Clive Thabo Dube
ZIMBABWEAN workers sweat day and night, come month end all they get are crumbs for their sweat.
It is unfortunate that the declining prowess of labour unions such as Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) has driven Zimbabwean workers to form a politically motivated networks to represent workers in the country.
The ZCTU is the country’s mother body of workers unions that has been in the forefront of pushing for better conditions of work for what remains as the country’s work force. Slowly but surely the ZCTU is losing its bite.
The teeth have fallen off.
And this stance to fail represent workers interests of matters of the stomach is irking workers who have been subject to slaves by employers especially the government and their friends from the East, the Chinese.
With the country also in a midst of unprecedented socio- economic crisis worsening worker frustrations, with ever inflation eroded peanut salaries this does not help matters for the ZCTU.
Last year, workers around the country joined forces and formed a labour network under the banner Labour Caucus in Politics (LCP) to lead the fore front to maximize the working- class’ government and political participation. Actively participating politically is deemed to yield positive results and eventually see the wokers get high minimum wages.
LCP was initially launched this year and is a network of labour activists who are committed to the socio- economic and political emancipation of citizens through effective participation in mainstream politics.
Speaking to Zim GBC News National Coordinator, Mandla Sibanda said ZCTU has ‘some what lost its relevance’ and LCP is stepping in to be the mouthpiece for workers.
“What we realized is that the leadership of ZCTU, from the moment they came into power they expressly indicated that their stance is apolitical. Meaning they won’t delve in the politics of the country. Naturally when you are a trade union and you say that, you some what lose relevance because in a trade union people see individuals that will assist them politically. Because politics of the country is what affects the livelihood of citizens in general and the working class in particular.” He said.
The LCP National Coordinator stated that the newly formed network is going to promote political participation through mobilization and encouraging people through political action.
“As workers we are going to encourage the citizenry to register to vote, we are going to assist them. We are also going to participate by getting involved in the politics of the elections of the candidate’s. This will be done by encouraging our activists to contest for local governance, Senator and Member of Parliament positions for them to be inside policy formulating stages.” He added.
Sibanda stated that the voluntary organization is aligned with the newly formed opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
“We encourage the citizens to align themselves with the CCC formation because their manifesto we have seen is people centered and oriented, and pro poor. That is what they stand for.”
When one meant to represent citizen’s becomes politically inclined, they tend to solely focus on what benefits their political party. Mandla Sibanda, however discredited this notion stating the networks only gets ‘aligned’ and is not partisan.
“What we are saying basically, we are not partisan but we are political. What we are saying is that any political party that has policies that are favorable to the well being of the citizens and workers. We do not shy away from aligning with them. But we are not supporting any particular political party.” Said Sibanda.
Draconian laws such as the Maintenance of Order and Peace Act (MOPA), Labour Act and the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Bill has seen workers fail to fully express their constitutional rights of embarking on strikes. Labor Unions have also been strategically and systematically weakened by these laws.
The late former Prime Minister and founding leader of the opposition MDC Morgan Tsvangirai is termed the ‘father of labor unions’ due to his unwavering support to the worker’s. The late MDC leader represented workers and staged/ called for shutdowns to address grievances of workers without any fear of political intimidation. During his era, workers rallied behind the late PM and livelihoods of the laborers improved until 2008 hit.
After Tsvangirai we are yet to witness a character with such charisma.