Stephen Chadenga
As residents in the Midlands capital go about their daily chores, be it at bus ranks, council workshops, at few industries still open and shops in the city, workers are still quoting the same line.
“We are worried about the continued institutionalization and formalization of corruption…”
This message was delivered by Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions Vice President, Valentine Chikosi during Workers’ Day commemorations held this May in the city, but for many workers in Gweru it did not end at the podium.
“We continue experiencing the effects of formalised and institutionalized corruption at our work places and Chikosi nailed it,”said a shop worker who was at the commemorations.
Another, a council worker said: “Salaries would never be enough when millions if not billions are going to the few elite. Chikosi referred to tenderpreneurship and we see and feel the effects of that word every day.”
The workers said what made Chikosi’s address stick in Gweru was its local relevance.
The Midlands capital remembers giant industries such as Zimglass, ZimAlloys, Zimcast, Kariba Batteries, Bata to mention but a few. These companies have either closed and the few still operating are a pale shadow of their former past.
The workers said when Chikosi said corruption was bleeding the economy and channeling money meant for recovery to a few individuals, it was not abstract.
“Our cry is that we could have been in a better state had government put a nip to corruption. This rot has a direct impact on our conditions of service,”Chikosi told the May 1 Day gathering at Mkoba stadium.
Chikosi, who has made Gweru his base not only for central region mobilisation but the country as a whole, has built his reputation on things workers here repeat: calling corruption by its name- tenderpreneurship, impunity, glorification of ill-gotten wealth and reminding both government and opposition that workers are not owned.