President intervenes in ongoing lecturer strike

Malawian President Peter Mutharika has dissolved the University of Malawi’s council and announced the formation of a taskforce in the face of mounting anger over the council’s failure to resolve a lecturers’ strike.

The president said the dissolution was part of measures to resolve the labour dispute at the university that has seen its constituent Chancellor College fail to open this year.

The dissolution of council came less than a month after concerned parents met Mutharika to pressure him to re-open the college. During that meeting parents indicated that they were disappointed with the apparent failure by the university council to resolve the dispute.

The meeting between parents and the president followed the petitioning of the president by students following a strike by Chancellor College lecturers over the institution’s so-called apartheid pay structure.

In addition to Chancellor College, the university has three other constituent colleges: College of Medicine, the Polytechnic, and Kamuzu College of Nursing.

Lecturers at three of the colleges are unhappy over salary disparities among staff in similar grades as they contend that those at the College of Medicine get about 40% extra pay compared to their colleagues elsewhere. The aggrieved lecturers have urged the University of Malawi to harmonise the pay structures.

In a press release announcing the dissolution of the council, presidential press secretary and spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani said the president had directed the government to mediate in the matter, having noted that the council and its management were failing to resolve the matter.

“Consequent to the president’s directive, government invited and met the university council, management and representatives of academic staff to agree on the steps that will ensure that Chancellor College opens with every expedition possible,” he said.

According to the statement, a taskforce comprising representatives of the council and academic staff and facilitated by the Minister of Education, Science and Technology and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs would be set up to ensure continuity of the first meeting held on 16 June 2017.

In an earlier statement, Kalilani said when President Mutharika met parents whose children were affected by the strike, he informed them that as chancellor of the university, he was equally concerned about the closure of the college and the impact it has on the future of students at the college and in the nation.