ZIMBABWE’S civil servants are under threat. The Civil Service Amendment Bill, currently undergoing requisite processes before enactment, seeks to curtail government workers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining.
In effect, it will leave thousands of teachers, nurses, doctors, and other public workers at the mercy of regulations imposed unilaterally by the state.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa must act decisively to block a law that is fundamentally flawed and unfair. About two years ago, he refused to assent to another poorly-conceived law, the Mines Bill, which had to be revamped and sent back for stakeholder scrutiny.
Gazetted earlier this month, the Bill comes at a particularly inopportune time. Public servants are already grappling with collapsing real wages and deteriorating working conditions, a reality mirrored across the broader economy. Rather than providing relief, the Bill entrenches the status quo — a framework long skewed in favour of the state.
Analysis by law firm Matika, Gwisai & Partners highlights shocking anomalies.
The Bill mentions “collective bargaining” only once, in a way that hands control entirely to the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the responsible minister.
Trade unions — the very entities tasked with protecting workers — will play second fiddle. Binding agreements, dispute resolution mechanisms, and a bargaining forum are all absent. In short, the Bill delegates authority to the party negotiating against workers, creating a fundamental conflict of interest.
The current National Joint Negotiating Forum, established under SI 141 of 1997, has already failed to secure meaningful gains for public servants.
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Yet the Amendment Bill does nothing to correct this. Instead, it perpetuates the same broken system while creating the illusion of reform. Without explicit rights to collective bargaining and an enforceable framework, civil servants remain fully at the mercy of regulations imposed unilaterally by the PSC and the minister.
As Obert Masaraure, president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, notes, consultation is no substitute for bargaining. Retaining Section 20 of the Public Service Act further cements government control and ignores workers’ voices.
Zimbabwe has avoided the pitfalls of poorly-conceived laws before. With regards to the Mines Bill, Mnangagwa took a bold stance.
He refused to blindly rubberstamp a bad law. The same scrutiny must now be applied to the Public Service Amendment Bill.
Parliament must exercise oversight, and Mnangagwa must take a principled stand. Any Bill that undermines civil servants’ rights is fundamentally unfair and cannot pass.
Zimbabwe’s public sector deserves a framework that empowers workers, not one that traps them further in bureaucracy and state control. The Amendment Bill, in its current form, deserves decisive objection. Anything less would betray the very workforce oiling the levers of an ailing system. We will be shooting ourselves in the foot.
