Teachers call off strike

Teachers call off strike

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S main teachers' union called off a strike on Thursday after higher wage demands were met by the government.

Teachers from public primary and secondary schools stopped working on Wednesday demanding higher pay. They joined doctors and nurses, who have boycotted work since the end of last year.

Political tensions are on the rise in Zimbabwe as workers grapple with a severe economic crisis marked by the highest inflation in the world at 1,600 percent and shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food and rising poverty.

The secretary general of the main Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta), Richard Gundane, said the government had increased wages for teachers and other civil servants.

"We came to an agreement last night (Wednesday). Now there is a solution, so we have called it off," Gundane said. "We have accepted what has been offered and asked members to go back to work."

President Robert Mugabe's government on Wednesday imposed a three-month ban on political rallies and protests in the capital's volatile townships following violent weekend clashes between riot squads and opposition supporters.

The teachers were pushing for a Z$450,000 monthly salary -- $1,800 at the official exchange rate but just $90 on the black market -- double what the government had initially offered.

Union officials declined to give details of the new salary package, but said it had been extended to all state employees, heading off a showdown with the government, which fears strikes could gain momentum and turn into street protests.

Mugabe, who turned 83 on Wednesday, and has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, denies his government has run down one of Africa's most promising economies, saying it has been sabotaged by Western powers opposed to the seizures of white-owned commercial farms to resettle blacks. - Reuters
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