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Zimbabwe unions fight expulsion drive
Mail & Guardian (SA)
November 03, 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=288675

Zimbabwean trade union leaders have asked Parliament to stop a bid by President Robert Mugabe's nephew to demand the state fire labour officials opposed to the government.

Leo Mugabe, a lawmaker from his uncle's ruling Zanu-PF, has tabled a motion in Parliament for the removal of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders "for unethical conduct" and "abandoning its core business of representing workers".

Mugabe was expected to move the debate this week, but officials say he did not because there were other issues on the legislature's diary as well as ongoing consultations around the the proposal.

Under Zimbabwean law, the labour minister can in special circumstances suspend or fire union officials over cases of gross mismanagement, criminal conduct or the failure to execute the mandate of unions to represent workers on labour issues.

The government charges that ZCTU leaders are involved in what it calls a Western-sponsored programme to end its rule after the seizures of white-owned commercial farms for landless blacks.

In an open letter to speaker of Parliament John Nkomo, ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe said the motion tabled by Mugabe and co-sponsored by another member of Parliament was sub judice because some of the issues were before the courts.

"The motion contains factual and legal inaccuracies," he said, adding Parliament could not debate a case in court and that the ZCTU had not been given a chance to comment on the "scandalous" charges Mugabe and his colleague were making.

"The honourable members of Parliament have taken the liberty to gratuitously condemn the ZCTU without giving them an opportunity to respond," Chibebe said.

"This is against the rules of justice."

The ZCTU secretary general and two other union officials have a pending case in court over charges of breaching foreign exchange regulations.

Chibebe and his colleagues say this and other accusations that they are mismanaging union affairs are part of a drive by the government to oust them over political differences.

Chibebe and 30 other union leaders were arrested six weeks ago and accuse police of assaulting them while in custody over accusations of holding an illegal protest over wages.

President Mugabe has said the union leaders -- who are out on bail and want to challenge the constitutionality of their arrest -- had defied authority and deserved the beating.

On Sunday the ZCTU denounced Leo Mugabe's parliamentary motion as another attack on democracy.

The president's nephew was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. - Reuters

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