In pictures…A tale of two Workers’ Day events

By The NewsDay | May. 3, 2016 | 2 Min read

On Monday 2 May, a local daily newspaper splashed a headline “All roads lead to Rufaro Stadium…as workers snub ZCTU sideshow”

This was in reference to what government termed an ‘all inclusive’ belated May Day celebrations where Vice President Mnangagwa was expected to make an address at Rufaro Stadium. So upbeat was the tone of the report that one could already see the stadium filling up.

In reference to the commemorations held by largely anti-government ZCTU a day earlier at Gwanzura Stadium In Highfield, the report claimed the event was poorly attended, insinuating that the ZCTU had become unpopular with the workers.

But of course, the irony there was that this said poor attendance was not so much about the organising capacities of the ZCTU, but simply showed the levels of unemployment as thousands have lost their jobs as government fails to contain the prevailing economic crisis.

More absurd about the May 2 event was the idea that government officials – who are part of a system that has presided over massive job losses and company closures- were the chief authors of this Rufaro Stadium May Day ‘celebrations’.

The Zanu PF government promised 2,2 million jobs in its 2013 election campaign.

Thankfully, NewsDay had- in its May 2 edition- rightfully pre-empted attempts by government to, as usual, force vendors and flea-market owners to shut down and attend the event.

And as they say, pictures say a thousand words. Below are the pictures of the two events.