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Thousands of Zimbabwean civil servants, mainly schoolteachers, went on strike on Wednesday to press for a salary increase over and above the 15 percent pay hike offered by the government this year, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday. A survey conducted by the newspaper showed that a majority of the strikers on the first day of the strike were teachers, with the rest of the civil service adopting a wait-and-see position.
The strike was reportedly well supported in the capital Harare as well as in Matabeleland and Manicaland, especially in rural areas where most schools remained closed.
According to the report, as most teachers heeded the call to go on strike, hordes of war veterans stormed schools and government departments in Masvingo, a provincial centre 200 km south of Harare, demanding a list of civil servants who had joined the industrial action.
Witnesses said the veterans swooped on the town as early as 6 am, singing revolutionary songs and denouncing civil servants who they said supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change(MDC).
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