Harare - Zimbabwe's public sector unions
were divided on Wednesday over whether to launch a national
strike after wage talks with the government failed, leaving the
country on edge over the possibility of more unrest.
Zimbabwe was rocked by violent protests for three days in
mid-January that led to a brutal security crackdown.
The security forces' heavy-handed response raised fears that
under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the country was sliding back
into the kind of authoritarianism seen during Robert Mugabe's
37-year rule.
Mnangagwa's spokesman said troops would stay on the streets
and the state would block the internet again if violence flared.
Teachers and other state workers are demanding wage rises
and payments in dollars to help them stave off spiralling
inflation and an economic crisis that has sapped supplies of
cash, fuel and medicines in state hospitals.
Rights groups say at least 12 people were killed this month
after a three-day stay-at-home strike over a fuel price hike led
to street protests and a crackdown by security services. The
government says three people died.
At a meeting with unions, the government proposed to give
land to build houses and food hampers for employees, union
officials said. Public sector unions had on Monday issued the
government with a 48-hour ultimatum to make a new salary offer
or face a strike.
The Apex Council, which represents 17 public sector unions,
then failed to agree on whether to hold a strike during a short
meeting that broke down as officials accused each other of
either working for the opposition or the government.
"The Apex Council meeting ended prematurely and people
walked out. There is no consensus. How do we go on strike when
our fellow unions are coming and saying some unions were paid?"
said Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.
He said his union was among those accused by colleagues of
being paid by the opposition and donors to go on strike and
cause violence, charges he denied.
The biggest teachers union has called for a strike on Feb.
5.
'BREAD AND BUTTER'
Mnangagwa - who came to power in November 2017 after
long-time ruler Mugabe was forced to resign in a coup - promised
to revive the economy and break with Mugabe politics.
But frustration over the economic crisis is building and
analysts say the pace of economic and political reform is too
slow for impatient citizens.
Mnangagwa on Wedneaday picked a 24-member advisory council
to advise him on economic reforms, a government source said.
The 76-year-old leader has promised to investigate the
crackdown on protesters and to bring in measures to tackle the
economic crisis but the opposition does not trust him.
His spokesman said it would take time to rebuild an economy
that had been suffering for decades.
"There are key bread and butter questions which government
cannot dodge, things are tough," George Charamba told a
state-owned Harare radio station.
"But it would be a sad day to think that the only way that
we can remedy such a problem is by causing further damage to
that already damaged economy through mayhem, through looting,
through chaos."
Charamba said police and soldiers would stay on the streets
and that government would shut the internet again if violence
broke out. He previously said the crackdown was a foretaste of
how the government would react to future protests.