THE Uni Africa Region has appointed trade unionist Peter Mutasa as president of the continent’s Finance and Insurance Trade Unions.
Mutasa was unanimously nominated at the global labour organ’s 6th Uni Global Union Africa Conference in Maputo, Mozambique.
The event is running under the theme “Consolidate Working Class Power.”
Under his new role, Mutasa will lead the team in proffering the best labour practices for the continent’s finance-related trade Unions. Africa Finance is a structure of the Uni Global Union which boasts an estimated 20 million members. Each continent is known as a Region with different industrial sectors like Finance and Engineering forming structures under the international labour organ.
In his acceptance speech, Mutasa vowed to leave no stone unturned in securing the best labour standards for the Continent’s Finance sector.
“African Finance workers are facing many challenges that require strong unions to address. These include massive retrenchments due to digitalisation and AI, as well as poor working conditions. We have come up with a clear plan of action that will guide our agenda for the next four years,” he said.
The incoming Uni Africa Region Finance President has a long history, which kicked off when he was a labour activist and Workers Committee member at Standard Chartered Bank, Zimbabwe.
He rose through the ranks of one of the country’s highly organised labour unions, the Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union (ZIBAWU), to his current position of General Secretary.
Mutasa served as President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) between 2016 and 2021 and is the current chairperson of the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition ( CiZC).
Mutasa holds a Masters in Public Policy and is currently pursuing a PhD.