Zimbabwe Congress of Trade unions’ acting Secretary-General, Gideon Shoko, says demonstrations against continuing job losses in Chinhoyi on Saturday are going ahead as planned after the police gave them the greenlight.
Shoko says the protests failed to take place last weekend after their plans coincided with Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit to the Mashonaland West provincial capital.
“They have finally agreed. As you know, there were demos in all the other centres and not Harare and Chinhoyi,” he said. “So this week Chinhoyi has been allowed to proceed and certainly we are going to demonstrate peacefully.”
The ZCTU had planned demonstrations against continuing job losses in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Chinhoyi but the Harare protest was disrupted by the police who beat up some of the union’s leaders.
Shoko sys the ZCTU has now penciled the Harare demonstrations for August 22.
More than 20,000 people have lost their jobs in less than four weeks following a Supreme Court ruling allowing employers to fire workers at will on three months notice.
The ZCTU says the government is not doing enough to protect hard-pressed workers.
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Interview With Gideon Shoko