Mozambique: Sugar workers strike degenerates into violence – AIM report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Sugar workers strike degenerates into violence – AIM report

6:10 CAT | 25 Feb 2022

Photo: Miramar

A strike for higher wages at the Xinavane sugar plantation, some 90 kilometres north of Maputo, degenerated into violence on Wednesday, with the strikers setting fire to buildings and vehicles.

The workers at the Xinavane plantation and mill, in which the main shareholder is the South African sugar giant Tongaat Hulett, have been demanding a pay rise since last August, when they sent a letter to the management calling for their basic monthly wage to be increased from 4,500 to 7,000 meticais (from 70 to 110 US dollars, at the current exchange rate), plus a seasonal bonus for the past two years.

According to the secretary of the Xinavane Trade Union Committee, Orlando Chume, cited in Thursdays’ issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, over the next five months Tongaat Hulett simply did not reply. So the workers went on strike on 31 January.

Eleven days later a truce was declared, after negotiations involving the Trade Union Committee, the Tongaat Hulett management, the Manhica District Administrator, Cristina de Jesus, and the central government, represented by the General Inspector of Labour, Domingos Sambo.

According to Chume, at the end of this “truce period”, Tongaat Hulett promised to inform the workers about the possibility of a pay rise on 3 March. Some of the workers were far from satisfied and demanded that the company make an immediate promises to pay the increase demanded.

Last Tuesday, the police arrested seven workers, and held them in the Manhica district police command. The police accused them of inciting others to protest against the non-payment of the wage rise.

This sparked off a protest in the Sambo neighbourhood of Xinavane where the detainees live. Chume said that the Sambo residents, along with some of the sugar workers, attacked and damaged the Xinavane police station. The demonstrators went to the police station in an attempt to release the seven arrested the previous day – only to discover that they had already been taken to the district command.

The angry crowd then burnt down the home of the head of the Xinavane Administrative Post, and set his car on fire. The home of the head of the company’s internal security was also destroyed, as were four other cars.

The protestors placed barricades on the main road into Xinavane, but this did not stop the police sending reinforcements. 27 of the protesters were detained, but some were released later in the day. By about 16.00, the police had brought the situation under control.

The Maputo provincial police spokesperson, Joarce Martins, told reporters “this is not how to make demands. We don’t know why they’re trying to damage the company, when they know that they are in constant dialogue with the company”.

The general secretary of the National Union of Agriculture and Forestry Workers, Andre Mandlate, said the strike should have ended with the negotiations between the company and the workers. He blamed the violence on “actions of bad faith” by some members of the local community, who were making use of the Xinavane workers to push their own supposedly hidden agenda.

In an attempt to calm the situation, the Deputy Minister of Labour, Rolinho Farnela, went to Xinavane on Wednesday afternoon.

He stressed the need for continued dialogue between Tongaat Hulett and the workforce. A further round of negotiations is scheduled for Thursday, mediated by the Labour Ministry.

Source: AIM