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Clarification on the Herald story
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
March 23, 2007

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) would like to clarify some issues raised in the story published in The Herald of today, Friday 23 March 2007, entitled "Government, ZCTU, business unite".

First and foremost, the headline of the story is misleading. The meeting in Mutare was not a Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), but a workshop/retreat on the promotion of dialogue between the social partners as initiated by the local office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ZCTU has always maintained an open door policy when it is invited to such ILO/UNDP workshops. A workshop cannot, therefore, take a position on the issues of the TNF. This workshop was meant to explore ways of encouraging dialogue.

We would also to make it clear that the Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity, Bright Matonga is not the spokesman of the TNF. Issues discussed at the TNF are agreed upon and a statement is issued by all parties. Deputy Minister Matonga was quoting the Kadoma Declaration of 2001 whose position is known to everyone.

The misconception that came out of The Herald will not dilute the fact that employers, government included, are refusing to award workers Poverty Datum Line-linked wages which now stand at over $1 million per month. We are also making it clear that we suspect The Herald story was meant to divert the attention of the people from the ZCTU planned mass stayaway of April 3 and 4, 2007.

The progressive world must not be fooled by cheap propaganda. The stayaway of April 3 and 4 will go ahead as planned as nothing has changed on the ground.

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