Mugabe disowns job cuts directive

President Robert Mugabe's office has denied responsibility for the mass retrenchment of workers by parastatals after the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) said it was under pressure to use a recent Supreme Court ruling to reduce staff.

ZTA chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke this week said they had received a government directive to cut down on employees.

Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba yesterday said that as far as he was concerned, the move by State-linked institutions to fire workers was not government policy, but "came from a head of a parastatal".