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First Lady lied – Zisco workers

Politics
GWERU — Poverty-stricken Essar (former Ziscosteel) workers have accused First Lady Grace Mugabe of falsely claiming that Zanu PF had intervened to get them to receive their outstanding salaries.

GWERU — Poverty-stricken Essar (former Ziscosteel) workers have accused First Lady Grace Mugabe of falsely claiming that Zanu PF had intervened to get them to receive their outstanding salaries.

Report by Blessed Mhlanga

The workers said contrary to the First Lady’s claims, they had only received $40 each over the past 25 months.

Addressing a Zanu PF campaign rally in Gweru last Friday, Grace said: “(Zanu PF legal secretary Emmerson) Mnangagwa has told me that I can’t go back without receiving $10 from each Ziscosteel worker here (purportedly in gratitude to Zanu PF). We know you had gone for a full six months without salaries, but you have since been paid by Essar. This was done after Zanu PF intervened.”

However, the workers dismissed the claims as cheap politicking meant to mislead the electorate into endorsing Zanu PF as a party concerned with the plight of workers.

“We were paid $40 each last Thursday and promised that on Friday we would be given half a month’s salary, but that did not happen. It is angering that she made a public statement that we were paid,” said King Dube, one of the 3 700 workers who have gone without pay for the past two years.

Another worker, Fambisai Vengesai, said: “We are suffering here from years of non-payment of salaries and someone just for the fun of it says we have been paid. She said things that she has no understanding about just to push her way back to State House.”

Outgoing Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube has blamed Zanu PF ministers for stalling the Ziscosteel Essar project that has caused untold suffering for the workers and their families in the mining town.