JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 49 ____________________________________________________________________ Chinotimba unilaterally proclaimed himself to be the head of the ZCTU, and the war veterans embarked upon a strategy aimed at undermining workers’ support for the ZCTU and strengthening their support for ZANU (PF). The war veterans sought to exploit a situation that had been created by government itself, namely a dysfunctional system of settlement of workers grievances. As a result of under-funding and understaffing, the legally established dispute settlement process had a huge backlog of cases awaiting attention. Under the guise of settling long-standing labour disputes on behalf of aggrieved workers, groups of thugs led by the war veterans raided white-owned commercial businesses, including a department store, a private hospital, a private dental surgery, a safari company, restaurants and hotels. They also raided foreign development-aid charity organisations including a children’s orphanage and an old-age home. The war veterans assaulted and intimidated managers and executive officers of these organisations and extorted millions of dollars from them. Some managers were taken to the ZANU (PF) provincial headquarters where they were tortured and assaulted or threatened. By May 2001 about 300 businesses had been invaded. These businesses included subsidiaries of South African, Danish and other foreign companies. To begin with, the ruling party seems to have encouraged these actions. The government-controlled press applauded the intervention of the war veterans on behalf of the workers. In most instances the police refused to intervene to stop these unlawful actions and protect those affected. The local business community strongly condemned this wave of lawlessness, as did foreign governments, especially after foreign nationals, foreign-owned companies and foreign aid organisations were affected. In one instance, the war veterans manhandled the Canadian High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, who was trying to prevent war veterans from taking away a Canadian national who is the head of a Canadian funded aid organisation in Zimbabwe. Towards the end of April Dr Hunzvi threatened to attack foreign embassies and nongovernmental organisations that were funding and supporting the MDC. A local newspaper quoted him as saying: “Our next target ... will be to deal once and for all with foreign embassies and non-governmental organisations that are funding the