WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2001-08-29 Time: 04:46:33 Posted By: Jan
13/05/2001
When a truckload of 13 war veterans came to Spring Steel on Harare’s
industrial side last week, they were greeted by the LG8 company’s 130
employees who asked them, firmly, to leave. That was the war vets’ third
visit to Spring Steel. Each time they came asking to speak to Marco Garizio,
the managing director, the employees turned them away.
“My workers decided it was a worker issue, and that they would confront the
war vets,” Garizio said, shortly after the war vets left.
Despite the support of Spring Steel’s employees, Garizio has since left
Zimbabwe, fearing for his safety. Nonetheless, the workers’ stance is one of
the few brave acts of defiance in what have become almost daily raids on
employers in Zimbabwe’s cities, in a campaign of urban terror widely seen as
a bid to boost President Robert Mugabe’s flagging support ahead of next
year’s presidential elections.
The raids have cut across the spectrum of employers in Zimbabwe, local and
foreign. What began as raids on industries has grown to include aid agencies,
clinics, shops, restaurants and tourism operators.
“They are not solving a problem, they are making a problem,” said one worker
at Spring Steel. Like most people here, the workers spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“What we don’t like is for them to come here and speak straight to the boss.
They must come through us,” said another employee.
Urban dwellers affected
The war vets’ latest campaign, following the ongoing occupations of white
owned farms, has struck a chord with some of Zimbabwe’s urban dwellers, who
have suffered massive layoffs and declining real income as the economy has
crumbled during the last two years.
Almost 10 000 people lost their jobs last year at companies that have managed
to stay in business, according to the Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries.
No estimates are available on how many people lost jobs at the 400 companies
that folded last year.
People who have jobs fear of losing them if the raids continue. At Spring
Steel, Garizio said he simply did not have the money the war vets had
demanded as compensation for employees laid off last year.
Most companies have preferred to pay off the war veterans, keep quiet, and
hope that end the threat. So far, there is little indication that that
approach works.
Zimbabwe’s top private hospital, the Avenues Clinic, made a $115 000
settlement with the war veterans over a six-year-old labour dispute involving
30 workers, hoping to end the threat and protect its patients, director
Malcolm Boyland said.
Days later, however, the war veterans returned and demanded even more money,
and issued threats that prompted Boyland to go with his family into hiding.
The raids have been widely condemned by rights groups, labour unions, the
Roman Catholic church, and donors.
Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister, wrote to his Zimbabwean counterpart
Stan Mudenge one week ago asking the government to ensure the safety of
German nationals and organisations, after two German aid agencies and one
business were raided.
This has not stopped war veterans this week from visiting the offices of SOS
Children’s Villages Zimbabwe, which runs orphanages largely funded by German
donors. Many workers say former employees, whom the war veterans purport to
represent, are not allowed to keep all the money they receive, as veterans
accompany the beneficiaries to banks and demand large donations.
The violent treatment of a Canadian diplomat, James Wall has forced Canada to
impose sweeping sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The government has angrily dealt with queries about the raids, and the labour
ministry has said it sees nothing wrong with the situation.
After one reporter questioned President Robert Mugabe’s office about the
raids, Jonathan Moyo information minister, issued a press release that said
if the reporter had asked whether Mugabe would stop the invasions, “he would
have been told to go away.”
He also accused private media there of trying to “deliberately twist,
distort, misrepresent and falsify news” for political purposes, and said his
department would no longer take questions from reporters who are “incapable
of reporting news and information in an accurate…manner.”
The war veterans are militant supporters of Mugabe’s regime, which has
suffered an enormous loss of support in urban areas.
Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF)
lost every urban constituency in last year’s parliamentary elections, despite
a campaign of violent intimidation that left at least 34 people dead and
thousands more beaten or raped. – Sapa-AFP