18,000 Jobs Gone Forever, And Now Govt Rushes to Say It Will Now Act
6 August 2015
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After 18,000 jobs were scraped in two weeks’ time, the ZANU PF government has rushed to display outward empathy for workers saying it will  now change the laws so that they favour employees.
Cabinet has approved proposed amendments to the Labour Act that are expected to protect both employers and employees.
The amendments have been triggered by the massive job cuts in the past two weeks following a Supreme Court ruling that common law still subsisted. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a Zanu-PF Politburo meeting in Harare yesterday, party spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo, said the party expected the Labour Act amendments to be expedited to protect workers who have been on the receiving end of late.
He said: “The law, which has led to massive retrenchment of workers, is being reviewed to contain a possible crisis in the labour market. The Labour Law Amendment Bill will be presented to Parliament shortly as it has already been approved by Cabinet.”
While Khaya Moyo was reluctant to get into the nitty-gritties of the proposed amendments, he said the ruling party was hopeful that once passed by Parliament, the amendments would bring the situation under control.
He said the amendments sought to protect both employers and employees and plug loopholes that were in the current Act.
Khaya Moyo said in the event that further loopholes were identified after the amendments had been passed, the government would not hesitate to amend the Act again.
While some quarters have been imploring President Robert Mugabe to invoke the Presidential Powers to halt the job terminations, Khaya Moyo said the ruling party believed amendments to the Labour Act were ideal.
“As I said, nobody wants to see any worker suffer. There is nobody who is also keen to see the Presidential Powers invoked. We don’t want to go that route,” he said.
“There is a Labour Act. There were loopholes or there are loopholes in it. We’ve looked at it and the lawyers have looked at it and I believe that in their wisdom the amendment shall suffice. So we don’t want to take any other route”.
Workers unions claim that more than 18,000 people have been fired countrywide following a Supreme Court ruling on July 17 allowing companies to terminate employment on three months notice.
Khaya-Moyo said during President Mugabe’s introductory remarks in the Politburo, he condemned land grabs in Harare where it was also revealed that some party youths were extorting money from those who wanted land.
“There was a long debate on illegal settlements which are mushrooming across the country particularly in large cities for example, Caledonia in Harare.
“There are a lot of young people who’ve been going around extorting monies from innocent citizens for the purpose of these settlements. This must stop forthwith because the law enforcement agents are going to be pursuing this matter with utmost vigour,” he said.
Khaya Moyo said the Politburo mandated Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, to issue a “very strong statement on this matter and also to handle the challenge with utmost urgency”.
“We’re hearing of thousands of dollars taken from people promised stands which aren’t even theirs. We can’t as a party of discipline accept such misconduct which is criminal.”
He said party officials who would be found on the wrong side of the law would be dealt with according to party rules and the Constitution.
Kasukuwere, who is the national political commissar, also briefed the Politburo on recent by-elections that were won by the revolutionary party as well as primary elections that were held in Marondera Central and Mbire constituencies that were won by Lawrence Katsiru and Douglas Karoro.
Primary elections will be held in Epworth on Sunday following the death of Ambassador Amos Midzi.
There have been numerous cases of people whose houses were demolished after they were duped into buying stands on land not suitable for habitation.

4 Replies to “18,000 Jobs Gone Forever, And Now Govt Rushes to Say It Will Now Act”

  1. Keep on firing the Shona savages in their tens of thousands!!!! I want to see civil unrest, public mayhem, I want to see them fighting amongst each other over the last scrap of food…while the white folk sit and watch them self destruct!!! What a useless uneducated bunch of thieving savages they are. They destroyed a once prosperous country, they will NEVER be as successful in anything they do as the white folk are!!!!

  2. ZPF needs to know that they have created the worst worker/business/foreign investment climate in almost the whole world. You guys need to come to the party and invite ALL Zimbabweans to work towards restoring this nation. God will demand that we start with repentance! Even a 9 year old in a rural village can begin to tell you what you are doing wrong! How come we can all see it but government can’t?????

  3. Khaya Moyo says he doesn’t want to see any worker suffer???? 14 million Zimbabweans are suffering Mr Moyo: because of ZPF politics. Wake up please. ZPF cadres do not pay their workers???? new farmers do not pay their workers???? Parastatals do not pay their workers????? ZPF need to wisen up and admit the error of their ways. We are sick and tired of all the tired excuses. Zimbabweans have eyes and ears and a brain.

  4. Government should create the conditions that would encourage companies to employ workers tightening the laws to stop companies reducing their workers will achieve nothing. No company will layoff workers if it can help it because no company is in the business of layoff workers.
    Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is getting worse and worse and this is morally and politically unsustainable – that is a fact.
    Mugabe failed to get any donor, not even his “all-weather friends” the Chinese and Russians to bankroll his $27 billion ZimAsset plan. He tries turning on his
    charm offensive; bribing them with opportunities to loot and plunder the
    country’s Marange diamond, they took up that offer but failed to reciprocate with ZimAsset cash; etc. With ZimAsset dead Mugabe was sunk.
    In the end, and that end is not far away now, it is the economy stupid that his going to force Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept the dreaded regime change. The present economic meltdown is economically and politically unsustainable and the only hope of ending the economic decline is by carrying out a complete wholesale overhaul of the country’s economic policies and legal framework – that can only happen after free, fair and credible elections or regime change!

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