Unpaid Anjin workers strike

A worker who spoke to The Zimbabwean on condition of anonymity, said workers had not received their full salaries and working conditions were deteriorating every day.

“The company has made it a habit not to pay us our salaries on time and the management does not communicate the reasons why we are paid half our salary weeks after our pay date,” he said. “Management told us there is no money because treasury is taking proceeds from diamond sales.”

Another employee said the finance manager for Anjin, Shingi Munyeva, told the workers that the company had applied for a loan from a local bank to enable the firm to settle the workers’ salaries.

“Every time Zanu (PF) holds any event, our salaries will not be on time because the company says the party is taking money to fund party activities,” added another worker.

Efforts to get a comment from Munyeva were futile while David Dube, the company's human resources manager, was not picking up his mobile.

Cosmas Sunguro, the director of the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU), said his organisation was concerned at the slave wages paid to workers in the diamond mining sector.

Anjin staff worked 12 hours instead of the stipulated eight hours, he said. “There is non-disclosure of production figures which is shrouded in secrecy by most of the companies operating in the diamond fields,” added Sunguro. Anjin, has been embroiled in labour disputes over poor practices and low remuneration since it started in 2010.