ICFTU
Annual Survey
of violations of trade union rights
2006

The ruling authorities are seeking to undermine the image and the very existence of your trade union organisation. What form has the government’s harassment of the ZCTU taken during the year 2005?

The first attempt was to try to hijack the leadership of the ZCTU at our May Day rally in May 2001, followed by other events over the years. But, last year was a classical year for the labour movement, in that, we had three particular events over and above the normal arrests. Firstly, it was the sponsoring of individuals from certain affiliates, (four of them), who were used to denounce and demonize the ZCTU, in an effort to destroy or break the ZCTU through the media, but that failed. There was also the ordering of the police to descend on the ZCTU offices by the government in an attempt to criminalize ZCTU activities and therefore incarcerate or arrest the leadership. But, that also failed to materialize because they could in their own judgement, resolve or judge that there was no case to answer for the ZCTU leadership. Then, of late, the government appointed an investigator to investigate the operations of the ZCTU, (which operations had also been investigated by the police), but this time it’s a political decision through the minister of labour. And, we are working on a daily basis with the investigator (for the past two months, stationed at our offices, because he demanded to be given an office) and, therefore we expect the report to come and we suspect that the report is going to come maybe prior to the congress in order to demonize the ZCTU leadership and therefore influence the results of the congress. But, again we think the workers are more than educated enough in terms of the dirty tricks of the government and we hope to prevail.

On 8 November 2005, you were arrested along with the president of the ZCTU, Lovemore Matombo, and some fifty other trade unionists in various towns around the country. What were the grounds for these arrests, and in what conditions were you held?

The reason for the arrest was that we were violating the law in that we were demonstrating against poverty. And, also demanding the provision of care and the removal of high taxation which is destroying the livelihoods of the workers. And, when we got arrested, the government, maybe in their own right, felt it fit that we were not supposed to be locked up in detention in the city center, but in some outlying areas, where the areas are remote. Initially, we were told that we were going for torture. But, because of the international pressure and the quick reaction from our lawyers, that decision was changed and we were detained in Makoni. But, the interesting thing is that there was no running water at the detention cells. And, there were no abolition facilities in terms of toilets and water where you could relieve yourself in the cells. And, we accepted that it was a struggle. And, to date, we accept that we were struggling on behalf of the workers. And, no amount of victimization; no amount of harassment and no amount of torture would deter us from that path. And, again, when we were supposed to appear in court, the attorney general’s office declined to prosecute because there was no basis for the arrest, except that we were just being harassed psychologically in order to make sure that in future we don’t attempt to embark on such actions.

At the end of 2004, the passing of the NGO Bill emerged as part of a government offensive to silence democratic civil society organisations. How has the debate on NGOs developed since then?

The NGO bill was an obnoxious or draconian piece of legislation which was meant, or is meant to disintegrate the non-governmental organizations. In essence it is also meant to curtail or control the operations of non-governmental organizations. You may also be aware that it has not been ascended to by the president and it’s going to be sent back to parliament for fresh debating. We are informed this is mainly because they want to tie all the lose ends in order to have a more effective and more controlling piece of legislation, in so far as the need to control government organizations is concerned.

The government seems to have done all it can to destroy the ZCTU from the inside. In what way has the "dissidence" been used as a weapon?

Well, it’s common cause and that is very clear from public pronouncements. Pronouncements by both the government and the ‘so called dissidence’, (we are calling them ‘so called dissidence’ because in terms of the following, they don’t have much following, including in their own affiliates), that they were out to destroy the labour movement, the ZCTU, and the target was June 2005 (and it was made public). But, to date we are still here and we are in our capacities as the president of the ZCTU and the secretary general of ZCTU; it’s telling a story about how the ZCTU as an organization and the workers of Zimbabwe have managed to resist the imposition of anointed leaders who are imposed by government on the labour movement, that has been resisted and will continue to be resisted.

Interview by Pierre Martinot.