Maravi

Nonde predicts severe effects of privatization

Nonde predicts severe effects of privatization
By Mutuna Chanda
Tuesday October 30, 2007 [03:00]

ZAMBIA is yet to see the harshest effects of privatisation, Zambia Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) general secretary Joyce Nonde has warned. In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Nonde said what Zambia had seen in retrenchments and violations of workers’ rights after the privatisation of what used to be state enterprises was just a tip of an iceberg.

“Privatisation has caused a lot of casualties. The harsh treatment of workers and other evil offshoots of privatization are still coming especially that we as a country have no mechanism to monitor what is happening on the ground, we don’t know what the investors are doing and how they are treating their workers,” Nonde said.

“Countries that have developed are those that have controls and have ensured that investors use their resources for development. Even when they leave if they are foreign investors, they ensure that resources remain for the country’s development but in our case we are not even making an effort to control the situation.”

Zambia embarked on an aggressive privatization programme since the early 1990s and has so far privatised 262 companies out of 284 that had been earmarked.

And Nonde, who recently attended the British Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in the United Kingdom and chaired a group discussion on global rights, reiterated ZUFIAW’s position against globalisation in its current form.

“Globalisation is disadvantaging the weak. Even in the UK, workers are complaining that international companies are taking away their jobs and are giving them to developing countries. Here in developing countries what is happening is that our workers are being exploited. So we see that on both ends globalisation in its current form is only benefiting the rich. It is favouring capital,” Nonde said.

Meanwhile Nonde said ZUFIAW officials last Friday met Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB) managing director Mark Wiessing.

ZNCB was recently privatised by the government and handed over to Rabobank of Netherlands which acquired 49 per cent of the bank’s shares.

Labels: GLOBALISATION, JOYCE NONDE, PRIVATISATION, ZNCB, ZUFIAW

posted by MrK @ 4:12 AM