Andrew Meldrum in Harare
A SHOWDOWN is looming for President Robert Mugabe’s government as 60 000 civil servants continue to strike for pay rises of more than 20%.
With hospitals overstretched, mortuaries overflowing and airports in chaos, the strike, now in its second week, is the biggest and most disruptive since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
Up to 7 000 strikers gathered in a Harare park this week to hear their angry union leaders imploring Mugabe “to be man enough” to address their demands for substantial increases.
“Intimidation is not the right approach. The manly thing to do is to face the problem right in the face, acknowledge our stance that we are not going to accept insults, and pay us,” Givemore Masongorera, the president of the Public Service Association union, said to wild cheers.
Police armed with pistols, semi-automatic rifles and teargas canisters kept a wary eye on the proceedings.
All the strikers — including doctors, nurses, accountants and engineers — were sacked last week by Labour minister Florence Chitauro. “All the civil servants who did not return to work are fired and they will not be permitted to return to work,” she reiterated on television.
The strikers scoff at Chitauro’s ultimatum. “We were not hired on television so we cannot be fired on television,” Masongorera said. “There are procedures for dismissing workers and the government must follow them.”
The strikers want substantially more than the 6% to 9% rises included in their latest salary cheques. They say the increases should at least match Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate of more than 26%. They cite a government survey which shows that workers in the private sector are paid 175% more than equivalent civil servants.
“Civil servants in this country are grossly underpaid,” the Unified Civil Servants’ Committee said this week. “The government is behaving irresponsibly by failing to address our grievances in a modern and balanced fashion and instead is using high-handed tactics.”
So far the strike has been peaceful. Three strike organisers were arrested last week and released on condition they did not incite strikers.
Zimbabwe’s hospitals are running an emergency service with the help of the army medical corps and Red Cross volunteers. At overcrowded mortuaries, many corpses lie stacked on the floor because relatives cannot get the necessary paperwork for the release of the deceased. Border posts are badly affected and so are airports, where numerous flights have been cancelled.
Harare hospital nurses, angry at their 6% raises when they had been led to believe they would get 20%, started the strike which one day later had spread throughout the civil service. The government said it was illegal and ordered the strikers to return to work before negotiations could begin. When the workers rejected this, they were all sacked.
“We don’t take kindly to illegal strikes,” said Mugabe. “Already the public service is far too large and it may be an opportunity for us to reduce it.” Despite his remarks, Mugabe is expected to authorise negotiations with the strikers. Government doctors have been on strike four times in the past six years and on two occasions the government fired them, only to re-hire them a few days later.