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 Home Overseas Projects Southern Africa Projects
2008-2009 Zimbabwe: Report to Donors
In the past financial year, your generous donations have assisted in providing emergency food assistance in Zimbabwe and in maintaining the operations of the Zimbabwean unions.
- Food security for vulnerable women and children
- Keeping trade unions and democratic civil society organisations alive and functioning
Background
In the last decade Zimbabwe has undergone a precipitous downward spiral. According to the unions, the country's economy has regressed to below that of 1953. There was the world's worst hyper-inflation, around 80% unemployment, millions of workers leaving the country, and terrible malnutrition. Those still working find their wages are too low to pay for bus fares to work, to pay for schooling for their children, or even just to keep basic foods on the table.
In Operation Murambatsvina which began in May 2005, the government cracked down on the informal sector and people in the townships, destroying 130,000 homes and leaving 700,000 without income or shelter. Most of these people were driven into the bush.
Along with massive job losses, famine has affected millions of Zimbabweans in most years since 2000, in part from low rainfall, but also because of the destruction of the commercial farming sector, and the driving away from farms of 300,000 agricultural workers who have swelled the numbers of people without income, services or shelter. Inability to maintain water and sanitation systems or pay for purification supplies allowed cholera to afflict thousands.
Severe political repression has been directed not only against the opposition parties, but also to human rights and women's organisations, journalists, some churches, students and particularly, the trade unions. Under the Public Order and Security Act, public gatherings other than church services and funerals are illegal, unless police give prior permission. This has been used to prevent or break-up regular union meetings, and in some cases arrest union activists. Union meetings for HIV training have been allowed.
After independence, Zimbabwe boasted one of the best education systems in Africa. Now, school fees, costs of uniforms, texts and transport have become hard for most families to pay; girls in particular are now missing out on schooling.
HIV in Zimbabwe
The government claims HIV prevalence among young adults is 24% (antenatal testing), but the unions suspect the figure to be much higher. It is probable that around 3 million Zimbabweans have HIV, and union leaders estimate 5,000 deaths per week. In 2004, 75% of hospital bed occupancy was HIV-related. Today, health delivery systems have simply collapsed. There are few supplies in hospitals and thousands of skilled health professionals have left to work in other countries. This means there is now less testing for the disease and people are increasingly unable to afford any access to health care. Many people with HIV-related illnesses go untested, untreated and therefore never show up in statistics. The unions estimate life expectancy has dropped to 32 years. Medications for HIV are supposed to be available, but costs not only for the medicines, but for laboratory testing and for transport to health services, are impossible for most Zimbabweans. Unions complain that people from the political elite and ruling party are taking all the free HIV medications.
Because of so many deaths of working-age adults from HIV, many school-age children are caring for younger siblings, or orphans are in care of grandparents. But with no wage earner in the household, many children go without food and cannot go to school.
Unity government
After long disputes following the elections of 29 March 2008, negotiations between the ruling party (ZANU-PF) and the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led to the appointment of former trade union leader, Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister in February 2009. This was part of a unity government of three parties, with Mugabe remaining in power as President.
There have been some improvements, with Zimbabwe officially switching to the US Dollar or South African Rand, and most public sector workers getting allowances of USD $100 per month. However, the basic cost of living per month was $440 in May 2009.
Violence and repression continue however, and most workers are still out of jobs, or are living in exile. Working people in Zimbabwe still cannot access clean water, adequate food, fuel/energy, or health care. Two thirds of children remain out of school. Freedom of the media, or of assembly, has not been restored, though the trade unions were able to run local May Day rallies in 2009, with the slogan "It may be dawn - workers intensify the struggle".
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA projects
The purpose of support in the last financial year was two-fold:
- emergency food security for the most vulnerable
- enable the basic infrastructures and security of leading democratic civil society organisations - of women and workers - to keep functioning
Emergency Food Security
Funds from Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's regular donors for Africa were sent to the non-government Association of Women's Clubs (AWC) to support their "mobile kitchens" project, which was designed to work with poor rural and semi-urban women to develop community skills in solving the immediate problem of lack of food. Poverty and famine in country areas was exacerbated when food distribution was used by the regime to ensure support for Mugabe. To receive food, people were often forced to show their membership cards for the ruling ZANU-PF party, or participate in rallies praising Mugabe and denouncing the democratic opposition. According to human rights organisations and Catholic Church reports, those thought to be opposition supporters were excluded from receiving food or were taken away and beaten.
AWC is a large organisation of working women in the "high-density" townships and in the rural areas. To reach vulnerable communities with food supplies, local women arrange collective cooking and distribution. This can be moved each day to avoid government interference. AUD $5,000 is used by AWC for feeding 100 families for 3 months in each location. This project also receives support from the Zimbabwe Information Centre in Australia. In 2007-8 funds were sent to feed orphans affected by HIV. In the last financial year Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA sent $10,000 to AWC for its mobile kitchen program.
AWC emergency Chairperson's Fund
AWC Chairperson, Sekai Holland - well-known to many Australians for her leadership of the Southern Africa Liberation Centre here until 1980 - has now been elected to the Senate for Chizhanje, and is a Minister of State in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, responsible for National Reconciliation and Healing.
Before the March 2008 elections, Ms Holland appealed to friends in Australia to help the leaders of AWC to survive. Sekai and other leaders of the opposition had been severely beaten and tortured when arrested in March 2007 after attempting to hold a peaceful prayer meeting for democracy.
At various times in recent years, and especially in 2008, it seemed the Mugabe regime might use violence to eliminate leaders in all sectors of civil society including opposition groups, human rights organisations, women, students, trade unions, journalists, lawyers etc.
At this point, the AWC needed funds to ensure that its elected leaders would be able to survive. Funds were needed for security staff, transport and daily essentials. In addition, because of the levels of police and militia repression, hundreds of women and children survivors of political violence were sheltering in the homes of AWC leaders, needing water, food, clothes, schooling and medical care.
Between the elections in March 2008 and July 2009, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA transferred $35,564 to the AWC, from donors who had specifically answered this appeal.
Unions and workplace HIV programs
Between 2000-2005 Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was able to support a national HIV support and education program with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. This mainly focussed on ensuring trade union officers and shop stewards had the knowledge and skills to lead their members in response to the burdens and challenges posed by the epidemic on all working people in southern Africa. At the end of the program, with assistance from the Maritime Union of Australia, APHEDA supported the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railway Workers' Union (ZARWU) in running national training seminars on HIV and on current issues facing transport workers.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
The Zimbabwe trade unions' survival is threatened on three levels: by catastrophic poverty and unemployment, by HIV killing significant numbers of union members and by severe repression by the regime. Zimbabwe is not yet free, and the Mugabe elite still holds power, so repression remains a daily possibility. International solidarity is desperately needed to help keep the unions viable, and to allow an essential part of democratic civil society to make its contribution to pulling the country out of the abyss.
Due to the generosity of donors to our end-of-year emergency appeal in 2008, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was able to send $60,000 in emergency funding to the Zimbabwe unions, so they could keep their affiliate and regional offices open and running, transport union officers, hold meetings and rallies with members, print education materials, and in some instances, assist members with food and blankets. All funds to ZCTU have been fully reported.
The way forward...
Unions and the democratic transition
Lucia Matibenga, senior vice-president of ZCTU, was able to participate in the ACTU congress in Brisbane in June 2009. ACTU and APHEDA are discussing with ZCTU, and also with their other international union donors, appropriate avenues of support in the immediate reconstruction phase. ZCTU will play an important role as one of the three social partners in the reconstruction of Zimbabwe, and as a force for democratisation independent of the MDC in government. APHEDA is hoping to help ZCTU in the following ways:
- in building the capacity of ZCTU, alongside religious, women's, youth, farmer and other civil society organisations, to lead, through human rights education, a genuine participatory process of public discussion about a new democratic constitution (similar to the role ZCTU played in forming the National Constituent Assembly in the late 1990s), as well as a new culture of human rights.
- in supporting the rebirth of independent and democratic media, such as the ZCTU's newspaper "The Worker" and community radio programs. This is seen as an essential part of the path to recovery. Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has similar partnerships in South Africa and Timor-Leste.
- in building the capacity of the labour movement to negotiate as a social partner for a realistic plan for economic recovery and production - getting the factories, farms, schools and clinics operating, and enticing the 4-5 million Zimbabwean workers currently outside the country back to the tasks of socio-economic reconstruction. ZCTU has an important independent economic research and policy institute, LEDRIZ, which can also help educate Zimbabwean working people on urgent "economic literacy" themes.
- in assisting the Zimbabwean labour movement and women's movement, possibly via the farm workers' union (GAPWUZ), with moves to re-establish food security through increased local smallholder production (via training, organic techniques, supplies, etc).
- the rebuilding of technical and vocational education in Zimbabwe, now that the crisis has caused flight by skilled workers and caused a hiatus in training young workers. Skills building and human resource development will be an essential part of reconstruction.
- in rebuilding the capacity of unions to provide support for their members on health and HIV and the related area of gender rights. Before the long crisis, ZCTU was a leader among African unions in occupational health and safety, and in HIV awareness training. Indeed, when Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA first began work with COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) on AIDS in 1991, ZCTU was invited to explain the issues to their South African counterparts.
- in organising and advancing the rights and living standards of informal sector workers (eg. small traders, casual rural labourers, domestic workers, sex and entertainment workers). In accord with the 'Decent Work' agenda and decisions of the ITUC at their Durban conference, ZCTU has organised a "chamber" of the informal economy allied to the ZCTU affiliates. The informal sector in Zimbabwe has been a particular target of the regime, intensifying during Operation Murambatsvina.
At ACTU Congress in June 2009, Lucia Matibenga highlighted the key role for the trade union movement in the reconstruction of her country. Speaking of the steps needed to rebuild, Lucia stressed the importance of ZCTU being strong enough to face the challenges ahead and warned that a weakened ZCTU will not be able to "get enough out of it (the reconstruction process) for workers."
Your donations have helped provide emergency food assistance in Zimbabwe as well as assisted the Zimbabwean unions to maintain their operations through a period of social and economic oppression. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Download full report:
Download 2008-09 Zimbabwe: Report to Donors [ pdf ]
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