HARARE – Gertrude Hambira, who rose to the
helm of Zimbabwe's main union for farm workers nine years ago just as
President Robert Mugabe was launching his controversial and often
violent land reform programme, says she remains committed to the
struggle for human rights despite the many obstacle that litter the way.
Elected
the first woman Secretary General of the General Agriculture and
Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) in 2000, Hambira told
The Zimbabwean on Sunday that it has been a tough fight for her and her
union caught up in the chaos of government land reforms.
GAPWUZ
members were among the worst affected by government land reforms which
displaced white commercial farmers who had offered employment and
replaced them with black peasants who did have the cash to pay workers
or the know-how to run the farms.
The past ten years have
been so difficult for the farm workers, especially women and children.
My rise to this post coincided with the infamous, chaotic state
endorsed land reform in which there were a lot of human rights abuses.
The workers lost their healthy livelihood and accommodation, said
Hanbira.
It was a difficult time for me as a new leader, faced
with thousands of workers to represent, at the same time evading the
state agents who saw our quest to represent the farm workers as
opposition to the land reform.
As the government's fast track
land reforms shook the farming sector, GAPWUZ also came under immense
political pressure from Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF) which accused the
union of backing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
which had just been founded out of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
GAPWUZ is an affiliate of the ZCTU.
With
such a background, heading GAPWUZ and standing for the rights of the
farm workers was no easy task. I had to summon all the courage,
determination and commitment to represent the people who had chosen me
to stand up for them, said Hambira.
In addition to the
political pressure, Hambira also had to deal with fact that she was a
leader in an environment dominated by men but says she was able to
overcome driven by her desire to stand up for the rights of farm
workers, especially women and children.
The relationship that
we have with workers is driven by our ambitions to bring up change in
their lives. It is my dream to see women in the farms taking up leading
position because their participation is very vital, said the GAPWUZ
secretary general.
My word to women is that we should not tire
and look backwards, we should not lose focus but continue to fight for
our rights with determination and courage; that is the only way we can
be recognized.
Hambira, who began working as a factory
machinist at the age of 19, a year after Zimbabwe's 1980 independence
from Britain, joined the trade union movement in 1987 as an educator
with the ZCTU. She later moved to GAPWUZ.
She is also in the
Coalition Against Child Labour in Zimbabwe (CAGCLZ) that works to
prevent the exploitation of children as labour on farms and other
places of employment.
The CAGCLZ was formed by GAPWUZ,
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the African Network for the
Prevention and Protection of Children against Neglect.
We are strongly against child labour and we are encouraging that school is the best practice, she Hambira.
BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
Post published in: Politics