Harare — The influential Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) began a three-day stoppage on Wednesday. But activity in the capital, Harare, appeared near normal, mid-morning, indicating that most civil servants had not observed the planned stayaway, suggesting it would have limited impact.
The ZCTU has urged workers to stay home for the next three days in protest at what it calls post-election harassment of its members.
The ZCTU said the government had disregarded workers' freedoms and that, since the disputed presidential election, March 9-11, pro-Mugabe activists have been beating up union members.
Workers in some factories in the industrial area of Harare apparently stayed away from their workplaces. There was one report from the high density Glen View suburb of the city that security forces had fired tear gas to disperse a crowd.
The powerful Zimbabwe union is also protesting against what it said was police interference in a closed union council meeting last week, when two officers said they had been sent to monitor the proceedings.
Police in Zimbabwe have warned that the intended stayaway is a "politically-motivated activity," and illegal, adding that the organizers of the action will be arrested.
The assistant police commissioner said "the peace and tranquility that is ensured (after the presidential poll lost by the opposition) stunned these people to the extent that they would like to introduce dissension, strife and mayhem under the pretext of labour rights' advancements."
The senior police officer told state television on Tuesday night that "what these bodies, including the ZCTU, are advocating is, in effect, an uprising, seeking to unseat the present government, when the people have spoken and made their choice as regards the last election."
Before the presidential election, President Robert Mugabe's government rammed through draconian and restrictive new security laws in Zimbabwe. Violation could result in long prison sentences and huge fines.
The assistant police commissioner said security forces had been deployed in cities, towns and residential areas and that police patrols would be visible. He told law-abiding citizens' that they should go about their normal duties and report any abnormal activities, adding that the authorities were ready to deal with any "acts of criminality" to maintain law and order.
Zimbabwe's defeated opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, was a trade union leader before he transformed himself into a full-time politician. The MDC leader has backed the general stoppage and demanded that the government take action against political violence.
Tsvangirai could be heading for more confrontation with the government, by giving the nod to the work stoppage called by the ZCTU, which has 700,000 members. "We support any action that is going to reflect the anger and great disgust that the people of this country have. It's not just the ZCTU which is affected, it is all of us in this country," he said.
"Conditions for meaningful discussions do not exist at present. Negotiation is the ultimate. The struggle has to continue in whatever form, has to continue until we have a legitimate government restored in this country," added Tsvangirai, who has rejected the results of the elections which gave Mugabe another six years in office.
Tsvangirai has accused the president of stealing the election and disenfranchising opposition members. Now he says the government has embarked on a massive retribution against MDC supporters.
He has demanded that Mugabe step down and has called for a fresh presidential ballot in Zimbabwe, supervised by the United Nations
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions was an important supporter for Tsvangirai when he threw his hat into the presidential election ring.
Despite their close association, the ZCTU has denied that its stoppage is linked to any opposition protest. But the authorities are likely to see any action by the unions as part of a united opposition.
ZCTU president, Lovemore Matombo, said that because of the police intervention in union affairs, the ZCTU had no other means to defend itself, except to call the national stayaway in Zimbabwe. He concluded that the action must be "as peaceful as possible, so that we don't give any opportunity to the police and the army."
Matombo said that "previously, they have always labelled us as an appendage of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. But the purpose and objective on which we want to carry out the job action is purely in defence of our freedom and nothing else. They may interpret it [as an action to support the MDC], but I think the state is the one that has started the whole issue, by bringing in the police which has no business in the affairs of labour."
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth on Tuesday, after meetings of the specially-appointed troika of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and the Australian prime minister, John Howard. It was set up after the recent heads of government meeting in Australia to report back on the conduct of the presidential poll.
Howard, the current Commonwealth chairman, said that Zimbabwe would not be allowed representation at high-level meetings of the 54-member organisation for the next 12 months, but that the situation would be reviewed after a year.
Commonwealth observers issued a damning report about the presidential poll, saying the ballot had been held in a climate of fear and intimidation.
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Zimbabwe's information minister, Jonathan Moyo, dismissed the Commonwealth suspension, saying it was a bad decision, based on a bad, one-sided and unrepresentative report.
Moyo said the priority for the government was the economy and the people of Zimbabwe. The Commonwealth did not impose sanctions on Zimbabwe and pledged to help the people suffering food shortages and in some cases starvation.
Howard said that political reconciliation, between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC, as well as a resolution of the land crisis were cornerstones to settling the problems in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe appeared to offer an olive branch to the opposition in his inauguration speech on Sunday, though he stopped short of agreeing to share power. This is a proposal apparently supported by the South African and Nigerian leaders, who flew to Harare on Monday for a meeting with the Zimbabwean leader and later separate talks with Tsvangirai.
The MDC leader claims that Mugabe's activists continue to intimidate opposition supporters who voted for Tsvangirai, at the same time as the president "is lying to Mbeki and Obasanjo, saying that he wants to negotiate. He (Mugabe) has to stop that, if he is to create objective conditions for any meaningful discussion," Tsvangirai said.
