Mugabe won't intervene' to stop wholesale job losses

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe will not invoke Presidential powers to stop wholesale job losses triggered by a recent Supreme Court ruling, Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Mnangagwa, who is also one of the country's Vice Presidents, said President Mugabe could not intervene as the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Prisca Mupfumira is working on strategies to address the situation.

At least 16,000 workers are estimated to have been left jobless in the first two weeks after employers embraced with speed the Supreme Court judgement allowing companies to terminate workers' contracts without paying terminal benefits, regardless of their years of service, upon giving three months notice.

VP Mnangagwa, speaking during question time, said it was not necessary for the government to invoke Presidential powers until Mupfumira, mandated to deal with the matter, seeks those powers.

He was responding to MDC-T Mkoba legislator Amos Chibaya who had asked the VP whether the government had any intentions to invoke Presidential powers to avert the decimation of the country's labour force.