ours!).
Zibusiso Msimanga, the school headmaster, arrived shortly after and called on the students to return to school, and they complied. The flag was returned and hoisted on its mast while Mnangagwa’s portrait was put back up in the staff room.
Zanele Muyambo, the Bulawayo district schools inspector, was called to the school where police had convened a mid-day assembly.
Pupils who took part in the march were asked to identify themselves, and an internal police memo about the incident, seen by ZimLive, says 153 pupils admitted taking part.
The police memo added: “They were invited to write reasons for their participation in the demonstration which are: The fees have been hiked from $92 to $440; the teachers are earning low salaries; teachers not attending lessons; beneficiaries of the BEAM programme being made to pay half of the fees and the general high cost of living.”
Police raided an address in Emakhandeni looking for Mutsiba but were told he last lived there three years ago.
Mutsiba is disparagingly described in the memo as “an abuser of alcohol” who lives alone.
When apprehended, police say they want to charge the teacher for participating in a public gathering with the intent to promote public violence, breach of peace or bigotry and also for “insulting the flag” in breach of the Flag of Zimbabwe Act.
“Indications are that the accused is the one who masterminded the demonstration. The school pupils were merely following their teacher’s orders,” adds the memo, signed by a Chief Inspector Ramaphosa of Njube police.
Mutsiba, who disappeared shortly after the pupils returned to school, told reporters that “the children initiated the march by themselves.”
The police memo added that Nkululeko Sibanda, the spokesman for MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, “was seen milling around.”
Sibanda told ZimLive: “I was nowhere near the event, but I did drive through Njube at some point and came across several police cars. I didn’t stop, and they didn’t stop too. I certainly could not have been milling around in a car.”
Pupils interviewed during the protest said teachers had abandoned their stations to harvest amacimbi (mopane worms) to supplement their meagre salaries.
Teachers’ unions have told the government that their “incapacitated” members – whose pay is barely enough to buy a new vehicle tyre – will only take classes when they can afford transport to school.
