Mozambique: Calm after riots in Xinavane – Noticias | Watch

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Mozambique: Calm after riots in Xinavane – Noticias | Watch

11:39 CAT | 24 Feb 2022

Screen grab: TVM

Riots by workers from the Açucareira de Xinavane, in Manhiça district, Maputo province on Wednesday morning, resulted in the destruction of public and private property and the blocking of the main accesses to the small workers’ village there.

Calm was restored a few hours later through the intervention of the Rapid Intervention Police.

Watch the TVM report.

An update by this TVM report below indicates that nine buildings and at least five vehicles were set on fire and that ten persons had been arrested . The Deputy Commander of the Police travelled to Xinavane yesterday. Different police units were deployed who also undertook cleaning operations.

The riots followed the alleged arrest on Tuesday of seven sugar-works employees accused of instigating a strike, who were later moved to the District Command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Manhiça.

According to Televisão de Moçambique, striking workers set fire to five vehicles and nine buildings, including the house of the Açucareira de Xinavane security chief.

Sugar workers, with broad public support, took industrial action from 31 January to 14 February, demanding the payment of a delayed 2020 wage increase and production incentive bonuses.

Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security, Rolindo Farnela, who was in Xinavane, said that negotiations with workers to solve the problem were underway.

“We were involved in the agreements between the company and the workers, including a ten-day agreement that would run until March 1. We want to repudiate this conduct,” Farnela said.

Farnela added that the company was now assessing the damage, and would hold workers accountable for the acts recorded yesterday.

The secretary of the Trade Union Committee, Orlando Chume, said that he could not provide details about the occurrence, because of the difficulty accessing the village.

“The company has already agreed to raise the salary, but some workers have demanded that the company say by how much, exactly. We cannot just say that out of the blue, without dialogue with the employer,” he explained.

Source: Noticias TVM