This week's issues
| Union seeks regional support for farm workers |
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| Written by MXOLISI NCUBE |
| Sunday, 15 November 2009 17:18 |
 JOHANNESBURG – The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), has launched a regional campaign to rally support for Zimbabwean farm workers who have borne the brunt of President Robert Mugabe’s violent land seizures.
GAPWUZ, a trade union that represents about 20 000 farm workers, last week released a documentary on titled, House of Justice, highlighting the harassment, beatings and torture of black farm workers by militant of supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party who have invaded white-owned commercial farms. The farm worker’s union also released a report detailing the plight of farm workers who continue to be targeted by Zanu (PF) supporters invading the few reaming white-owned farms. The DVD and report, first launched in Harare, were last Thursday taken to South Africa, in what GAPWUZ secretary general Gertrude Hambira told The Zimbabwean on Tuesday was the beginning of a long journey to mobilise regional governments and trade union allies pressure the Zimbabwean government to address the plight of farm workers many left jobless and homeless after their employers were evicted. Hambira said: “Our aim is to galvanize fellow civic organisations in the region to put pressure on their governments to force Zimbabwe to adhere to the ruling of the SADC Tribunal, that the violent land seizures should stop immediately.” Hambira said that contrary to Mugabe’s claims that his controversial land reform program was meant to empower blacks, only a percentage of farm workers have benefited, with most of the land going to top Zanu (PF) officials and senior military commanders. “Most farm workers have been forced into illegal gold panning, while others are now living on the roadside with no steady source of income,” said Hambira. “Apart from being politically motivated and driven by Mugabe’s hate for whites, the land reform program has merely been a transfer of land from the rich white to the rich blacks, with the farm workers, who are the grass, continuing to suffer,” she said Hambira said that she would be meeting with fellow trade union leaders in the region and exchanging notes with them on the situation in Zimbabwe and how they can help. |
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