The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is moving
across the country mobilising for a national shutdown to pressure President
Emmerson Mnangagwa to address the deteriorating economic situation in the
country.
ZCTU president Peter Mutasa disclosed this at the fifth
labour forum meeting held in Gweru on Monday.
Mutasa, accompanied by his secretary-general Japhet Moyo
and members of the ZCTU’s general council, has been on a whirlwind tour of the
country’s provinces, meeting their membership to mobilise for the national
shutdown.
They have visited Gweru, Masvingo, Mutare, Bulawayo and
Chinhoyi and hope to reach out to the remaining five provinces in the charm
offensive.
In his address to restive workers at Mkoba Hall in Gweru,
Mutasa said he was prepared to die or be severely persecuted by State security
agents who will try to put down the protests.
He highlighted that workers in the country had been reduced
to paupers by Mnangagwa’s government to an extent that they no longer had
esteem and dignity in society.
“People who started with the issue of shutdowns had
understood that when you fail to get food in the house, there is someone who
has caused that. If you fail to get an adequate salary, there is someone taking
part of it, if you fail to have enough money for rentals and school fees, there
is someone who will have taken it,” he said.
“We must ask ourselves to say what are we going to do when
we sleep without eating and our kids go to school without shoes? Should we
continue to be passive just hoping things will wake up normal just like that?
“Now the government wants to have 2,5% stolen from salaries
of workers on top of 2% mobile transactions tax, 14% VAT [value-added tax], 35%
payee, on top of rates at councils and tollgate fees. The likes of (the late
MDC leader) Morgan Tsvangirai rejected such scenarios and shut down the
country.”
MDC national secretary for labour, Gideon Shoko said the
ZCTU was right to organise a national shutdown.
“The ZCTU is very right to follow that route. As the MDC,
we certainly sympathise with the stance that the ZCTU wants to take … We, as a
party, believe the populace in general understands why the ZCTU has resorted to
wanting to protest,” he said.
ZCTU’s organised anti-fuel price hike protests in January
last year, however, degenerated into violence and death after government
responded by deploying the military in a crackdown that resulted in the death
of 17 people, injuring hundreds while thousands were arrested.
Since then, government has used brute force to thwart
protests. Newsday
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