Mass stayaway planned

Zimbabwe’s business community has criticised plans for a countrywide strike on Wednesday to protest illegal farm occupations, saying such a move would deepen the problems of an already crippled economy. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has come out in support of white commercial farmers by announcing a three-day stayaway beginning on Wednesday to protest “the breakdown of law and order” on farms occupied by war veterans and government supporters. The ZCTU general council said the mass action was to draw attention to the plight of farm workers who have been assaulted by gangs of squatters illegally occupying some 1,100 estates. Danny Dube, president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), told IRIN that the planned strike action would be bad for business. But he added that although companies would try and carry on operating as normal, “this does not mean they support a break down in the rule of law” on the farms. However, presidential spokesman George Charamba questioned the ZCTU’s motives in ordering industrial protest over an issue that does not directly affect its members. “What does a land reform programme have to do with a worker employed in private company?,” he asked. “The farmers want to boost the numbers. If they demonstrate on their own they know they won’t be able to cause a political problem and this is why they want the workers to join. It was the farmers who started with the work stoppage on their farms last week,” Charamba told IRIN. The issue of violence and intimidation on the farms, and the government’s deployment of troops in the townships who have been accused of beating opposition supporters, is to be discussed in parliament on Tuesday. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which holds 58 seats to ruling ZANU-PF’s 92, has pledged to take the government to task over the law and order controversy and the crumbling economy.