Online ReporterThe Herald
16 April 1986
AT LEAST nine shop managers at Fife Avenue Shopping Centre, Harare, refuse to allow their workers use of the same toilet as themselves and even go to the extent of forcing workers to walk two blocks away when the “workers” toilet is blocked.
Shop owners have their own keys to what is termed by most black workers as the “managers” toilet. More than 30 workers at the centre have to share one toilet which apparently was reserved for male employees before independence.
Almost all who have their own keys to the “managers” toilet are white while the staff not permitted to use the toilet are blacks. A Herald investigation yesterday found that blacks whether they hold top Jobs or lower jobs, have to make use of the only toilet that is available for “black” workers.
Several workers who have been at the centre before Independence told The Herald that the situation regarding toilets has never changed. “The other toilet is known around here as belonging to whites. If any employee attempts to ask for the keys that are kept by the managers, he is told that the toilet is a private one,” said an old worker at the centre.
The “managers” toilet is behind the shops and just a few metres away from it, stands the “workers” toilet. A bank employee said the “workers” toilet was not working for two days last week after its door handle had broken. “We asked the caretaker what to do since there was the other toilet.
He told us to use the Greenwood Park toilet which is a few blocks away from here.” He said both toilets were kept locked to prevent people not working at the centre from using them.
