Police Crash Teachers Protest
Zimbabwean police crashed a protest by rural Zimbabwean teachers on Monday, after they decided to take protest action after not receiving promised bonuses from the Zimbabwean government.
A whole bunch of different unions attended the protest including The Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (RTUZ), the Zimbabwe Activist Alliance (ZAA) and the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu).
All the parties gathered at Market Square in Harare.
They then continued their march across the capital and eventually made their way to Parliament, where they handed over petitions to Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and his Public Service counterpart Prisca Mupfumira at their offices.
However, it wasn’t long before the protesters were greeted by police, suited in riot gear and equipped with batons.
The officers did not hold back and began to viciously descend on the crowd of protesters and in the process, physically harmed a number of protesters with their batons.
Some of the protesters were also arrested by the police, while others who were injured were taken to a private hospital in the capital to be taken care of.
ZAA national coordinator Tendai Mudewe, said that some of the protesters in hospital have been seriously injured:
“…[sic] I am currently at the hospital with some of our injured members. The RTUZ president (Obey) Masaraure and others have been arrested and are currently held at Harare Central Police Station where I am heading to as soon as I make sure that the other comrades here have received treatment. The struggle still continues until we get the government to respect us,” he said.
The Zimbabwean police commissioner has not made a statement yet regarding the events.
