Cotton centre evicts 13 famlies
By Helen Kadirire, Staff Writer
Sunday, 30 October 2011 06:15
HARARE – Thirteen Kadoma families were evicted from the town’s Cotton
Training Centre (CTC) following a labour dispute a fortnight ago in what the
National Education Union of Zimbabwe (Nuc) says is a violation of the
Labour Relations Act.
Nuc Zimbabwe secretary-general Headman Mangwadu said CTC acted in bad faith
by evicting its employees without notice.
In a letter to the Ministry of Labour and Social services, Mangwadu said
because the evictions were conducted illegally, the union will now directly
contest them.
“They were unfairly dismissed on January 3 and while they were contesting
the dismissal in court the employer went ahead to evict them before the
court process had finalised the case. Finalisation is only after the
superior court ruling,” Mangwadu said.
CTC chairman Duncan Kenniard could not be reached for comment; his office
said he was in South Africa while the other director was not reachable on
the mobile phone.
Most of the evicted families have been lodging outside the gate of the
centre which is situated some six kilometres out of Kadoma along the tarred
Sanyati road.
“Since the eviction we have been using a tap that is outside of the workers
compound and relieve ourselves at the bushes nearby. As for bathing we
resorted to cleaning up at night because there is no privacy for that,”
Denson Shapeta one of the evicted employees said.
The centre is the only one of its kind in Zimbabwe that offered farming
training to cotton farmers throughout the season for a fee.
Shapeta who has lived at the training centre for close to 30 years told the
Daily News on Sunday that household property was scattered everywhere
following their eviction by the messenger of court on October 14, 2011.
“Last year the EU told our employer that they will be withdrawing funding at
the centre but did not give reasons as to why they were doing so.
As a result CTC said that they could no longer sustain the workers and had
to resort to yearly contracts for employees and we agreed as they told us
that it would be most beneficial especially to those who had served a longer
time at the centre,” Shapeta said.
Shapeta was employed as a senior training officer.
He said employees were told to take advantage of the contract service by the
centre’s director Afios Mseva.
He said that during a meeting Mseva informed them that their chairman Duncan
Kenniard had been contemplating abandoning the centre after finding out
about the EU situation.
“It was all a lie from the beginning as we later realised that Mseva was
acting as a front for Kenniard” Shapeta said.
Another evicted CTC employee Christopher Matiya said that they took the
benefits on condition that they were to be put on the yearly contracts and
stay at the centre’s houses, however, the company did not honour their
promises.