Angry civil servants vow to intensify strike action

By Alex Bell
19 February 2010

More than two thousand angry civil servants who gathered in Harare on Friday have vowed to intensify their strike action if the government does not meet their demands for a wage increase.

A meeting of civil servants in the capital had been organised for workers’ unions to provide feedback to their members, who have been on strike for two weeks over the government’s refusal to increase its wage bill. The strike has mainly affected public schools, hospitals, government departments and the courts. Civil servants unions have demanded that their wages be increased from the current US$150 to US$630, and they’ve rejected a 10 percent increase offer from the government.

The two thousand strong group of civil servants who gathered in Harare on Friday embarked on a march, after hearing that the government has refused to change its 10 percent wage increase offer. Leaders from various workers’ unions led the group through the streets of central Harare and presented signed petitions at Parliament and the offices of the Ministers of Finance and Public Service.


SW Radio Africa correspondent Simon Muchemwa reported that some workers were ‘agitated’ during the march when they realised that some of their colleagues were on duty in the government buildings they marched to. They were further angered when they were denied an audience at Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s office, which was locked because Biti is out of the country. Muchemwa said many workers’ believed that the empty office was ‘intentional’, because “no one in government wanted to accept the workers’ petition.”


“It took several hours of dancing and singing at the Minister of Finance’s office before they eventually handed their petition to a security guard,” Muchemwa reported. “They were angry that no one in government was willing to receive the petition.”


The civil servants’ unions have now vowed to intensify their action by not only remaining on strike, but also by having protracted ‘sit-ins’ at their places of work. Muchemwa reported that the move was to ensure “no worker was being threatened into defying the strike action.” Teachers’ unions have also called on parents to stop paying incentives, saying it would be tantamount to “squeezing water from a stone.”
The unions said that they will carry on with their strike and sit-in until March 5, and warned that the strike with further intensify, if the government refuses to increase its offer.