VZCZCXRO9370
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0443/01 1381011
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181011Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1495
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1600
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1467
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 1604
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0265
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0869
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1232
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1660
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4066
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1429
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 2087
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0727
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC//DHO-7//
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1821
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK//DOOC/ECMO/CC/DAO/DOB/DOI//
RUEPGBA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE//ECJ23-CH/ECJ5M//

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000443 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR S. HILL 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN 
USAID FOR E. LOKEN 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV ZI
SUBJECT: THE COLLAPSE OF A ONCE SHINING EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified - please handle accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (U) The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is on the verge of 
collapse as a result of a continuing three- month strike by 
lecturers, insufficient resources, and dilapidated 
conditions.  Additionally, the UZ has been wracked by 
violence as security forces have attacked students protesting 
university conditions and GOZ oppression.  Problems with the 
administration of qualifying exams for secondary students 
hoping to enter the UZ have forced thousands of students to 
put their plans on hold.  Meanwhile, the children of elites, 
including offspring of ruling party officials, escape the 
failing educational system by studying abroad, mainly in the 
U.S., U.K. and Australia.  End Summary. 
 
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Lecturers Strike For Better Wages 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) campus in Harare is 
barely functioning as a strike by undergraduate faculty over 
paltry wages stretches into its third month and threatens to 
nullify the entire academic term.  Only about two weeks of 
undergraduate classes have taken place since the beginning of 
the term, which is set to finish at the end of May.  UZ 
administrators have proposed extending the term to permit 
time to prepare for exams, but lecturers have balked at the 
idea.  As things stand now, approximately 1,000 UZ final year 
students will not graduate on time. 
 
¶3. (U) Undergraduate lecturers continue to hold out for an 
acceptable pay increase.  At present, the monthly net salary 
of a tenured UZ lecturer is equivalent to approximately US$30 
(at the unofficial parallel market rate of Z$30,000:US$1). 
The Poverty Datum Line (the minimum required to meet the 
needs of an average family of five) was Z$1.7 million (about 
US$57 at the parallel market rate) in March.  UZ 
administrators recently offered an increase that would have 
given faculty a net salary of approximately Z$3.8 million 
(about US$126 at the parallel market rate), but the lecturers 
turned it down because the new salary would not have started 
until July and inflation (reliable private sector economists 
estimate annualized inflation to be between 8,500 and 14,000 
percent and rising rapidly) would have quickly negated the 
increase. 
 
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Violence Rocks Campus 
--------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Lecturers are not the only ones suffering on campus. 
 Campus and state security agents are targeting student 
leaders, who have protested University conditions and GOZ 
policies, for arrests and beatings.  In a May 8 incident at 
UZ Harare campus, Clifford Hlatshwayo, vice president of the 
Student Representative Council, suffered a broken arm and 
internal injuries when he was attacked in his dorm room by 
several men.  Hlatshwayo told poloff he was asleep in his 
room when some men pounded on his door around 1:00 AM 
claiming to be campus security.  When he opened the door, 
 
HARARE 00000443  002 OF 003 
 
 
four to six men, who he suspected were state security agents, 
attacked him with iron bars. 
 
¶5. (U) On May 10, riot police broke up a meeting to plan 
student elections at the UZ Harare campus by firing tear gas 
and beating students.  Two student leaders were arrested. 
According to student representatives, one suffered a broken 
arm and the other internal ear bleeding.  Prosecutors 
declined to file charges, but police refused to release them 
until the High Court on May 15 ordered their release. 
According to a May 17 press release from the UZ Student 
Executive Council, as a result of the May 10 meeting the 
University expelled one student and suspended eight others. 
 
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Dilapidated Conditions Fuels Frustration 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Conditions at the UZ Harare campus are in a total 
state of disrepair, according to Hlatshwayo.  Of 36 toilets 
in one dorm building on campus, only three are functional. 
Additionally, several floors of students at the dorm are 
forced to share one or two working showers.  Hlatshwayo added 
that the food served at the campus cafeteria was almost 
inedible.  The sadza (the staple food of Zimbabwe) was 
watered-down and up to 40 students typically shared one KG of 
meat.  He added that students, who have scrimped to pay 
school fees, were growing increasing restive as the 
lecturers' strike wears on and conditions at campus worsen. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Cancelling Exam Gives New Meaning to Senior Slump 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶7. (U) Jameson Timba, chairman of the Association of Trust 
Schools, told us that the ZIMSEC exam, required for entry 
into Zimbabwe's university system and next scheduled for 
June, may be cancelled due to a lack of resources to 
administer the exam.  (Note. The exam is normally offered in 
June and November.  End Note.)  Timba said that the 
cancellation of the June exam and a delay in scoring last 
November's exam had put in jeopardy university plans of 
thousands of students. 
 
¶8. (U) Rebecca Zeigler-Mano, director of the Embassy's 
Education USA program, told us that the ZIMSEC problems and 
the deteriorating condition of the University of Zimbabwe had 
resulted in increasing numbers of students taking the 
Cambridge exams, which must be paid for in foreign currency, 
with the intent of studying outside the country, often in the 
U.S., UK, and Australia.  Many of the students that have 
access to foreign currency and can afford the extra expense 
of the Cambridge exams come from ZANU-PF families. 
 
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Comment 
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¶9. (U) During the first two decades of independence the 
Zimbabwe education system was considered a shining star in 
Africa and the University of Zimbabwe was regarded as a 
world-class institution.  In fact, many of Zimbabwe's current 
political and economic elites are graduates of the 
University.  The quality of education, however, has suffered 
 
HARARE 00000443  003 OF 003 
 
 
dramatically as a result of the seven-year economic decline 
and the University is struggling to survive.  It is ironic 
that children of the ruling elites who are responsible for 
educational collapse are not affected -- many are studying in 
the U.S., the UK, or Australia -- while their parents decry 
the policies of these countries. 
DELL