Bernard Mutambudzi

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) representative to Zimbabwe and Namibia has praised President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the people of Zimbabwe for adopting social dialogue to solve the challenges facing the country.

Giving her remarks at the Commissioning of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) held early this week in Harare, ILO Namibia and Zimbabwe representative, Ms Hopolang Phororo praised the visionary leadership of President Mnangagwa.

“Today represents significant promise for the people of Zimbabwe and their efforts to grow the economy and ensure shared prosperity. All this is a result of your vision and leadership,” she said.

She said it was everyone’s responsibility including Government, employers or workers to find solutions to the economic and social challenges.

 “Social dialogue is an effective tool for people to find each other, forge a new national vision and commit to walk together towards a common purpose,” she said.

She said that the commissioning of the TNFinto a law would go a long way to implement labour issues.

She emphasised that through social dialogue, no crisis can be wasted.

“Successful social dialogue structures and processes have the potential to resolve important economic and social issues, encourage good governance, advance social justice, industrial peace and stability and boost progress,” she said.

She said Zimbabwe had an opportunity to move beyond their differences and to have trust in each other so that a legacy is built for the generations that will come.

“As ILO, we firmly believe in the journey that we started in 1997 with the Kadoma Declaration, leading to the Tripartite Forum and today presents an incredible opportunity to build on these early gains,” she said.

She said that social dialogue should be given a sincere chance.

“The new Act and the processes that will follow are like a blank page that affords us a chance to collectively write a good story that is worth reading and to do so, we must have a common vision,” she said.