☰

Empresas y finanzas

Tanzania teachers caned for seeking salaries


    DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A government official in northwest Tanzania ordered the caning of 32 teachers for pursuing salary arrears, drawing protests from their union, Tanzanian media reported on Friday.

    The punishment was carried out in Bukoba district after the teachers went to the district commissioner's office to seek their dues, private newspaper This Day reported.

    The Tanzania Teachers Union was outraged.

    "The Bukoba DC had no right to beat the teachers even if they misbehaved," union president Gratian Mkoba was quoted as saying in This Day. "There are always (better) options to take instead of beating and humiliating them."

    Corporal punishment for students is common in the east African nation of 40 million, and courts too have sometimes sentenced offenders to be caned.

    Union and regional officials were not immediately available for comment.

    (Reporting by George Obulutsa; editing by Andrew Roche)