'Circumcised salaries' spark NRZ nationwide demos

Placard waving and slogan chanting National Railways of Zimbabwe workers today staged a peaceful demonstration demanding immediate payment of $55 million in salary backlog.

According to representatives of the Railway Association of Yard Operating Staff (RAYS), Railways' Artisans Union (RAU) Railways Association of Enginemen (RAE), the demonstrations were held simultaneously in Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare and Gweru.

In Bulawayo at the main railway station police kept a tight rein as the protestors demanded the resignation of their management which they said was tired, clueless and just clinging to their positions to continue looting from the company.

"No to modern day slavery. New Management new board, Full stop! We demand our full salaries now. No to the extension of the tenure of failed managers, go home," read some of the messages on the placards.

Addressing workers outside the NRZ national headquarters RAU secretary general Sithokozile Siwela said workers were tired of "circumcised salaries"- in apparent reference to ongoing salary cuts that have seen workers earning 50 percent of their salaries- while management perks were kept intact.



"They have circumcised our salaries and reduced us to modern day slaves. We cannot get credit anywhere and no one wants to let us rent accommodation from them because come pay day, we will always have salaries," she said.
Siwela added that NRZ owed workers 10 months salaries, allowances for overtime dating back to 2009 and Zim dollar salaries.

"Why is management refusing to retire when they have reached retirement age if the company really has no money? These people should go home and allow new people with fresh ideas to take over," she said to applause.

"The police refused to let us take to the streets that is why this demo is being held on company premises. However, we have lodged an urgent High Court Chamber application to allow us to stage a full demonstration in all the streets of the country's major cities on Monday."



Siwela said ZimAsset, the much touted economic turn-around blue print for the country would remain a pipe dream if the concerns of workers at NRZ, the backbone of the economy, were not addressed.

She said getting loans to rehabilitate infrastructure would not work as long as workers were disgruntled.



Workers said the chairperson of the NRZ board retired army man Levi Mayihlome was due for retirement in November last year but defied a board order to re-instate himself and continue drawing: "regular high salary whose actual figure is a closely guarded secret, while workers starved."

Early this year, police bashed the spouses of NRZ workers who staged a demonstration in the city centre saying they were hungry and becoming destitute because the parastatal was not paying their partners.