Anjin Investments, a Chinese linked company mining diamonds, in Zimbabwe has suspended more than 1,500 workers for participating in an industrial action that crippled its operations.
Voice of America’s Studio 7 quoted some members of the workers’ committee as saying that they were being punished for demanding at least $650 for the lowest paid worker instead of the paltry $235 they were currently getting a month.
They said Anjin, one of the largest diamond companies operating in Marange, was planning to dismiss 500 employees following the sacking of seven members of the workers’ committee recently for organising the strike.
They said the recent High Court ruling that declared the strike illegal had worsened their plight.
The employees also claimed that some male workers had been sodomized by three managers.
“We were told that these managers will be deported but apparently sodomy cases are on the rise while these top managers are still at work,” said one of the workers.
Anjin was being accused by the country’s treasury of failing to account for diamond proceeds.
However, the firm claimed that it had remitted $30 million in diamond taxes to the government since last September.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
