IT was both disgusting and heart-rending to watch on Sunday’s Muvi TV news a disguised Zambian employee complaining in a disguised voice that workers at Hua Ling Construction Company are forced to kill, skin and cook dogs for their Chinese bosses.
The employee further lamented that failure to obey their bosses’ sickening demands attracts an instant dismissal.
Chinese in Zambia know that whereas dog-meat may be a delicacy for them, dogs to us are not food but pets, friends, companions or even guards.
If they wanted to employ people whose specific duties highlighted dog-meat preparation they could and those employees would have no qualms going about their routine work of ‘dressing’ and cooking dogs for their masters.
It may be that Hua Ling employees have no union representation, but one thing is for sure: The Minister of Labour and his deputy are both seasoned former labour leaders whose unshaken stance on workers’ rights then was never brought into question. I have no doubt that this stance has not changed.
I only wait for Hua Ling bosses to be visited by the appropriate laws for deliberately dehumanising our people with impunity.
Benson F. Chipungu,
Lusaka.
