A national strike called by Zimbabwe’s largest trade union movement on Wednesday to press for changes in the management of the country’s national pension fund had little effect in the capital, Harare.
The city centre was bustling, with morning traffic as heavy as usual and the majority of banks, shops and business establishments functioning normally.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on Tuesday announced the strike to protest the alleged ”rot” in the state-run National Social Security Authority (NSSA).
”We are calling for a strike tomorrow in order that the government stops the rot at NSSA,” ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said on Tuesday.
Contributions to the government-run pension fund are compulsory for all workers, but Chibebe said some retirees were receiving as little as Z$700 a month in retirement benefits.
”Monies are not properly accounted for, this is where the issue is,” said Chibebe. ”The administration costs of NSSA are always more than what is paid out [to beneficiaries] … it’s a sorry state of affairs,” he said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the largest trade union in Zimbabwe’s southern neighbour, has thrown its weight behind the strike.
The last national strike called by the ZCTU was staged at the end of November following the arrest of several unionists and human rights activists, but that action also had little effect. — Sapa-AFP