WSCF: Stop Attacks on Trade Union Leaders in Zimbabwe!

*March 4, 2010, Geneva *

The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and its Zimbabwe Advocacy Office (ZAO) wish to express
shock and outrage at the recent wave of attacks on trade union leaders by police and security forces in
Zimbabwe. On March 1, 2010 police raided and ransacked offices of the General Plantation and Agricultural
Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) forcing its Secretary General, Mrs Gertrude Hambira, a mother and
farm-workers’ leader to flee her home and country. On March 3, WSCF and ZAO also received troubling
reports of the arrest of staff of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) who were conducting a civic
education workshop in the eastern city of Mutare.

These senseless attacks, together with the recent upsurge in general violence in the country, indicate clearly that
Zimbabwe’s political crisis remains unresolved and that Zimbabwe’s Inclusive Government needs to do much
more to deliver change.

We pray for the safe return of Mrs Hambira and her colleagues to their homes and places of work.
We urge the Inclusive Government in Zimbabwe to protect the rights of workers and students to organise freely
and uphold its commitment to restoring human rights and the rule of law in the country. A year after the
formation of the Inclusive Government the international community continues to look to the leadership in
Zimbabwe to demonstrate its commitment to genuine, irreversible reforms. We ask the ongoing 13th Session of
the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Labour Organisation to take note and act on
these attacks.

We urge students and workers worldwide to stand in unbreakable solidarity in the face of injustice and
repression, particularly in support of the students and workers in Zimbabwe.

For further details please contact:

Rev Michael Wallace,
General Secretary
World Student Christian Federation
Email: wscf@wscf.ch

Marlon Zakeyo
Coordinator
Zimbabwe Advocacy Office
Email: wscf.zimadvocacy@gmail.com