Unionists spurn bid to avert Zim strike

HARARE -- Zimbabwe's trade unionists yesterday spurned a last-ditch attempt by the government to avert a potentially explosive national strike.

The influential Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) announced that it was pressing ahead with the planned general strike today because of lack of progress in negotiations with government and the continual deterioration of the economic situation in the country.

Information Minister Chen Chimutengwende had earlier said the government, industrialists and labour officials would meet today to consider workers' demands for 20-percent wage increases.

The minister's statement created confusion among workers as to whether the strike was still on or not. Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, secretary-general of the ZCTU, urged workers to stay at home and not march or demonstrate on the streets ''so there should be no basis for violence, criminality or even some of the anticipated riots,'' as troops were reportedly deployed in low-income suburbs of the capital yesterday.

It is the first of a planned wave of weekly one-day national work stoppages protesting against the economic hardships faced by the people, and being blamed on the government's economic policies and perceived corruption in the state-run oil procurement company.

Huge increases in fuel prices and bus fares sparked a riot in the city's working-class suburbs last week, with vehicles burned, shops looted and roads barricaded.

Protesters made it clear their anger was also directed at Mr Mugabe's costly military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo .

The DRC action, in which some 6000 Zimbabwean troops are helping prop up President Laurent Kabila against a rebel insurgency, has been condemned by the ZCTU and human rights groups.

They say Zimbabwe cannot afford a foreign war while its own people are suffering increasing poverty. -- Sapa-AFP