Own Correspondent|Several Zanu-PF heavyweights have reportedly been taken to court after they failed to pay their farm workers’ wages for more than a year.

In a court petition, a union that represented farm workers, the Progressive Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (Paawuz), said that it was left with no choice but to approach the labour court for redress.

The Zanu-PF heavyweights – who included, ex-defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi, Grace Mugabe’s sister Rose Chidhakwa, ex-public service minister Nicholas Goche, Bindura South lawmaker, Remigious Matangira, as well as former Mbare legislature Tendai Savanhu – owed their workers thousands of US dollars in unpaid wages and allowances.

The report said that Grace Mugabe’s sister had gone for over nine months without paying her aggrieved employees, while Matangira owed his workers more than $80 000.

This was not the first time that Zanu-PF officials were taken to court for failing to pay their employees.

In October 2013, the then deputy minister of mines and mining development, Fred Moyo, was dragged to the labour court after he failed to pay his INEZ Mine workers’ salaries for over 7 months.

The 147 workers claimed at the time that Moyo had failed or neglected to pay wages and salaries since taking over the gold mine in January of that year.

The workers demanded $190 000 in wages, excluding statutory payments and medical cover which they said the ex-deputy minister had claimed from their salaries, but failed to remit the deductions.