Tendai Biti Blasts UZ Boss as ‘Arrogant, Incompetent’ Over Student, Lecturer Crackdown

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has slammed University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Vice Chancellor Paul Mapfumo’s decision to expel striking lecturers and suspend student activists, blasting it as the work of an “arrogant and incompetent” leader bent on crushing academic freedom.

Biti described the clampdown on lecturers and Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) leaders as a “blatant failure,” accusing Mapfumo of turning the country’s premier institution into a “rag-tag subcommittee of a corrupt kleptocratic ruling party.”

“Prof Mapfumo is an arrogant incompetent Vice Chancellor who mirrors the glaring ignorance and fascism of those he serves,” Biti charged.

“Universities are citadels of the highest forms of cerebral engagement. They cannot be reduced to rag-tag subcommittees of a greedy illiterate parasitic elite.”

The storm erupted after six ZINASU student leaders were suspended for a May demonstration backing lecturers, who have been on strike since April 16 demanding a salary hike from US$250 to US$2,250 and improved working conditions.

Two weeks earlier, UZ dismissed four leaders of the striking lecturers for allegedly using the Great Hall without authorization—a move widely viewed as an attempt to quash the industrial action.

Meanwhile, former Pelandaba-Tshabalala MP Gift ‘Ostallos’ Siziba weighed in, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the suspended students and calling for justice for the underpaid lecturers.

“We stand in solidarity with ZINASU and join the call for justice for students and lecturers who have endured months of hardship, including unpaid salaries,” Siziba said.

“We will not stand idly by as the future of our youth and the integrity of our academic institutions are compromised.”