Zesa’s witch-hunt against ‘striking workers’

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 January 2007

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is alleged to have used video footage and photographs to identify most of the workers it suspended on Monday for allegedly downing tools last week. President of the Zimbabwe Electricity and Energy Workers’ Union, Angeline Chitambo, said they know the power utility’s management sent people with video and stills cameras to get footage of workers who had gathered outside the Zesa head office for a briefing.

Zesa Holdings general manager for corporate communications James Maridadi confirmed to the Herald the 135 workers were suspended for participating in the illegal job action that affected their operations last week. But Chitambo argued that the grouping was not a strike but a gathering of workers who needed to be updated on the position of the collective bargaining, which had apparently ended in a stalemate between management and the workers’ union.

‘As far as we are concerned, this is more of a victimisation exercise because no worker participated in the so-called strike. We know they had cameras and they filmed the workers and that this is the footage they are using to identify the so-called culprits,’ Chitambo said. The workers’ union has since written a letter to management advising them to withdraw the suspensions. Chitambo added that her union was well versed with the legalities and procedures involved when calling for a strike and that last week’s event was ‘in no way near a strike’.

The general-secretary of the Zesa Technical Employees Association Thomas Masvingwe denied that some disgruntled workers expressed their anger towards management by disconnecting power supplies to some consumers in the city centre, bringing some businesses to a halt.

Those suspended Monday stand accused of allegedly switching off electricity in parts of Harare’s central business district during last week’s stand-off. Masvingwe blamed the utility’s antiquated equipment for the lose of power in the capital last week. He said the cascading power outages in Harare and rest of the country underscores what energy experts have been warning about for years that the system will eventually go at any time.

Masvingwe added that years of neglected investment in the vast and antiquated network that moves electricity around the country, combined with steadily growing power needs, have left the nation’s electricity grid vulnerable to disruptions.