Showdown looms at ZCTU

The decision to displace the George Nkiwane-led faction from Chester House was agreed on at the faction’s two-day congress in Bulawayo at the weekend.
Mr Nkiwane was elected ZCTU president  in the disputed August election, while Mr Matombo was the incumbent going into that elective congress, which was held in Bulawayo.
“A new executive has been elected and it will rightfully occupy the offices with immediate effect,” said the faction’s secretary-general, Mr Raymond Majongwe.

He said they were the legitimate body and the Nkiwane faction was operating outside the ZCTU’s constitution.
“As far as we are concerned, we are the legitimate union and we want the workers to be the judges of that,” said Mr Majongwe.
He said the Nkiwane group was demonising them by labelling them as Zanu-PF.

“They want to make us look bad in the  eyes of the workers, but we are going to prove ourselves at the end of the day,” said Mr Majongwe.

Mr Matombo was “reelected as the union’s president” while Mr Majongwe was voted secretary-general and Mr James Gumbi will deputise him.
On Friday, the leaders of the Matombo faction were briefly detained for defying a High Court ruling barring them from holding a congress in Bulawayo.

Harare High Court judge Justice Francis Bere had handed an order barring the holding of the congress.
Messrs Matombo, Majongwe and Gumbi were taken for questioning at the Bulawayo Central Police Station.
They were picked at Cecil Hotel, which was the venue of their congress held under the theme “Beyond electoral fraud, restoring workers’ rights and dignity”.

Justice Hlatshwayo had asked the two camps                 to meet and reconcile and when they failed to agree, he recused himself from presiding over the case.
Mr Nkiwane could not be reached for comment yesterday.

However, his executive has maintained that it is the legitimate executive after having been elected at the last congress while the Matombo faction has always insisted that the congress should be declared null and void arguing that it was not properly constituted.