Zimbabwean workers are not terrorists: respect labour and human rights

18 September 2020

Dear Mr President,

Zimbabwean workers are not terrorists: respect labour and human rights

I am writing on behalf of the TUC which represents 5.5 million workers in Britain, to strongly condemn the continued harassment of trade unionists in your country and the labelling of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions as a terrorist organisation by the ruling party ZANU-PF, of which you are the First Secretary.

Mr President, we have been following recent developments in your country regarding violations of human rights, and we note that your government has not relented but instead has intensified its crackdown on trade unionists, workers and critics. The ZCTU president Mr Peter Mutasa was put on the police wanted-persons list in July 2020 for exercising the right to free speech. The military and police often clamp down on dissenting voices as happened during the 31 July 2020 protest action in which the security forces sealed the country and ordered people to stay at home. Protesters who came out were arrested, detained, intimidated and judicially persecuted while some of those perceived to have played a  role in mobilising for the protest actions were abducted and tortured by alleged security forces for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association provided in the Zimbabwe Constitution.

Mr President, we are also concerned by the low wages and high cost of living of the workers and the people of Zimbabwe. We would like to remind you that when you took over office in November 2017, deposing the late former President  Robert Mugabe, the workers of Zimbabwe were earning a minimum wage of about  US$400.00 per month, but in your two years in power, their wages are now a paltry US$30.00 per month.

Your government introduced a mono currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, in June 2019 under the pretence that it was equivalent to the United States dollar. That has been proved to be false.  While your government has now allowed most goods and services to be charged in United States dollars as before you took office, wages have remained stagnant and pegged in the valueless Zimbabwean dollars, and inflation is now above 800% and continues to rise. This effectively means that workers are relegated to poverty, despite their hard labour.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has just exacerbated an already failing economy. While most countries are taking measures to equip their health services, your country’s doctors and nurses have been on strike since 6 June 2020, demanding better wages and personal protective equipment (PPE), and your government has opted to ignore their plight. Their leaders are facing criminal charges arising from a strike action and are being judicially persecuted. We have noted that your government is now taking advantage of COVID-19 emergency laws to clampdown on dissenting voices that exposed corruption in the procurement of COVID-19 test kits and vital medicines and on anyone exercising the right to freedom of expression.

We strongly reiterate that a political solution is required to establish a new social contract with the people in the country to enable it to move forward.

Mr President, as your government is eager to join hands with the international community, the ball is in your hands to address the concerns raised, including to:

1. Stop the continued arrests, abductions, intimidation, harassment, torture and judicial persecution of the trade unionists, their families, civil society organisations and opposition supporters and stop labelling them terrorists.

2. Respect human rights and the rule of law and allow citizens to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, including the right to strike.

3. Implement in full the recommendations of the ILO Commission of Inquiry of 2009.

4. Pay workers with a valuable currency linked to the poverty datum line.

5. Allow mediation from the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the ILO to expeditiously facilitate and mediate an all-inclusive dialogue to resolve the socio-economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.

The TUC assures you that it will continue to act until your government addresses the above concerns.

Yours sincerely,

FRANCES O'GRADY

General Secretary

cc:        African Union Commission

            SADC

            Commonwealth Secretary General

            Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

            Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare

            HE Colonel Christian Katsande, Zimbabwe Ambassador

            Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions