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Police pounce on labour body and publication
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 13, 2005

About 10 armed police officers raided the The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union Offices (ZCTU) and The Worker newspaper at around 10 am, on May 13, looking for unspecified documents. The police who were armed entered the offices and demanded to search the offices. The Worker is a monthly pro labour newspaper produced by the ZCTU.

MISA-Zimbabwe was told by the ZCTU Secretary General Mr Wellington Chibebe that the police said they were investigating a case of illegal foreign currency dealings by the ZCTU and also a fraud case involving the labour body. The police confiscated all financial files and diskettes before proceeding to the offices of the The Worker were they confisticated two documents pertaining to the purchase of a camera and a contract between the Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NIZA) and The Worker on media training programmes. Mr Chibebe told MISA-Zimbabwe that the raid is part of an ongoing onslaught by the government on the labour body.

"They want to make sure that by the time the International Labour Organisation meeting is held at the end of the year, we will not be around", said Mr Chibebe.

He added that the government wants a new leadership at the ZCTU that would gloss over issues of violations of worker rights in Zimbabwe. MISA-Zimbabwe was also informed that ZCTU's lawyers had been told by the police that some of the files would be released by Monday next week. Mr Chibebe added that some of the police officers informed them that they were doing this on the instructions of their seniors.

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