FORMER Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary general Wellington Chibhebhe has warned that the Zanu PF government risks a military coup coupled with violent civil uprisings if it forces the poor to help fund its gluttony.
The Zimbabwe government has been struggling to raise money to pay civil servants as the tax pool has dried up as companies continue to shut down.
To raise the much needed tax, the government last month raised toll gate fees by 100%, a move which was condemned by the public.
Not quite done, the Mugabe administration last week expanded its fund-raising efforts by proposing to tax those in the informal sector – now the largest employer with industry pretty much in intensive care.
The move was however met with resistance countrywide and resulted in violence in Bulawayo last week when government and local council authorities clashed.
Government wants to get its hands on what ministers claim is a cash pot of $7 billion allegedly circulating in the formal economy, hence the clampdown on vendors.
Last Friday police disrupted a clean-up campaign organised by the National Vendors Association of Zimbabwe to demonstrate against the government’s proposal to tax informal traders.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com in Harare at the weekend, Chibhebhe who is now the secretary general of the Brussels-based International Trade Union Council, said Mugabe was creating his own enemies by provoking workers.
“Like I said before when I was still with the ZCTU, and I repeat and I believe my colleagues at ZCTU are of the same mind, when you squeeze people, the more you create many pressure points including the very people who were supporting the government,” he said.
“Today people are not being paid, including civil servants and particularly soldiers; that’s a very dangerous situation to talk about. We have seen it, and I have now witnessed so many explosions worldwide arising from such situations,” said Chibhebhe.
During his time at the ZCTU, Chibhebhe and Lovemore Matombo (former ZCTU president) mobilised workers and staged countrywide protests against the government.
And fearing a possible eruption of violence the police made a last-minute U-turn and banned the clean-up campaign by vendors which had initially been sanctioned.
In a statement to the media the vendors association said: “The National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (NAVUZ) was holding a sanctioned clean-up campaign in the Central Business District of Harare on Friday when, suddenly, armed riot police descended on vendors and indiscriminately started beating them up.
“Three members of NAVUZ sustained head injuries due to the beatings. Police did not give reasons for disrupting the event but our sources confirmed that the decision to disrupt was made at the last minute.”