HARARE – Zimbabwean workers at Chinese cotton firm Sino-Zimbabwe Cotton Holdings at the weekend demanded the expulsion of Chinese nationals running businesses in the country after a march to protest failure by the company to pay their wages.

The workers first demonstrated against the management at the company’s factory near Hopley, a settlement just outside the capital Harare before marching to its headquarters in the centre of the city.

The placard-wielding workers accused the management of being insensitive to their plight by refusing to increase their monthly salaries.

“They are not paying our wages and yet they abuse the very same workers. Enough is enough, they should go back to their country,” one of the workers said during the march.

Management at Sino-Zimbabwe could not be reached for comment.

Sino-Zimbabwe was last year accused of using political muscle to clandestinely purchase cotton from farmers contracted by local companies.

The Cotton Ginners Association of Zimbabwe approached the High Court to stop the company from purchasing the cotton. Sino-Zimbabwe rejected the accusations.

Zimbabwe has for the last seven years increasingly leaned on China to shore up its troubled economy after President Robert Mugabe fell out with Western donor nations. Critics accuse the Chinese of mistreating local employees.

In Zambia there were riots over pay disputes in Zambia’s Copperbelt region, which saw some protester being shot.

China is one of the biggest investors in Zambia’s mining industry but its companies have not enjoyed an easy ride with staff, unions or the political opposition, which routinely accuses them of abuses. 

By Zimonline