ZCTU to stage two-day strike

HARARE - Zimbabwe's main labour union will stage a two-day strike against the economic meltdown in a country with the world's highest inflation rate and could launch more "drastic" protests, its head said Saturday.

Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) told a news conference that the union had decided to "continue with the national action in the form of a stay-away on September 19 and 20."

Matombo said the supplementary budget presented by the finance minister on Thursday also falls short of workers "expectations of a tax free threshold that is linked to the poverty datum line".

"September 19 and 20 is a warm up. If government does not heed our calls they will be more drastic measures such protests and demonstrations which the ZCTU is known for."

Zimbabwe's economy has steadily declined over the past seven years, characterised by inflation running well past the 7,500 percent mark and high employment, with at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold. The southern African nation is in the midst of an eight-year recession, characterised by food shortages, high unemployment and an economy shrunk by more than a third.

Matombo criticised President Robert Mugabe's government for ignoring demands to link wages to the poverty line and expressed concern at a recent presidential decree in which Mugabe barred any pay rises without special authorisation. "What the president has done is direct interference and unconstitutional," he said.

In September last year, labour unions were forced to abandon plans for mass anti-government protests after organisers were rounded up in a police crackdown.AFP