Shabanie shooting signals weak labour laws

Over the past decade, when the country’s economy lapsed into a recession, the police have been accused of using excessive force — including shooting at crowds — to disperse protesters.
Since 2000, workers have increasingly resorted to strikes to demand better salaries and working conditions after failing to extract concessions at the negotiating tables.
Employers, with their backs against the wall because of the economic  meltdown that has left their businesses skating on thin ice, have found the police a willing partner to quell the job actions that have worsened their viability woes.
Human rights groups have recorded several fatal incidences in which the police killed or seriously injured striking workers.
In 2001, for example, four Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company employees were killed in Kwekwe during a strike to press for better pay and improved working conditions.
In 2003, scores of striking Stanbic Bank workers were also rounded up, beaten and detained by the police following a deadlock over salaries.
And in 2007, the police were again to be involved in another scuffle with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) officials, seriously injuring its president Lovemore Mato-mbo and secretary-general, Wellington Chibebe.
The latest uproar over the police’s handling of industrial actions was triggered by the shooting of Alois and Taurai Zhou, along with Simbarashe Mashuku on Friday last week.
This was after members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) stormed Shaba-nie Mine where workers were demonstrating against nine months of unpaid salaries and opened fire.
The three employees are now battling for their lives at Zvishavane District Hospital.
Reports say the trio has been placed under police guard and relatives are having difficulties in accessing them.
Labour lawyer, Rodgers Matsikidze, said the police are not supposed to raid striking workers unless there is real danger that they would destroy property.
“The law of strikes in Zimbabwe is draconian,” he said.
“But whether a strike is legal or illegal, it is advisable to use minimum force. We always discourage force unless there is massive destruction of property. If we start using force in labour issues we will set a dangerous precedence,” added Matsikidze.
Matsikidze said labour iss-ues were civil matters that do not warrant the high handedness shown by the police over the years.
“These are civil issues. The police should only come in to protect wor-kers. There are several strikes in South Afri-ca, but rarely are we told people have been beaten or killed,” said the labour lawyer.
Matsikidze said the police should be refo-rmed to deal with the current public scepticism where members of the force are associated with brutality.
Labour unions have also reacted angrily to the shootings on Friday.
They condemned the escalating violent nature of the police every time the force tries to crush workers’ protests.
The unions said last week’s shootings were a sad reminder of previous incidents where defenseless workers have been killed in cold blood while others have sustained broken limbs and permanent injuries while trying to express their frustrations over the trampling of labour rights by employers.
“It (the shootings) is a complete violation of workers’ rights,” Matombo said.
“They (workers) are being victimised when they are already victims. They have not been paid for nine months. We (workers) have no guns, why should the police use guns against people who are not in any way a threat.
“The police had no role whatsoever to play in a labour issue. It is mischievous to say they had a role. This company belonged to (Mutumwa) Mawere. Gover-nment has taken it over. Now they are recouping profits when they are the worst when it comes to paying workers. I wonder if ministers can work for nine months without pay,” the ZCTU president said.
The ZRP has defended its actions.
ZRP spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Zhou had tried to wrest a gun from police officers who were trying to enforce order resulting in his shooting.
Last week’s incident also brought to the fore the plight of workers at Shabanie and Mashaba Mines, which are part of the SMM Holdings group.
SMM was expropriated by government from exiled businessman Mawere in 2004.
The group owns the two biggest asbestos mines in the country — Shabanie Mine and Gatsi — which have been at the centre of a protracted legal battle between Mawere and the government over the past five years.
At the time the group was under Mawere, SMM was one of the country’s largest single employers with close to 10 000 employees and export earnings estimated at 10 percent of the country’s export revenues.
The mines are now a pale shadow of their former self following the specification of Mawere, one of the first crusaders of the black economic empowerment mantra.
Arafas Gwaradzimba, the SMM administrator, said the group has been failing to secure offshore lines of credit to replace ageing plant and equipment due to concerns over Mawere’s specification.
In a recent report to Legal Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, Gwaradzimba said the situation at the two mines had deteriorated with equipment in urgent need of replacement.
“As it stands right now, it is extremely dangerous to carry out mining activities because of the sorry and sad state of the mines’ plant and equipment,” he said in the report dated May 19 this year.
Obsolete equipment has been one of the major causes of industrial accidents in Zimbabwe where a decade of economic decline has forced companies to put on hold most capital expenditure projects.