5 October, 2009
Three miners were shot by the Zimbabwe Republic Police on 25 September, when police forced the end of a three-week wage arrears strike at the Shabanie asbestos mine in the southwestern town of Zvishavane. During the peaceful protest of that day, police fired tear gas into a crowd of 1,000 miners and their families.
The three, two men and one woman, were seriously injured with gunshot wounds to the legs and hands. Incredulously, three days after the police violence, the three were hauled into a local courtroom in wheelchairs and charged with public violence. Scores others were also arrested.
The names of the three who were shot are Alois Zhou, Taurai Zhao, and Simbarashe Mashuku.
The 2,280 striking miners, of the Shebanie Mine Workers Union, part of the ICEM-affiliated Associated Mine Workers of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), had not been paid their full wages since January 2009. Shabanie, along with Mashaba, two of the largest asbestos mines in Zimbabwe, had been taken over by the government in 2004 under Mugabe regime’s Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act.
The mines had been operated by Shabanie Mashaba Mine Holdings (SMMH), a company controlled by businessman Mutumwa Mawere, a Zimbabwean living in South Africa who is accused of taking some US$80 million in assets out of Zimbabwe.
By all appearances, the Shebanie mine was productive and profitable under a government-appointed administrator. But calls for payment of wages were ignored.
The police brutality ten days ago produced immediate and terse condemnation by a number of organizations. Wellington Chibebe of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called for the resignation of the two co-Home Affairs Ministers for their indifference to the incident.
In condemning the unprovoked shootings, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said the strike by asbestos miners started on 31 August. “However, the striking workers have been forced to go back to work after being visited by gun-toting policemen and the dreaded Central Intelligence Operatives. The state security agents together with Shebanie Mine security officers visited workers in their homes on 29 September threatening them that if they did not return to work the following day, the workers should vacate not only the mine house they occupy but also get out of town.”
COSATU also reported the home of ZCTU Zvishavane District Secretary Ndodana Sithole was raided and ransacked on 30 September, with police demanding to know what action ZCTU was planning in response to the 25 September police violence.
The ICEM supports the ZCTU in its call for a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the September police actions in Zvishavane.