GOVERNMENT has reportedly backtracked on its move to unilaterally transfer 10 teachers from their urban bases in Kwekwe to rural areas after two of the educators filed an urgent High Court application seeking an interdict order.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The applicants, Blessings Moyo and Gamuchirai Chabata, challenged the decision in an application filed at the Bulawayo High Court under case number 66/16.
The pair cited Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora and the Civil Service Commission as respondents in the matter.
Their lawyer, Valentine Mutatu, said his clients, after serving the employer with the summons, had now received letters from the ministry to the effect that the transfers had been stopped.
“Following the provincial placement committee held on January 15 and a meeting later in the Provincial Education Director’s (PED) office on January 18, it was resolved that the following transfers be reversed as a matter of urgency,” a letter from the acting PED, a Mr A Mabena, reads.
Mutatu said his clients would now continue working at Manunure High School and Kwekwe Primary School after government rescinded its earlier decision.
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“Our application will no longer proceed after the prayers of our clients were granted without need to get into court to argue the case. So our clients will now report to their stations and continue with their work,” he said.
Sources close to the matter said ministry officials in the staffing department wanted to replace the teachers with their relatives, who had been on government payroll but working at private schools.
“There are teachers, who were on government payroll and working at private schools, who have been withdrawn from those schools. These people are closely linked to top officials in the staffing office and it’s these teachers whom they were creating space for,” a source said.
Meanwhile, teachers who had gone on leave in Kwekwe District have reported back for work, forcing all staff hired on relief basis out of their temporary jobs.
Government recently ordered all teachers countrywide, who had been on vacation, to report to work for a physical staff audit by officials from the Civil Service Commission.
