BY OBERT MASARAURE
ZIMBABWE’S Labour Minister, Edgar Moyo, was elected the 113th President of the International Labour Conference (ILC) at its annual gathering held in Geneva from June 2nd to June 15th, 2025.
This election, although rotational, suggests that Zimbabwe has successfully cultivated an
illusion of reform and stability on the global stage. This perceived international legitimacy
emerges at a time when ordinary Zimbabwean workers are grappling with severe austerity
measures imposed by a brutal authoritarian regime.
A History of Labour Rights Violations
Prior to this election, Zimbabwe had been a consistent subject of scrutiny at the International
Labour Conference. In 2021, the Southern African country was tasked with responding to
violations of Convention No. 105 on forced labour.
Trade union leaders in Zimbabwe have faced arrests and received penal sentences, often accompanied by forced labour. On 13 separate occasions, Zimbabwe was compelled to address violations of freedom of association through both its laws and practices. Historically, the police used and continue to use the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), now MOPA, to ban peaceful union demonstrations and gatherings.
The Labour Act then, and still now, contain provisions for penal punishment for anyone organizing an unsanctioned strike. Leading up to Minister Moyo’s election, teachers organized under the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) approached the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association (Case Number 3467).
They presented multiple cases detailing how the Zimbabwean state was persecuting the union’s leadership and general membership. Although the Zimbabwean government initially opted for national conciliation with the union, it subsequently abandoned this chosen route.
The post-2017 coup Zimbabwean government has skillfully presented itself as a reformer,
thereby gaining international legitimacy, while simultaneously employing authoritarian tactics
domestically. These tactics facilitate the implementation of austerity measures and other policies that negatively impact the poor. The government has also successfully coerced and co-opted labour leaders, leaving workers vulnerable. Any isolated pockets of organized resistance face massive repression.
The Militarized Transition and Unfulfilled Promises
Upon assuming the presidency after the 2017 coup, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson
Mnangagwa declared, “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” pledging jobs in what he
termed an “unfolding democracy.”
This promise of employment, in a country with over 90% unemployment, attracted significant support from hopeful citizens. However, the economic model that was implemented neither created jobs nor proved compatible with democracy.
The government further promised to amend the Labour Act and the Public Service Act to align them with the 2013 constitution, thereby providing greater protection for labour rights.
A pledge was also made to amend POSA and protect freedom of association and assembly.
Authoritarian Tactics and Austerity Measures Mnangagwa’s government introduced the Transitional Stabilization Program (TSP) in 2018. Its stated key objectives were stabilizing the economy, reducing state intervention, lessening regulatory burdens, and strengthening governance.
One method purportedly employed to stabilize the economy was slashing civil servants’ salaries through exchange rate distortions. Civil servants who earned USD 540 per month before October 2018 found their earnings plummeting to as low as USD 30 per month due to the manipulated exchange rate between the USD and the local currency.
In December 2018, teachers walked 290 kilometers to protest against these “slave wages,”
subsequently camping at the finance minister’s offices in January 2019.
The nation was tense, on the verge of widespread unrest. Subsidies on basic commodities such as fuel were removed, leading to a sharp increase in fuel prices. In January 2019, fuel prices were significantly hiked: petrol from $1.24 per litre to $3.31, and diesel from $1.36 per litre to $3.11.
This provoked a massive general strike led by the then-militant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The promise of democracy was tested, and unfortunately, the ugly face of dictatorship resurfaced. Human Rights NGOs recorded widespread human rights violations, including at least 17 extra-judicial killings, 17 cases of rape or other violations of a sexual nature, 26 abductions, 61 displacements, 81 assaults consistent with gunshot attacks, at least 586 assaults and instances of torture (including dog bites), and 954 arrests and detentions (including dragnet arrests), among other violations.
Austerity and democracy are inherently incompatible. While the fuel price hikes were eventually reversed, repression was cunningly tightened.
The Façade of Reform
The protests of January 2019 forced the government to re-evaluate its strategy of deploying brute force, as the barbaric state violence drew worldwide condemnation. In response, the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) was urgently established through an Act of Parliament in 2019.
The creation of the TNF was intended to project an image of promoting social dialogue to the international community, but internally, it served to co-opt union leadership.
The government also amended and renamed POSA to the Maintenance of Public Order Act
(MOPA). 13 Although MOPA was touted as a sign of progress, in reality, it is a more repressive piece of legislation. For example, under the old POSA, sections 25 to 27, failure to notify authorities of the intention to hold a public gathering could result in imprisonment of up to 6 months.
The same offense now carries a penalty of a year in prison under MOPA, demonstrating
that the “reformed” law is more repressive than its predecessor. Furthermore, the new Labour Act still retains penal sanctions involving compulsory labour, precisely the areas that the government of Zimbabwe promised to reform in 2021.
Despite the tightened legal framework and worsening practices by authorities, Zimbabwe has convinced many nations that it has made reforms. This raises a critical question: is democracy generally retreating globally, and are some reprehensible practices now being tolerated?
The Co-option of Labour, Opposition, Civil Society, and Media
The Peter Mutasa-led ZCTU resisted capture at the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, rejecting the perks offered by the government. However, the government subsequently targeted affiliates of the Federation, particularly unions representing workers in state-owned parastatals. In October 2021, Peter Mutasa lost the ZCTU Presidential election to a candidate allegedly bankrolled by the state, Florence Taruvinga, in an election allegedly marred by serious vote buying.
This effectively closed the chapter of a militant ZCTU. The new ZCTU leadership now receives substantial perks at the TNF for sitting allowances in meetings that deliver little substantive progress. The Union leaders for the 3 Federations sitting at the TNF, including the Public Sector Union leaders all received Range Rover Discoveries, the same vehicles driven by Cabinet Ministers. The Union leaders now travel first class to the International Labour Conference and other international trips.
Obert Masaraure, a union leader and General Council member in the current ZCTU, was
suspended for making a speech calling for a general strike on May Day 2023.15 Decision-making powers within the ZCTU are now concentrated in the hands of the top leadership.
The Secretary General, Japhet Moyo, who was an isolated voice of resistance within the ZCTU, was forced to retire. He contested his forced retirement in court, won the case, but still remains frozen out of employment with state assistance.
Traditional allies of labour, both in civil society and the opposition movement, have suffered a similar fate. Civil society leaders no longer speak out against injustices. The once robust
independent media has also been silenced; a case in point is the Daily News Zimbabwe.
This paper, once bombed in 2003 for exposing the ruling party’s shortcomings but remaining
independent until 2018, is now a mouthpiece of the establishment. The few who have remained independent suffer massive persecution, which is largely underreported.
Working People Carrying the Burden of Austerity and Authoritarianism
The working class bears the burden of absent leadership. While Zimbabwe is being elected to chair the International Labour Conference, over 90% of its people remain unemployed.
Collective bargaining is proscribed; job actions are criminalized, and even joining an “antigovernment union” is proscribed. Employed workers earn starvation wages. The prosperity promised through austerity remains elusive.
Recommendation
The struggle of the working people must be relaunched, either by reclaiming captured
institutions or by establishing new spaces for resistance. The remaining progressive unions
should strengthen the documentation of violations and leverage international organizations for advocacy at the ILO level and other multilateral platforms.
The traditional international partners of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) should freeze support for the institution until necessary reforms are made. There is also a critical need to organize the informal sector, which now constitutes 90% of the economy.
Obert Masaraure is President of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, ARTUZ. He can be contacted at [email protected].
