OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 6.30pm.
ZIMBABWE’S increasingly vocal labour movement on Saturday stepped up its demands in a confrontation with the government, and reserved the right to take further strike action.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which has paralysed the country through two national strikes in the past two weeks, refused say whether it will continue its series of weekly one-day strikes. “We are not giving a categorical position as to what is going to happen to strikes,” secretary-general Morgan Tsvangirai said after a meeting of the ZCTU general council Saturday.
He said, however, that the labour movement reserves the right to take “appropriate” steps if progress is not made towards meeting its demands. Tsvangirai called for a meeting of the tripartite negotiating forum of government, business and labour leaders to be held before November 30. He said the government must publicly recognise and take responsibility for the crisis facing Zimbabwe, and the meeting should immediately come up with a binding programme to rehabilitate the country’s economy.
Tsvangirai, who has become an increasingly powerful political figure by proving his organisation can shut the country down at will, also made a series of demands of the government which go far beyond earlier claims for pay rises and price cuts. He said public expenditure must be slashed by reducing the size of the cabinet and mechanisms must be put in place so parliament can rigorously monitor government spending. The ZCTU also wants clarification from the government on the economic implications of the country’s involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Zimbabwe has some 6000 troops supporting President Laurent Kabila against a rebellion.
Tsvangirai said all funds lost through corruption, particularly well-known scandals involving housing and war veterans payments, must be recovered and restored to the treasury. The latest demands open up a whole new field of confrontation with President Robert Mugabe, covering macro-economic issues and his autocratic style of governing the country. — AFP
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