Eric Manzi

Eric Mwezi Manzi was elected Deputy General Secretary of the ITUC at its Fifth World Congress in Melbourne, Australia, November 2022. From 2020, he was Deputy Secretary General of ITUC Africa.

Eric is Rwandan, was born in DR Congo and began his working life in 1992 as a maintenance engineer. It was here that he also became involved in trade union activity.

In 2001 he was elected Secretary General of CESTRAR (Rwanda Workers’ Trade Union Confederation). He served in this role until 2019, having been re-elected three times and was also responsible for workers’ education.

During his time as General Secretary, Eric was also the worker representative on the board for the National Social Security Fund and Vice-President of the National Labour Council. He also founded the Civil Society Coalition with NGOs to monitor the implementation of development policies and to observe elections.

In 2016, Eric co-chaired the 105th International Labour Conference of the ILO as Worker Vice-President and was President of the East African Sub-Regional Trade Union Organisation (EATUC.), 2017-2019