Zimbabwe has dissolved a controversial unit set up weeks ago to handle labour disputes, amid an intensified crackdown on "rogue" war veterans who terrorised businesses in its name, a report said yesterday.
The state-run Herald quoted Mr Stalin Mau Mau, spokesman for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in Harare province, as saying the labour committee had been disbanded because it was being abused.
President Robert Mugabe, meanwhile, appointed four new judges at the weekend to the country's labour tribunal to help deal with a backlog of about 3,000 labour disputes.
The developments come as the number of war veterans arrested for extortion and kidnapping rose to 36 over the weekend, according to police figures.
The Home Affairs Minister, Mr John Nkomo, last week ordered a stop to the company invasions, which saw hundreds of firms attacked since early April by groups of self-styled veterans of the war of liberation, such as that led by Mr Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi.
Some company bosses were assaulted and firms and organisations forced to pay out millions of dollars to the veterans in the name of settling long-standing labour disputes.
The campaign was widely seen as having been sanctioned by ZANU-PF as a way to intimidate the urban electorate into voting for Mr Mugabe in next year's presidential election.
Police said the arrested 36 are alleged to have extorted more than eight million Zimbabwe dollars (about $145,000) from businesses in the capital, where company invasions had become almost a daily occurrence.
Eighteen self-styled war veterans were on Friday charged with extortion, theft and kidnapping. Mr Mau Mau said all labour disputes would now be resolved through trade unions and the labour ministry, as in the past.