Responding to questions in Parliament, Minister of Labour, Petronella Kagonye claimed that the strike by the wives of Hwange Colliery Company workers was a political issue and not a labour one. The women have been protesting for almost 100 days demanding the back pay owed to their husbands amounting to at least $70 million. Said Kagonye,
I went to Hwange and initially, I thought that it was a labour issue and employees raised 27 issues and we came up with an agreement signed by all parties, and, to date, the management is living up to what they promised.
But, as for the spouses, it is now a political issue because there are politicians that came and addressed the women and HCC employees are actually surprised that the women are still picketing, and they said there are people sponsoring the demonstrations and are supplying one beast per week to the women
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SHe is not serious. Did the women raise any political issue? No. what is the basis of saying it’s political? Politicians who are giving them food are simply campaigning. I don’t why our politicians think that we are not capable of demanding our rights without anyone sponsoring us! We don’t need any sponsorship for us to demand our rights. How do they expect workers to live on half salary when the economy is like this?
Minister should be realistic if you cant handle issues please say so or keep quiet. Since 2014 without salaries and she thinks they are motivated by politics. They are simply using the advantage of elections as everyone knows ZANU reacts to noise during election time. And they are not privileged like you who borrows 400k and simply ignore repayments.