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The leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has since 1999 been abusing their positions to drag workers into opposition politics.
They have abused their positions to openly campaign for MDC in its various guises while denouncing Zanu-PF and the Government. Also, some office bearers in the ZCTU and its affiliates hold influential positions in MDC.
MDC Alliance leader, Mr Nelson Chamisa, fondly calls the ZCTU “our mother.” In saying this he, and many more in his party, will be referring to the birth of MDC in 1999.
Then, the top leadership of ZCTU simply moved over to establish the MDC – Morgan Tsvangirai who was ZCTU secretary general taking the position of MDC president while Gibson Sibanda who was ZCTU president was the founding vice-president of MDC.
The unholy alliance has subsisted up to now. ZCTU routinely invites MDC leaders to grace its high profile events, MDC doing the same in return.
The latest invite was given by the labour federation to Mr Chamisa that saw him addressing ZCTU-organised Workers’ Day commemorations in Harare early this month.
The MDC Alliance has invited ZCTU secretary general, Mr Japhet Moyo, to work as a commissioner at the party’s congress to be held in the next few weeks in Gweru.
Such an untidy state of affairs inevitably results in genuine labour issues being relegated to the sidelines in preference to political expediency. Genuine labour matters have been needlessly politicised while political matters are being made labour matters.
In doing this, leaders from both sides are taking it for granted that all ZCTU members and affiliates have no problem having their labour meetings being turned into opposition rallies. This is not always the case.
The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta), the single largest labour grouping of civil servants made this position clear on Sunday.
Mr Sifiso Ndlovu, Zimta chief executive officer, told our Harare Bureau that his union was unhappy that the ZCTU was making “major and fundamental decisions with financial implications” unilaterally without consulting affiliates.
“Zimta has been pursuing an ideology of non-partisan political activities,” he said.
“In our view it would be improper for a teacher who by heart and commitment does not believe in partisan politics to be dragged into opposition politics. The decision to pull out was made by our national executive meeting although it has not been formally communicated. We believe that any workers movement that becomes an appendage of a political movement will not survive. It becomes captured and an embodiment of that political party. We have a resolution that we will not divide the union on the basis of politics. The other issue is that of governance, lack of transparency in the governance of ZCTU. We cannot be part of an organisation in which we are not consulted when major decisions are being made.”
This is a principled stance by Zimta, one that should have been taken more than a decade ago as the prostitution of genuine labour matters for political expediency is as old as the MDC itself.
The decision draws a bold line between labour unionism and active politics. It sets Zimta as a representative body of professionals whose political views are not necessarily homogeneous.
The decision sends a strong message to the ZCTU leadership to desist from abusing their positions by taking the labour federation into active partisan politics.
The ZCTU leadership must stick to labour issues and renounce their association with opposition politics.
If that happens, as it should, workers would know that their workers’ representatives are indeed their representatives, not politicians masquerading as labour leaders.
If that happens employers would appreciate that when the ZCTU raises an issue on workers’ rights to a decent wage and give notice for a demonstration, for instance, they would know that they are dealing with trade union matters, not MDC Alliance campaign issues pretending to be labour issues.
If that happens, the Government would know that whatever ZCTU says it wants, it is not an echo of what MDC Alliance wants.
The Government would be motivated to deal with any such complaints with the understanding that they are genuine workers’ complaints.
It is a message to the MDC Alliance too that the party must not fool itself to believe that every worker is an opposition sympathiser simply because they are a worker who is a member of a workers’ body that is affiliated to the ZCTU.
We are confident that the views expressed by the Zimta leadership are not theirs alone.
There must be many other ZCTU affiliates who are uncomfortable with the close association between their federation and the MDC Alliance.
They may have lacked the courage to quit the ZCTU as Zimta has courageously done.
We encourage them to follow suit for they cannot endure the abuse they have suffered at the hands of the ZCTU forever.
Online Reporter