Govt must ensure companies employ locals to avoid tension

Zimbabwe Communist party official Ngqabutho Mabhena has warned that government must ensure that companies employ local people to avoid tension and protests like the one that occurred on Thursday when former Pick n Pay workers protested against their dismissal and employment of people from outside Bulawayo.

"In 2015 in Isiphingo outside Durban, workers went on strike , the employer hired migrants to replace them, this sparked xenophobia attacks directed at foreign nationals where lives were lost. Some few months ago, trucks at Moi River (along Durban & Johannesburg highway) were burnt, the reason being that, truck companies employ foreign nationals. Private companies and government in Zimbabwe must be sensitive to issues of employment to locals - it has potential to spake tribal tensions in our society," he said.

"What is clear to me is that, workers at Pick n Pay in Bulawayo are not represented by a union. If workers are not represented by a union, their struggle is then picked up by political parties who have their own political agenda, further stocking tribal tensions. The revolutionary task of a Communist Party is to organise workers into a union. It is only a union that can represent the workers without dividing them along tribal lines. Pick n Pay management must quickly fire this manager accused of harassing and abusing workers."