Zimbabwean workers have become modern day slaves following a Supreme Court ruling that has triggered more than 9 000 job losses in less that three weeks, opposition party Zapu has said.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Zapu secretary for information, marketing and publicity, Mjobisa Noko, said the job cuts showed a country under siege and called on government to rescue workers.
“The infamous Supreme Court judgment depict an orgy picture of a country undergoing a reign of destruction,” he said in a statement.
“Workers have always been irreplaceable frontline drivers of economic and social development.
“We, therefore, demand that government immediately take concrete and lasting action to rescue workers who are already underpaid and living under the poverty datum line- from the ruthless sacrificial alter.”
Noko said the Supreme Court ruling benefited the elite and “filthy” rich Zanu PF bigwigs.
“The worker, he being the geese that lays the golden eggs for the master, has been the most affected in this collapsed nation through underpayment, stretching salary backlogs, among other poor working conditions and safety nets,” he said.
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“And these judgments have simply legalised this facet of modern day slavery. It’s a phenomenal loss for workers and all the ordinary people.
“The elite, mainly filthy rich Zanu stalwarts, can now lawfully further severe the welfare of their miserable workers in farms, mines and industries through abrupt and empty dismals.”
Trade unions on Friday gave President Robert Mugabe and Parliament a 72-hour ultimatum to reverse the Supreme Court ruling giving employers the right to sack workers on a three-month notice without benefits.
Labour experts have described the ruling as a serious threat to job security since most employers had sacked workers on the basis of the judgment.
