Murowa Diamonds workers face escalating Victimisat...

Murowa Diamonds workers face escalating Victimisation

Witness Runodada

Zim Now Reporter

Tensions have erupted at Murowa Diamonds, as workers face what they describe as a wave of orchestrated retaliation by senior management.

This comes in the wake of a lawful collective job action staged by employees demanding the payment of unpaid salaries dating back as far as six months.

Sources within the mine allege that the company’s General Manager Operations, Mr. Jonathan Mapisaunga, in collaboration with HR Superintendent Munyaradzi Mungaraza, has initiated a systematic crackdown targeting workers suspected of organizing or supporting the industrial action.

Employees say they are being hauled before disciplinary hearings that lack legal merit and are being used as tools of intimidation and suppression.

The crackdown has reportedly intensified in recent days, with several employees facing internal hearings that many describe as “retaliatory” and “without due process.”

In a significant development that underscores internal resistance to the management's approach, the Acting Resident Engineer tendered his resignation after reportedly refusing to participate in the disciplinary process.

In a statement circulated internally, he condemned the hearings as “a farcical and unethical process,” casting a spotlight on what some are calling a deepening crisis of governance within the company.

Despite a strong legacy of profitability and a reputation that once extended to global diamond markets, the company has failed to meet core obligations to its workforce including timely salary payments and the assurance of fair and safe working conditions.

The situation has now escalated beyond a labour dispute, with observers warning of a looming human rights crisis. Employees have issued an urgent appeal to both local and international human rights organizations, including the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, labour watchdogs, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), to intervene and investigate what they describe as a campaign of victimization aimed at silencing dissent.

According to the workers, the current disciplinary measures are being used to "crush dissent and divert attention from the company’s ongoing financial and ethical failures." They are calling for an immediate halt to all proceedings against workers involved in the job action, the resignation of implicated senior management figures, forensic audits into company operations and its contractors, and the engagement of neutral third parties to mediate the dispute in good faith.