Tsvangirai dumps more workers

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has dumped staff he recruited into his office during the tenure of the inclusive Government with the majority of workers from the communication department now destitute and battling to make ends meet.

However, Mr Tsvangirai's spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka, refused to discuss the matter when contacted for comment yesterday.

This comes after at least 30 more people who were employed by a parallel office of the former PM also claimed a fortnight ago that they were wallowing in poverty as they failed to get retrenchment packages and outstanding salaries following the phasing out of the office after elections.

This group of workers, operated from Mr Tsvangirai's Bath Road offices in Avondale, Harare, and they also claimed they were promised jobs in Government in the event that MDC-T won the polls but they were dumped after the party lost dismally.

Most of these workers are from the communication, research and security departments and were  funded by the Institute of Democratic Alternative of Zimbabwe (IDAZ) and some undisclosed donors.

The latest team to be ditched worked in the communication department in the then Prime Minister's Office and were housed at Charter House.

"Nine employees from Mr Tsvangirai's then Prime Minister's Office were sent home empty handed and are struggling to make ends meet as we speak.

"They were simply told to go home by Professor Alex Magaisa (Mr Tsvangirai's political advisor) and were not given any cent. This is callous and unfair on the part of Mr Tsvangirai. Imagine being told to go home just like that after working for nearly five years in his office?" a source that declined to be named said.

Interestingly, Mr Tsvangirai is a former trade union leader known for agitating for better conditions for civil servants during his days as secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

Prof Magaisa, is said to have convened a meeting sometime last month and announced the dismissal of the employees.

"He convened a meeting after his return from the United Kingdom in September where he told us to go home saying they were downsizing from a prime minister's office to the MDC-T president's office.

"Prof Magaisa said as a party leader Mr Tsvangirai no longer wanted a large number of workers. He told us that Mr Tsvangirai's office was battling to raise our severance packages," added the source.

Added another disgruntled former employee: "We have been dumped. We are battling to survive. When we phone them, they are no longer answering their phones or they are busy."

The Herald has it on good authority that the employees from other departments have also been retrenched while other departments have virtually closed down.

"Staff that was working at Charter House, mainly from the economic department, administration and protocol have also been retrenched and are disgruntled after they went home empty handed.

"What is paining them most is that those that were employed by the party were given retrenchment packages, while those that were running the parallel structures were not given anything.

"We are beginning to wonder where our salaries were coming from and why whoever was funding these departments is no longer willing to do so," another former employee said.

There are also reports that the MDC-T's elections directorate has been disbanded following the party's dismal performance in the July 31 elections won resoundingly by Zanu-PF.

Mr Tamborinyoka refused to discuss the matter when contacted for a comment. Initially, he claimed the dismissed employees were civil servants but later made a U-turn.

"These were civil servants whose employment the Public Service Commission refused to regularise and I am one of them," he said.

Asked who then was paying their salaries for the duration of the inclusive Government after the PSC refused to recognise them as civil servants, he became abusive: "I do not discuss the welfare of employees in the (former) prime minister's office with CIOs masquerading as journalists."