The Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the largest trade federation in that
African nation, on Wednesday warned that government officials are
covering up massive violations of workers’ rights by Chinese companies.
ZCTU acting president Nicholas Mazarura said
abuses by Chinese employers included paying less than the industrial
minimum wage, forcing employees to work without adequate protective
equipment, charging workers for their own protective gear when it was provided,
failing to provide medical care, and violating numerous health and
safety regulations — including chemical and biological hazards
Mazarura accused Chinese companies of using “public relations” funds to bribe government officials to thwart oversight.
“We take this opportunity to warn
individuals in high offices and those masquerading as consultants who
are in connivance with the Chinese to enslave and subject workers to
some of the worst treatment observed since 1980 that the tide will rise
against them soon,” Mazarura said.
The early 1980s were watershed years
in the Zimbabwean labor movement, as workers organized against dramatic
abuses and extremely poor working conditions. Zimbabwe joined the
International Labor Organization in 1980, and the ZCTU was founded soon
afterward.
Mazarura recalled how Zimbabwe’s “Second Republic,” the government formed after the fall of longtime dictator Robert Mugabe in 2017, declared
its intention to become a haven for foreign investment. He accused the
Chinese of treating that invitation as an opportunity to exploit
Zimbabwean workers.
File
photo shows Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed by Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe, Dec. 1, 2015. (Xinhua/Lan
Hongguang)
“It was not a call for the
destruction of workers’ physical, mental and social wellbeing through
failure to adhere to basic fundamental labor standards. The gravity of
union busting by the Chinese is posing an existential threat to the
labor movement and must be met with equal measure,” he declared.
“We cannot sit and watch while
workers are being abused. We are calling on the responsible ministries
to quickly institute measures to curb the Chinese offensive attack and
correct the situation,” he said.
A formal complaint
was made public this week against an example of the corruption Mazarura
denounced. An Italian investor named Francesco Marconati, whose shoe
company supplies the Zimbabwean military and police with footwear and
other gear, accused
assistant police commissioner Jealous Nyabasa and his subordinates of
protecting a well-connected Chinese national named Li Song from fraud
and forgery investigations.
Marconati said he filed such charges
against Song one year ago, but no investigation of the Chinese woman has
been conducted, and only incomplete records were supplied by Nyabasa’s
department when prosecutors requested documentation.
On the other hand, Marconati said a squad of detectives investigated and harassed him on
Song’s behalf, including an intimidating visit to his Eagle Italian
Shoes offices, and the harassment was later extended to his son.
“I fear that my son’s life is also in
danger. The same police are using State resources to advance the
interest of Song. Song is always in and out of the office of Nyabasa but
when it comes to serving summons for her to go to court, they always
state that they cannot locate her,” Marconati wrote in his September 20
letter of complaint.
“There is no known criminal
allegation leveled against me or my companies. That is pure abuse of
power. Everything being done is meant to silence me,” he charged.
Marconati said the
goal of this conspiracy was to muscle his company out of the way so
Song’s new shoe company can take over his government contracts.
“I cannot just sit down and watch my
investment for so many years being destroyed by sabotage from a public
officer who is busy abusing his office,” he said.
Zimbabwean legislators began accusing
the “Second Republic” government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of
granting Chinese companies tacit exemptions from Zimbabwe’s labor laws
soon after Mugabe’s ouster. For that matter, complaints about abusive Chinese companies exploiting Zimbabwean workers were not uncommon under the Mugabe regime.
Source: Breitbart