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11 December, 2002The nine trade union leaders were detained while attending a symposium of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
ZIMBABWE: Nine trade union leaders who were arrested in Harare on Monday, December 9, while attending an annual meeting of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, were released yesterday, December 11, without being charged. Among those detained was Patience Mandozana, of the Zimbabwe Radio & Television Workers' Union, a member of the IMF-affiliated Zimbabwe Metalworkers' Federation.
Protests to the country's president, Robert Mugabe, poured in from trade unions around the world. In a letter to the Zimbabwean president, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, wrote that "as a member state of the International Labour Organisation, we would remind you that your government has a duty to uphold internationally recognised labour standards. We strongly condemn this latest breach of workers' human and trade union rights in your country and the detaining of trade unionists without reason."
A lawyer for the detainees said that the state had wanted to charge them under Section 5 of the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA), however the judge rejected the prosecutor's plea.
The arrests appear to be a continuation of the attempt by government authorities to intimidate the trade unions and their leaders and disrupt their work.