BY ADMORE MARAMBANYIKA 

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), has filed an urgent application with the  High Court seeking an order to bar companies from demanding Covid-19 compulsory vaccination of their employees

In the application, ZCTU cited Public Service Minister Paul Mavima and Attorney General Prince Machaya on the government side.

Also cited are companies that have enforced the policy such as Zimnat Insurance Company, the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara), TelOne (Private) Limited, Windmill Limited, Seed Co Zimbabwe and the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences (MSUAS) as respondents.

“There is no law in Zimbabwe making vaccination compulsory. Each person, having fully considered the implications and effects of vaccination, is expected to make a personal decision on whether or not to get vaccinated and where a person decides to get vaccinated, he or she is expected to make a decision relating to the timing of the vaccination. “It is on this basis … that the applicant is contending that the aforementioned employers are taking the law into their own hands … in the process they are infringing the fundamental rights of the affected employees,” ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo said in an affidavit before the High Court.

The ZCTU asserts that the companies’ actions were a direct infringement on the personal dignity of unvaccinated workers and constituted stigmatisation.

"The impermissible attack becomes more apparent when it is noted that both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons transmit the virus. The question then is: what is the point of excluding unvaccinated persons from workplaces if both can transmit the coronavirus? Vaccinated employees would be interacting daily with unvaccinated people outside the workplace, particularly in public transport facilities,” said Moyo.