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Police grill Zimbabwe labour leader
ZimOnline
August 09, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=12639

HARARE - Police yesterday temporarily detained Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary general Wellington Chibebe over alleged financial irregularities at the union but ZCTU officials dismissed the police action as a ploy to derail worker protests planned for later this month.

The ZCTU, the largest umbrella union body for workers in Zimbabwe, has threatened to call nationwide street protests by workers later this month to pressure employers to pay wages and salaries linked to the poverty datum line (the breadline), pegged at Z$75 million per month and way above the average monthly wage for workers of between $15 million and $25 million.

Chibebe was summoned to the police's serious fraud squad offices in Harare at about 9 o'clock in the morning. For the better part of the day, the police quizzed the ZCTU official over what they allege are irregularities in the labour body's foreign currency account and only released him at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

ZimOnline was unable to reach police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena to establish whether the law enforcement agency planned to arrest or charge Chibebe at a later stage.

ZCTU legal adviser Tsitsi Mariwa, who accompanied Chibebe to the police, however said his interrogators had indicated that they would charge the union leader.

"We told the police that there was no violation of any section of the Foreign Currency Exchange Controls but police still insist they want him arraigned before the courts," said Mariwa, who is a lawyer.

But ZCTU spokesman Mlamuleli Sibanda said the police move was part of attempts by the government to scuttle plans by the ZCTU to mobilise workers to protest for better wages.

Sibanda said: "We believe this is calculated as a pre-emptive strategy to frustrate our plans to mobilise workers on issues affecting the generality of the workforce in Zimbabwe."

The ZCTU spokesman said the union would not be daunted by "harassment" of its leaders and would this coming weekend hold workshops with workers across the country to finalise plans for the protests later this month.

The government fears protests for more pay by workers could easily turn into mass protests against President Robert Mugabe, who most Zimbabweans hold directly responsible for the country's worst ever economic crisis. - ZimOnline

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