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| author/source:Daily Telegraph (UK) |
| published:Thu 24-Apr-2003 |
| posted on this site:Thu 24-Apr-2003 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "We have no choice. The ministers break the cars that we pay for and get new ones and we pay for those too. We have no fuel, no food, no medicines at the hospitals, and Mugabe doesn't care" |
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By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
The factories of Zimbabwe were deserted yesterday, its crumbling streets empty and even the government's Mercedes Benz suppliers closed as an estimated 90 per cent of the country's workers went on a general strike. The protest, called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and backed by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was triggered by a 300 per cent fuel price rise ordered by Robert Mugabe's government. Among the businesses paralysed by the strike was Zimbabwe's most profitable vehicle company. Its workshops were locked up, 10 new Mercedes Benz E240 saloons inside them awaiting delivery to Mr Mugabe's cabinet. A further 22 are due to arrive later this week. The total cost of the order has been estimated to be equivalent to two weeks' fuel supply for the entire country. On the eve of the strike workers at the firm had been seething. "If only George Bush would come here and Saddam us," said one. "But he won't and so we will have to strike, and be arrested and beaten. We have no choice. The ministers break the cars that we pay for and get new ones and we pay for those too. We have no fuel, no food, no medicines at the hospitals, and Mugabe doesn't care."
Only two banks had branches fully open, Standard Chartered and Barclays, both British-owned. "We don't know why we are at work today," said an employee at a Standard Chartered branch in the once spruce Borrowdale suburb north of Harare.The strike, due to continue until the end of the week, was the second in a month. The first was called by the MDC to protest against political repression, and employers have supported their workers in both stoppages. "Their interests and those of the workers coincide," said a major industrialist. "Where we can we are paying them while they are on strike." Easter holidays and the strike mean Zimbabwe's dwindling number of factories have been open for just one day in two weeks. Even when they are working there is electricity for only four hours a day because Mr Mugabe cannot pay his neighbours Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the power they supply. A police spokesman said there had been no violence during the strike. "It seems to be peaceful everywhere." Jenni Williams, a human rights activist, said at least nine union officials had been arrested in Bulawayo.
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