Original Research - Special Collection: Zimbabwean Scholars in Dialogue

The labour alienation of civil servants in Zimbabwe: Towards an ubuntu spirituality of work

Blazio M. Manobo
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 80, No 2 | a8986 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v80i2.8986 | © 2024 Blazio M. Manobo | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 15 May 2023 | Published: 09 February 2024

About the author(s)

Blazio M. Manobo, Department of Systematic Theology, Faculty of Theology, Ethics, Religion and Philosophy, Catholic University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, South Africa

Abstract

The alienation of labour is both classical and contemporary. In its classical form, it speaks to the potential dehumanisation of workers in capitalist societies. In its contemporary form, it manifests itself in the disenfranchisement of the individual because of changes in organised global workplaces. Over the years, Africa’s labour transition from traditional spirituality to contemporary organised global workplaces has fuelled new forms of public labour alienation. Civil servants, in some African countries, experience labour alienation reminiscent of work under capitalism. This is in contradiction to the pre-colonial and traditional view of work as a vocation. Zimbabwe is undergoing negative economic, social, and political growth that has resulted in the alienation of civil servants. The government reneges on its public role of providing space for individual growth and well-being in preference for ‘public capitalism’ and cultural alienation. The potential for an effective public service lies in changing the work culture.

Contribution: This article interrogates the impacts of the work culture within the public service in Zimbabwe in an attempt to proffer a return to the African traditional spirituality of work that was founded on the principles of ubuntu. It recognises the traditional symbiotic relationship between being and doing among the indigenous African communities as the panacea for the continent’s human capital development.


Keywords

alienation of labour; African spirituality of work; African traditional work culture; African theology of work; ubuntu

Sustainable Development Goal

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

Metrics

Total abstract views: 836
Total article views: 962


Crossref Citations

No related citations found.