History of Labor in Zimbabwe before and after independence - Part one

If the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia; Ian Douglas Smith was alive today he would concur that the white regime lost the war because of the failure of the government to implement labor laws  and workers wages that were livable and decent to the black majority population in the then Rhodesia. Black people worked in all aspects of the capitalist economy that was booming. They worked in the farms and often times they were forced; they worked in the mines they worked in the industries too. They were domestic servants for the white population; as nannies, garden boys and cooks.  

It was paradise on earth to be a white person and lived in those heydays of strict separate development of the 1920s right up to the UDI in 1965 in Rhodesia. Colonialization in Southern Africa brought with it rapid urbanization and subsequent industrialization whose growth was fueled by the wars in Europe. The colonies had to produce what was no longer possible to produce in Europe; the colonies produced food supply chains and a lot logistics supplies and training of military personnel was done in the colonies for Britain and its allies.  On the other hand; the white migration fleeing the war was very high; it was politic of the time to advertise work and living possibilities in the colonies from England.

Work in the industries initially was done by poor white immigrants. Despite considerable influx of white population in the country; the labor-needs were in unlimited supplies; never managed to satisfy the booming industry; hence the white authorities had to lift the labor clause that prevented blacks from getting formal employment especially in the industries and allowed the black population to work as cheap labor in all aspects of the labor force. Before then; the jobs that were permitted to blacks were jobs in the mines and in commercial farms.

The invasion of the white settlers resulted in African populations losing their precious lands and livestock; the means that sustained them for centuries. The African way of life; before colonialism; consisted of hunting and care of cattle and cultivating the planting and harvesting. They found themselves begging for jobs to subsist in a system; capitalism; that was brought to them; forced-fed to be the development and they never saw this coming.  

It was the hut tax that forced the African s to work for the capitalist system that exploited its cheap labor. It was cheap labor that they had to sell most of the population was reduced to- Lewis model. Towns and cities were immerging and it was the African labor that went into it. Labor laws were there that protected the white immigrants who worked in the industries.  The discovery of coal in Hwange; then called Wankie and the establishment of Rhodesia Iron and Steel Company Limited; RISCO just to mention a few mining towns; led to the employment of thousands of African some of whom came from Nyasaland and Mozambique.

Initially African populations; be it of Shona or Ndebele populations loathed working for the white people and they would rather they lived in those areas non-agro lands and the livestock suffered illnesses reducing the number cattle the Africa people had stocked than to work for the white man. Most of those areas where Tsetse fly infested habitats unfit for cattle ranching. It was then the Malawians who would take mining jobs and farm work jobs instead of the "in loco" population. According to T.H. Mothibe of the total number of 609,953 Africans who worked in the colony in  the 1950s, 300,178 were indigenous, 42,253 were from Northern Rhodesia, 132,643 were from Nyasaland 123,218 were from Portuguese East African Territory and 9,661 came fro other countries.

Both populations of Mashona and AmaNdebele realized the permanent establishing of the settler regime; their space was taken away and they psychologically capitulated; although temporal; and gradually began to look for those jobs they loathed forced by the hut taxes they had to pay the settler regime. They went to towns looking for those jobs or they were recruited from the tribal trust lands; put into truck for the towns and big farms for work. The black townships immerged but it was those Africans who had jobs who were allowed to stay in town. There would be raids in the night to check who was illegal in those black townships; isithupha/zvitupa control will be made. Those considered illegal were imprisoned and later sent back to their designated tribal trust lands.  

Education brought another labor dimension in the lives of the peoples of Southern Rhodesia. The colonial administration did not want to educate African for fear that they might challenge the colonial system. Until 1899 African had no right to education except in mission schools; they accessed it to be combined with religious instructions. The missionaries wanted the African population to have access to education so that they could then be missionaries themselves spreading Christianity in southern Africa. In 1907 another colonial educational law was introduced but allowed limited educational programs for Africans.

In 1923 Rhodesia was given a colonial status that saw African education being transformed by the British who established a Native education Act in 1927. Although the colonial administration restricted education for Africans, they wanted a limited number of African to be educated and there was a special reason for it. They needed them to work in administrative positions in government, local government and hospitals.  Indeed the Africans from all tribal populations in southern Rhodesia embraced education; they realized it early that was the only means to better their own lives as the previous system values had shifted.

The lifestyles of kingdoms and central governments had been decimated by the settlers deeming the way of life of Africans as inferior to their white own civilization. Africans embraced those courses that were permitted for them to follow; became teachers, nurses, administrators; domains; agriculturalists; social workers and even doctors of medicine. They were a working force that the white government depended on in many aspects of state institutions; they were a formidable force to reckon with. Because of the labor that was cheap; the white regime was able to build strong institutions.

White suburbs were posh; they built big houses and acquired several acres of land for a yard of one family. The big towns were built with the cheap labor of African who themselves lived in squalid houses and scarce service delivery. The railway systems were built by cheap labor. They built bridges using cheap labor. They built electricity network throughout the country with cheap labor. Not only were Africans poorly paid, the conditions of word were very bad indeed. If an Africa died on duty e. g. on building sites and construction works; electricity engineering networks and suddenly he got electrocuted in the process, such death was not considered of any significance at all. It was the family that lost the bread winner and the work continued as normal; there were many Africans lingering on the sides of the working places looking for those jobs; a replacement was not any issue at all; it was instant.

Although the Africans were the collar-bone of the white administration; they were poorly paid in all sections of the work force. The white administration was wholly racist. Because the white regime was repressive against any dissent, they used and exploited them openly to maintain some lifestyle reminiscent with lives Hollywood stars in California.  However; in the early fifties the black middle class immerged from the white collar jobs; the teachers and nurses and public administrators and they set the tone and the determined some new value system in their lives. The wages had become the most importance source of income to most Africans in the urban areas. The black population was able to communicate with the oppressors in their own language; they demanded some semblance of decency regarding their lives in townships; scant services like accommodation and health services; were provided to make them subsist but mostly to be workers; providers of cheap labor. The workers; both laborers and those on higher income brackets; civil servants; formed trade unions and demanded their rights; decent wages for their services they were giving and the services mostly benefited the minority white population. In the early 1954 there were trade unions in Salisbury and Bulawayo and also in other towns of southern Rhodesia.

It was however necessary to unite all trade unions to one so that their effort is concerted from all the towns and cities.  Several unions came together to form one trade union called "Southern Rhodesia Trade Union Congress" or SRTUC who's President was Mr. Joshua Nkomo and its Vice was Mr. Jamela; Mr. Bango was secretary general and other significant names were Mr.  J. Z. Moyo, Mr. Gwanzura, Mr. Chigwidi and many more just to mention a few. End of the fifties saw the economic boom that was nurtured by the war decline significantly.  Again the focus shifted from economies in Southern Rhodesia to Northern Rhodesia; the world wanted copper more than other exports products manufactured in Southern Rhodesia then.

The influx of foreign capital dropped and there had to be a quick rethink on how to address the disquiet of black workers who were demanding wage rise in light of economic decline. The organized trade union was getting dangerous for the white settler regime; they were turning nationalistic and daring the white regime for an upsurge. Sir Garfield Todd was the Prime Minister then who introduced a minimum wage to Africans wages; from 4.10s to £6.15 to be measured as the poverty datum line. Curiously the white settlers rebelled against this to the extent that the Prime minister and Minister for Labour lost his job and was replaced by David Whitehead who also commissioned an urban study regarding African wages. The chairman was Plewman who found out that the lowest income an urban African man with a wife and average two children was £15.00 per month. The white population was mum; Garfield Todd had lost his job as Prime minister and Minister for Labor.

 But the Africa wages averaged £10.00 a month; two thirds of the Poverty Datum Line. Again there were wages survey that took place in the 1960 that disregarded the fact that a worker had children and a wife to look after but because the workers were not homogeneous but from different countries and backgrounds; Blacks from Northern Rhodesian and Nyasaland were included in these surveys giving a very false analysis of an African worker's consumer demands. Not all workers were migrant workers but most of the workers were then permanent in urban cities. Most men who worked in towns they had families in the tribal trust lands and they preferred to live in squalid bachelors flats and occupy a single room so that the rest of the money is sent home to the family and the extended set ups. In most cases the commission of enquiries did not know all the facts about African lives and their findings did not reflect those facts that would justify a comprehensive and correct assessment.

The white population feared the TUC that it may rise up and demand independence from the colony. They could not be silenced anymore. In retrospect the African community; because of their permanence in towns and cities; they were an effective producer and at the same time consumer and therefore a greater purchasing power in a country that was falling into a recession because of the WW2 that had ended. In 1957 there was an African National congress ANC a political/trade union organisation; working class based organisation. It demanded openly better wages; better working conditions for the black workers and better health facilities in black residential areas. Dramatic changes took place; the minimum wages were adjusted from £14.00 to £168. The total wages for 629,800 Africans accounted for £50,472,000 while for Europeans of 82,230 in employment accounted for £92,027,000 a less than double the amount.

In 1961 - 62 there were massive strikes; code-named Zhii (hiya belo) in all major cities of Rhodesia; and they were wholly economic as much as they were political. In 1961 the trade union TUC changed its nature of operation; from a workers movement to a political one. They were demanding their independence; the fears of the white regime came to pass, was real. Most trade union leaders who were the politicians were sent to confinement; to political prisons. The Rhodesia Front Party; RF whose Prime Minister was Winston Field had defeated Whitehead in the elections.

The new party of RF had to rethink its strategy to curb growing Black Nationalism in the country. Ian Douglas Smith who became leader of RF in 1962 took the nation by surprise; in 1965 he declared UDI from the mother colony; Britain and ruled the country by decree. He had to deal with the political unrest swiftly and ruthless. The nature of events leading to the incarceration of Joshua Nkomo; Robert Mugabe; Ndabaningi Sithole and all other political activists; the trade union redefined its strategy to be a union that fight for the economic needs; better labour services; to avoid further arrests and therefore setting up a void in the leadership of the trade union in the country.

The severe repressive nature of Smith Regime reduced the working class movement to a mere secondary non effective organisation. Equally too the political parties Zanu and Zapu had emerged and they sort to align the trade unions to their parties as labour wings of the liberation struggle that was already in place in Zambia and Tanzania. When Mozambique became independent the Zanu party relocated to Mozambique as a peasant based liberation movement. It can be said with equal truth that the Smith regime rendered trade unions ineffective; evidenced by the number of strikes from 1965 they were 138 and in 1971 they were 19 strikes altogether. The working class in Rhodesia was emasculated because of severe repression meted by the Smith regime. Right up to independence the labour movement was at its weakest and most unions were focusing mostly on the struggle in neighbouring countries that were going to bring real change to workers demands.

In 1980; the independence of Zimbabwe there was a drastic new shift in the labour movement. Change came to Zimbabwe at a very high cost. So many liberators perished in the liberation struggle; however there was some recognition of this later albeit at a very high price. Again people wanted jobs and some semblance of an independent state; better lives; more jobs for the majority of the Africans. Africans wanted good schools and clinics and hospitals in rural areas as well. There were jobs available in most towns and cities. The people's lives were drastically improved. The margin of the middle class black people widened and mostly people were contented with the change albeit in most parts of Mashonalands.

 It was the fever of a free country that made the trade union not rise up to its duties and responsibilities. The programs and policies that government implemented gave jobs to thousands of people in the country. The middle class margin grew considerably. To a certain extent the trade union was weak and redundant between 1980 and 1989 although it was the cornerstone of the liberation movement. Most trade union leaders were co-opted in the government machinery and were systematically silenced.
The lack of development and the Gugurahundi atrocities in some parts of the country especially in Mathebeleland and Midlands sent a number of working group mostly male population to migrate to South Africa looking for those jobs. ZCTU as it was then called after independence was a very corrupt organisation. Reports were made of embezzlement of funds and maladministration in the movement was widely published; and there was widespread of dissenting voices from the members of the organisation. New leaders emerged; Richard Morgan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda gave the organisation some semblance of order and direction.
It was the fall of the Berlin Wall that moved the world order. Mandela's imprisonment was being renegotiated to free him from prison and settle for a semblance of independence for South Africa. The world's focus and attention was no longer Zimbabwe but South Africa. The beginning of 1990 was a decade of workers activism. The Welfarist economic policies were replaced by neo-liberal packages of trade and liberalisation and deregulation from the World Bank and World Bank Groups was given as prescription to the Zimbabwe's declining economy.

The irony was that because of ESAP there was some continuous economic decline in Zimbabwe, the World Bank and the World Bank Groups came in to prescribe some structural adjustment policies in the country. The government was forced to restructure it's spending on public sector; as a result large cuts on health and education were made. Many companies in many towns and cities closed and retrenched the people; making thousands of people jobless; this lead to below-par growth and high unemployment and soaring poverty rates. The trade union woke up from their "100 years sleep" they became active again. ESAP gave rise to trade union movement that had slept on the wheel. Because of the poverty that was felt by most sections of the Zimbabwe's societies; the majority of the population; the ex-combatants were grumbling; wanted some recognition from the government.

They wanted to be remunerated for their work; fighting the bush-war. As luck would have it; there was war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most ex-combatants were sent to fight the war they did not politically understand well in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those elderly war veterans remaining in the country; they made their noise about the remunerations of the armed struggle very loud almost threatening the stability of the economic fragile country. The government sank into the treasury to give ex-combatants unbudgeted funding leaving a bankrupt treasury in a delicate position. As if all that was not enough; the dollar was devalued leading to many companies failing to operate without the much needed foreign currency as a result; they relocated to South Africa and other countries.

The Zimbabwean economy ailed for a decade long without signs of recovering. The trade union had a lot in their hands. The labour movement and the Civic Society formed a formidable SMU in 1997. Labour opposed ESAP as it had permanently made its workers jobless and hopeless; economic insecure; impoverished millions of its workers. The dollar depreciated by 74% in a period of 4 hours. The ZCTU organised numerous strikes that was attended by millions of workers and other people from all walks of life. The police brutality was at play again. Although the economic problems of Zimbabwe predate the independence of that country; the introduction of ESAP was the final nail in the coffin that led to the total collapse of Zimbabwe's economy.

 Just as it was in the late 1950s when the SRTUC strategically turned into a political party, this time round TUC turned into a political party and demanded change of government. It was in 1999 when the trade union gave birth to a party called the Movement for Democratic Change; MDC. The Zanu government never saw this coming. A constitutional referendum was done in 2000 and the incumbent government lost the referendum. They blamed all the evils of their political and economic inadequacies on the white population that were farmers who bankrolled the newly born opposition party MDC; he had a hang on them.

Robert Mugabe threw all his vitriol on them and he sent invasions on their well capitalised farms; some unfortunate whites ones got killed in the process. It was much worse for the farm labourers who had no homes either than those farms compounds were evicted equally and most of them died in thousands. The trade union that had turned against the government was now seen as the enemy within as it had turned into a formidable opposition party that demanded change; a political change. The MDC party became very popular in all towns and cities. It was the desire of the people to change the government of Zanu at whatever cost. It did not matter to the people anymore that the MDC too had its own shortfalls, democratic inadequacies.

The economy of the country shrank to 41% and the dollar was all time low. Between 2000 and 2004 the actual working-class started leaving the country en masse relocating to most first world English speaking countries of the world; to South Africa, UK, America, Australia; New Zealand and Canada. It was the political and mostly economic hardships that led to the mass exodus to find a living elsewhere. There is an estimate of 3,5 million people who left the country that period of time taking with them all sorts of skilled labour; nurse, doctors lecturers, engineers, traders; entrepreneurs, farmers even manual workers. The population in the formal employment was only 20% in 2008. They were mostly civil servants and domestic service. Most of the people turned into vendors and self employment. The dollar devalued to all time low and resembled the Weimer Republic in no time.

Those in the formal employment suffered from irregular wage payments from government and other companies that were struggling to make ends meet. They would go for months without any payment of their work done. The civil service that had once in their time monthly salaries equals to those in first world countries; the wages shrunk below the Poverty Datum Line. Most of the population relied on the remittances from oversees; families who had relative in the UK; South Africa America and elsewhere survived the hardships. What about those families without relatives in the first world; they were swallowed in abject poverty of no historical precedence in the lives of the peoples of Zimbabwe even before independence.