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Diamond company Anjin Investment has begun to hire new workers to replace the approximately 1,500 employees that it fired after they went on strike, Rough and Polished reported. The workers at Anjin's diamond mining operations in Zimbabwe's Marange region were fired for striking for better wages and working conditions. A Zimbabwe court ruled that the strike was illegal.

 

Responding to claims by the former Anjin employees that they were mistreated on the job, Anjin board member Munyaradzi Machacha said that if they feel that they were intimidated that they should seek work at a different company where they will not feel intimidated.

 

In addition to grievances about wages lower even than the national poverty wage level, workers complained of being physically and sexually assaulted by their bosses. According to Rough and Polished, the former workers also claim that they were abused for being supporters of the MDC party. Nehanda Radio has alleged that Anjin, which is owned in part by Zimbabwe military officials, is now recruiting new workers from a pool of supporters of ZANU-PF, the political party of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.