17 May, 2008The ZCTU's President and General Secretary are charged with inciting people to rise up against the government following speeches they made during May Day celebrations. ZCTU council member, Raymond Majongwe, was apprehended at their bail hearing.
ZIMBABWE: Wellington Chibebe, General Secretary of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and Lovemore Matombo, ZCTU President, have been arrested and denied bail in connection with speeches made by them on May Day.
Raymond Majongwe, the General Secretary of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and a member of the General Council of the ZCTU, was apprehended by the police at the High Court of Zimbabwe on May 15 while attending the bail hearing of Matombo and Chibebe. At this time, no charges against Majongwe have been made public.
Chibebe and Matombo are charged with inciting people to rise up against the government and spreading falsehoods about the current political crisis after they told workers gathered at Dzivarasekwa Stadium on May 1 that people were being killed during the current wave of political violence in the country.
The two ZCTU leaders were arrested after they presented themselves to the police on Thursday, May 8 where they were initially interrogated for more than six hours before charges were laid against them. They had turned themselves over to the police after armed forces raided their residences searching for them.
Chibebe and Matombo are currently being held at Harare Remand Prison.
The recent arrests are the latest attack on unionists and civil society following Presidential elections held on March 29 where Robert Mugabe was defeated by the opposition's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Since that time the Zimbabwean government has launched a violent crackdown on trade unionists, activists and Zimbabwean civilians.
Last month, Southern African trade unions, including affiliates of the International Metalworkers' Federation, carried out a successful solidarity effort to block a shipment of Chinese weapons and munitions headed for Zimbabwe.
Japhet Moyo, General Secretary of the National Engineering Workers' Union (NEWU), an IMF affiliate said, "there is no doubt that Zimbabwe is now a police state, where freedom of citizens is not guaranteed. International Labour Standards and ratified conventions are completely ignored [by the government] in pursuit of political power," Moyo said, adding, "poverty is stalking the nation while total repression is intensified to cow any dissent."