HARARE-The government has admitted that harsh laws and politicised security agents have stifled workers rights. Paurina Mpariwa, the Minister of Labour and Social Services said overnment would amend the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), a draconian piece of legislation which Harare has used to suppress opposition and human rights activists since its enactment almost a decade ago. She revealed this in a letter to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It should be noted that the Public Order and Security Act is being amended in consideration of the Inclusive Governments affirmed commitment to the principle of freedom of assembly and association.
It is in this spirit of engagement among the people of Zimbabwe that the Commissions (ILO) recommendations are accepted by the government. Government wishes to advise that the implementation of the recommendations, while already on going, will be informed by the overall government targets, said Mpariwa in her letter dated 20 April.
The Minister was responding to the ILO fact finding mission report entitled: Commission of Inquiry on the Observance of the Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organise Convention and the Right to Organisation Collective Bargaining Convention. The ILO report followed its visit to Zimbabwe in August last year to investigate allegations of breaches of the conventions and violations of workers rights in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) dismissed the governments response saying it did not address the issues which the ILO had raised. Khumbulani Ndlovu, the ZCTU Information Officer, told The Legal Monitor that Mpariwas letter placed more emphasis on the creation of the inclusive government than going through the steps government is taking to ensure that workers rights are not violated or that the arrests, beatings and ban of meetings that happened in the past do not happen again.
Mpariwa told the ILO that the transitional government had created an Organ on National Healing. Said Ndlovu: The ZCTU is not excited by the work of the Organ on National Healing that is mentioned in the governments response. This Organ is out of touch with reality or with real issues affecting victims of state-sponsored violence. The ILO recommendations are very clear. Among other things, there is need to drop all cases against labour activists that arose through POSA. This has not happened. Activists are still appearing in court charged under POSA.
She added that amending POSA was not enough. There is need to repeal POSA – currently discussions are around amending POSA and not repealing it, she said, adding that the State
must not interfere in trade union work. We have police writing the ZCTU a letter telling them who should or should not speak at this years May Day commemorations. Ndlovu added: Arrests, detentions should cease – a few weeks after the Commission left Zimbabwe, the ZCTU president (Lovemore Matombo) and four other were arrested and charged under POSA.
We also had the police defying a High Court order and refusing that ZCTU commemorates a September 13 (2006) event. The police actually wrote to ZCTU overturning the High Court order saying they did not take instructions from the Courts but from higher offices. These are some of the examples that even though government has accepted the report implement the recommendations. Accepting the report is one thing, while implementing it is another. The ZCTU is keener on seeing the (ILO) recommendations being implemented. The issue of POSA in Zimbabwe has remained a thorny issue since its enactment in 2002 when it replaced the colonial and repressive Law and Order (Maintenance) Act which Ian Smith had introduced in the 1960s to suppress the rights and activities of nationalists and freedom fighters. Progressive organisations such as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have extensively documented the abuse of the legislation by the police and other state actors, and continue to call for the total repeal of POSA.
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