Few in Harare heed Zimbabwe strike call

Apr 3, 2007, 8:27 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg - Shops, banks and supermarkets in the Zimbabwean capital Harare were busy Tuesday as most residents appeared to have ignored a strike call by the main unions body.

Police dotted the streets of the central business district, and a helicopter hovered overhead, a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa correspondent saw.

The police had warned they would be on 'high alert' ahead of the planned strike by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which comes after a three-week-long clampdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Union officials had hoped workers would heed the call to strike for better wages as Zimbabwe's economic crisis steadily worsens.

But in shopping centers and Harare's industrial area of Graniteside, businesses and factories appeared to be open, buses running as normal and there were long queues at the main railway station.

A spokeswoman for the ZCTU, which has about 350,000 members, had told South African radio Tuesday morning the congress expected a 95-per-cent participation in the strike, which is being supported by several international trade unions.

But many Zimbabweans in the country of estimated 80 per cent unemployment are engaged in the non-unionized informal sector, meaning a loss of earnings in the event of a work stoppage.

South Africa's trade union federation COSATU was set to hold a march in Johannesburg Tuesday in solidarity with Zimbabwean workers.