Zimbabwe is Not Poor! ZCTU says

Published on 3rd May 2010

Mr. Lovemore Matombo
Journalist Violet Gonda presents Hot Seat where she speaks to the President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Lovemore Matombo, who gives us the ZCTU’s position on the coalition government and the key issues that affect workers. 

Gonda: The issue of salaries – I understand that the government, through Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said that salaries have been frozen indefinitely because the government has no money for salary increases for State workers. What’s your response to this? 

Matombo: It is an unfortunate situation. I don’t know why he says the government has no money. Why is it, it doesn’t have money? We need to find out. To say we cannot do anything because we have no money is not satisfactory enough. I think this might agitate workers to go on the streets. 

It is the role of government to find the money. We want to say to government – please find that money. We know you can find that money. Zimbabwe is very rich; Zimbabwe is extremely rich that it is so absurd to suggest that the government doesn’t have money. I know there is a lot of money in Zimbabwe. Where is the money going to? Where is the money from Chiadzwa going to? In fact there is more than what we need. There is more than what 14 million Zimbabweans would want. The government must re-correct and realign the governance system so that there is transparency in the manner in which we conduct business. Let’s bring in some good corporate governance. Currently, anyone can do as he or she chooses to do. This is why we appear as if we are a very poor country. Zimbabwe is not a poor country. ZCTU cannot be made to believe that Zimbabwe is a poor country. It’s not, we are not poor, we are very rich. The government must make sure it finds resources to pay the civil servants. 

Gonda:  Some have said that the diamond fields in Chiadzwa should be nationalised so that some of the revenue goes to the workers. Would you be in favour of this? 

Matombo: Well, if they are given to private individuals, I think Zimbabwe should rise up against those people. The diamond mine should not be owned by individuals. If an individual owns the mine, for example like what we hear – ACR – they must accept that 50 or 51% should go to the fiscus. That’s the only way we can accept a private company to operate. If this diamond saga is to have peace in the people of Zimbabwe then let it be nationalised in the first place. But even if you nationalise, do you trust the people who nationalise? That’s another question. This is why it is important that should anything happen, it has to be transparent enough. We support anything that introduces good corporate governance to ensure that the profits of the Chiadzwa would go to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. 

Gonda: As the labour movement and indeed the general civil society, have you insisted to find out where the money is going from the sale of diamonds or whatever is happening in the Chiadzwa area? What is the labour movement doing about this? 

Matombo: The whole environment is a closed society. The governance system in Zimbabwe is a closed society and obviously the officials would not want to be moved at all. But I think with time people will know exactly where the money is going. I don’t think there is anything that will ever be hidden forever. It will be known. But unfortunately for us as ZCTU we do not know where the money is going. 

Gonda: You have threatened to take action if the salaries issue is not resolved, but how do you respond to those who say that a strike action actually hurts the common man more than the politician? 

Matombo: Well it depends as to what they are saying and where they are coming from. Zimbabwe is a country that has a high level of disparity. You have people who are super rich in Zimbabwe and you have people who are extremely poor. In fact for people who are earning 150 US dollars to suggest that if they go on strike they will be hurt – they are already hurt, people are suffering already to the extent that you cannot differentiate between the salaries they are earning or even if they didn’t have any salaries, salary, earnings at all. Salaries or no salaries, it now looks as if it is one and the same thing and therefore the strike can only be the solution. Strike, protest and any other action that will force the government to accept and in fact to give salaries to the civil servants. 

Gonda: And what are your views on the freezing of State workers’ salaries without streamlining a bloated unity government? 

Matombo: This is very unfortunate really. It appears that the politics in Zimbabwe will not change for a very long time to come. Of course we know we have survived for 30 years under one political governance structure - with traditions, culture and values and it appears also that even if you change personalities, the culture and the values still remain the same. This is what is quite frightening, it’s very frightening and we hope and trust that at some stage, Zimbabweans have to transform – it’s no longer a question of changing government, it’s a question of transforming. Zimbabweans should transform themselves. Their attitude, their tradition, their values need to be transformed now because as long as we cannot do that you can have two, three governments that can be changed within three years, I assure you, the behaviour will be one and the same thing and that’s the quagmire we seem to find ourselves. 

Courtesy:  HOT SEAT, a SW Radio Africa Transcript.(Abridged)

To contact Violet, mail  [email protected]


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