Maravi

C/belt teachers threaten to stop enrolling cops

C/belt teachers threaten to stop enrolling cops
Written by Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:01:53 AM

TEACHERS affiliated to the Secondary Schools Teachers Union of Zambia (SESTUZ) on the Copperbelt have threatened to stop enrolling police officers wanting to upgrade their school certificates following police’s alleged intimidation of some union district leaders.

In a press a statement issued yesterday, SESTUZ Copperbelt Province secretary Osward Matandiko said the union was not happy with the move by police to disallow SESTUZ members from holding a general meeting a few weeks ago.

“Mr Mutentwa (Copperbelt police commanding officer) should know that teachers do not deal with road blocks or criminals but we handle the future of this country. Therefore, a platform at which our members want to air their grievances should be readily available. The police command should respect our teachers especially that we receive a lot of police officers in these schools who want to upgrade their General Certificate of Education (GCE). If this kind of situation continues, we will tell our members to stop enrolling these officers and ask them to go to their force headquarters,” stated Matandiko.

Matandiko further stated that there was gross misunderstanding of the dictates of the public order act by police.

“The Act states that the police should just be notified. It does not state that you should plead for the permit until when police decide to give it to you. Police command in Kitwe will be held responsible for any action that the teachers will take because they are already frustrated,” said Matandiko.

Last week police in Kitwe stopped teachers from holding a general meeting at which they were scheduled to discuss among other things, the fixed band housing allowance, the current housing allowance and the 10 per cent owner occupier housing allowance on grounds that they had not obtained a police permit for the meeting to take off.

Labels: COPPERBELT PROVINCE, POLICE CORRUPTION, SESTUZ, UNIONS

posted by MrK @ 11:58 PM