ZESA workers on strike over pay and working conditions
By Tichaona Sibanda
4 January 2007

Workers at the state-owned power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority walked out on strike on Thursday demanding higher pay and better working conditions.

The strikers are demanding a 150 percent salary increment and a minimum basic salary of over Z$80 000 for the least paid employees. These employees on A1 salary grade are currently earning Z$23 000 per month. A source told us most employees on the A1 to D2 salary grades were currently only just getting enough to cover living costs due to the country’s huge level of inflation.

Management are reportedly resisting the pay increment suggesting such a huge salary adjustment could leave the corporation on the brink of collapse. An employee at ZESA head office told newsreel the company claims the workers went on strike without going through the proper procedures or informing the management and that most workers there were intimidated to go back to work. We could not get comment from ZESA spokesman James Maridadi.

Our correspondent in Harare Simon Muchemwa said it is believed the workers have been on a go-slow the past week resulting in many strategic institutions in the country going for days without electricity.

Most financial institutions, retail outlets in Harare’s central business district and the Morton Jaffray water works and residential suburbs in the capital have suffered several intermittent power cuts in the last week. The situation got worse on Thursday when workers went on a work stoppage demanding higher pay.

Muchemwa said it is suspected most of the power blackouts were allegedly a result of sabotage by some of the engineers who felt let down by the utility’s management.

‘I have been told some engineers have deliberately tempered with some transformers and that some of the equipment used by ZESA is beyond repair. So it is a combination of a numbers of factors for the dire situation at the power utility,’ Muchemwa said.

A Harare businessman said he is losing close to Z$500 000 per day because of the unexplained power cuts. The businessman who asked to be called Lee is furious because in the last week they have been losing power in the CBD around 8 in the morning until 4 pm.

‘We are just coming into the offices to sit down and read newspapers. We are talking of our livelihoods and yet no-one bothers to give us an update on the situation concerning the power blackouts,’ he said.

Having started in Harare, the strike has since widened to other parts of the country, with other power workers supporting the demand for higher wages. ZESA has been regularly cutting off power in the last two years to
try to conserve electricity because it does not have enough hard cash to pay for power imports from South Africa.