Staff at the University of Malawi have been on strike since 12 February. Their beef? The country's police chief summoned a lecturer for questioning after he had drawn parallels between the protests in North Africa and conditions in Malawi. Nearly two months later, the stand-off between academics and the state doesn't look closer to being resolved, and the strike is attracting increasing international attention. By GREGORY GONDWE.
Continued wrangling between lecturers from the University of Malawi, who are demanding assurances of their academic freedoms and the government, which is unyielding in its refusal to meet these demands, hasn't achieved much – apart from escalating the confusion that already engulfs the matter. Within a week, lecturers who government marked as “ringleaders” were fired, only to be reinstated by a court order. Meanwhile, a decision by some lecturers at the Polytechnic in Blantyre to “disregard their academic freedom demand” and return to work angered students. They went on a rampage, damaging property in protest.
Fear gripped the University of Malawi Chancellor College and Polytechnic campuses on 30 March when the university council fired four lecturers. Their colleagues were ready to hand in their resignation letters en masse to show their solidarity. The council had written to Chancellor College Academic Staff Union acting president Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, union secretary Franz Amin and Garton Kamchedzera, and Blessings Chinsinga (whose lecture provoked the dispute), terminating their services.
The identical letters of dismissal cited a number of reasons, one of which was that the academics were absenting themselves from teaching duties without reason. Once again, the High Court in Zomba quashed the council’s decision that very night, and reinstated the lecturers forthwith.
Just two days after the failed attempt to fire the lecturers, the council declared Chancellor College and the Polytechnic closed. The council issued a statement aired via state broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation's television and radio services that the two colleges had been closed indefinitely due to staff and student demonstrations. “This decision has been taken in order to protect lives and property from being lost. All students are therefore asked to leave their campuses immediately,” the radio announced.
But on Monday, another letter from the council ordered that all lecturers should vacate the campuses and further commanded them to surrender any university property in their custody, including office keys. This gave rise to fears that the lecturers had been effectively fired. The letter of notice ordered the two campuses be “completely sealed” off by end of business on Wednesday.??The letter was signed by university registrar Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga and addressed to all academic and general staff members of the two colleges. It stated the two campuses not be accessible to all categories of staff, barring a few administrative and security personnel, from 17:00 on Wednesday 6 April 2011.
In an interview with The Nation on Tuesday, Malunga was adamant the letter meant what it said. “Why are you taking us in a direction we have not gone? … Why are you reading more than we have written.” This statement was in reaction to a question about whether the lecturers had been fired. Staff members have said the decision by the council to close down the campuses is in total violation of the Labour Act and that they will be challenging the matter in the Industrial Relations Court. The lecturers said it was vindictive of the council to prevent them from conducting other duties like research.
Since 16 February, lecturers at Chancellor College have been refusing to teach in the absence of an assurance of academic freedom. The stand-off was sparked when police chief Peter Mukhito summoned and interrogated political science associate professor Blessings Chinsinga, after he delivered a lecture on the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and pointed out that fuel and forex shortages in Malawi provided fertile ground for similar protests to blossom. His colleagues deemed Chinsinga's ordeal as a threat to academic freedom and demanded an apology from the police top dog, who refused to comply. President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is both chancellor of the University of Malawi and commander-in-chief of the Malawi Police Service, supports the police chief’s stand and declared on his behalf that he won’t apologise.
On Tuesday, the high court in Zomba once more granted an injunction to the lecturers, stopping the council from indefinitely closing the campuses. The lecturers argued that they were not on an industrial strike and Judge Godfrey Mwase agreed, saying they were only boycotting classes because their working environment was not conducive. He said withdrawal from any unsafe work environment is not a violation of any labour laws of the land. Mwase took the opportunity to warn the council, which has been served with a number of injunctions, to obey court orders or risk contempt of court.
Also on Tuesday, students at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany protested in solidarity with their counterparts in Malawi. “We heard about the restrictions on academic freedom in Malawi and the violently suppressed protests... We want to encourage lecturers and students to keep on fighting for their rights” said Laura Graen, initiator of the event.
Students at Germany's Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenburg protesting the curtailing of academic freedom in Malawi.
Graen said in an email interview that some 30 students took part. They gathered at the entrance of their university's main building, having their mouths gagged with red cloth like the protestors in Malawi. The event also marked the launch of an international petition for academic freedom in Malawi, which can be signed online.
The petition, addressed to Mutharika, starts by expressing alarm regarding the restrictions on academic freedom in Malawi. The petition also quotes the Malawi Constitution in Section 44 (1) (h) which provides for academic freedom. The Constitution states: “…there shall be no derogation, restrictions or limitation with regard to – the right to freedom of conscience, belief, thought and religion and to academic freedom.”
The petitioners say they are concerned this right was not fully granted to the lecturers. “Moreover, students who protested in support of their lecturers were denied their human rights to freedom of demonstration and freedom of opinion. As we understand, their protests were suppressed in a disproportionate way,” the petition states. In the belief that academic freedom and discourse are fundamental, not only to individuals' intellectual development, but also to the development of a country as a whole, the petition then urges the president to look at a number of issues.
These include ensuring academic freedom without any derogations, as well as ensuring freedom of expression; and ensuring that suppression of peaceful demonstrations and disproportionate harassment of protesters is stopped and that all demonstrators who were arrested be pardoned or receive a fair trial. They also urge Mutharika to reopen the Chancellor College and the Polytechnic as soon as possible, so students can continue with their classes, and reinstate all lecturers dismissed during these protests.
Speaking on Thursday at the signing of a $350 million energy grant from the US, Mutharika said: "Let me assure the US government that we will continue to uphold democracy and good governance, freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of worship, as well as freedom of economic and academic pursuits." However, such vague assurances did little to pacify the lecturers, and the strike continues.
Judging from the government's reluctance to back down, the university council's unwillingness to support its staff and the academics' refusal to return to teaching, it seems the situation is nowhere near approaching resolution. And once classes do resume, how to make up the missed lectures will pose a new challenge all of its own. FAM
Gregory Gondwe is a Malawian journalist currently working as chief reporter for Zodiak Broadcasting Station. He is also a correspondent for BizCommunity, as well as BiztechAfrica. He also writes a music column, called Drumming Pen, for the Malawi News. He has previously written for The Nation, The Daily Times, Malawi News, The Weekend Nation and been a stringer for the public broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.
Read more:
- Malawi: Academic freedom protests continue, http://www.freeafricanmedia.com/article/2011-03-23-malawi-academic-freedom-protests-continue, in Free African Media
Main picture. Lilongwe, Malawi. Reuters.
