The widespread strike in Zimbabwe may be over, but the country’s troubles aren’t, reports Julius Zava
ALTHOUGH Zimbabwe’s strike by civil servants has been suspended, the threat of renewed labour unrest continues. The strikers have given the government until September 27 to address problems Plain English which lead to their strike which lasted nearly four weeks the most widescale and costly labour unrest since independence in 1980. While the strike (which economists say cost the country the equivalent of at least R500-million) was at its height, President Robert Mugabe and several of his ministers were out of the country. Dr Edmore Kambudzi, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said Mugabe felt secure enough to leave at such a critical time because “he has a lot of dead wood at the top, hangers-on whose job it is to make sure Mugabe stays in power. These people control the army and the police.”
Mugabe displayed his ignorance of the reasons for the strike when he returned home after his Cape Town honeymoon: “I don’t understand why the strike is on at all. Government never knew there was a grievance. Those who are striking never told us.”
Lower civil servants, many of whom live far below the bread line, got an average 3% increase just before the strike, while Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and their deputies and others got an average 45% increase as well as other perks.
The strike has further dented Mugabe’s popularity in Zimbabwe, with foreign donors, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Kambudzi explained this by saying: “Mugabe has indicated he may resign before the next presidential elections, so he does not care anymore about serious national problems even though he is doing great harm to the nation. It will take years to recover from Mugabe’s mess.”