ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the case study results in Zambia under the erstwhile Kaunda Administration, and in Tanzania and Zimbabwe where statutory and legal forms of participation are still operational. The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) requested African Workers Participation Development Programme (APADEP) to make an exploratory evaluation of experience with industrial participatory democracy in Zambia, assessing the possible effectiveness and meaningfulness of the works councils, and analysing more closely the relationship between the councils and existing trade union structures. An overall impression left by the case studies on statutory workplace participation in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania is that a number of matters dealt with in the participation schemes were meaningful for the workers, who often put these matters on the agenda themselves. In Zimbabwe it was the employer who provided education and training, sometimes an apparently useful training in meeting skills, sometimes a brainwash in a company participation philosophy with ultimate public relations aims.
