The ManicaPost
A LONG-standing acrimony between the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Progressive Teachers’ Association of Zimbabwe came to a boil at this week’s National Aids Council sensitisation workshop held at a local hotel when the former refused to enter the same conference with the latter.
The two-day workshop, which ran from Wednesday to Thursday, was meant to strengthen linkages and co-operation between the organisation and labour unions in the enhancement of the national response to HIV.
The reasons for the clashes were based on accusations and counter-accusation between the groups, a development which delayed the workshop for some hours as NAC officials tried to pour cold water on the melee.
ZCTU and ZFTU, who were represented by their respective presidents, Mr George Nkiwane and Mr Sithole, and their members as well as other labour groups, were in one conference room, while the other group that comprised the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Security Guards Union, United Allied Food and Allied Workers’ Union, among other groups, attended the workshop in another room.
It is alleged that ZCTU, ZFTU and their “sympathisers” allegedly tampered with the attendance register on Tuesday night.
“They allegedly removed some names of attendees from the list and replaced them with their “girlfriends’” and “bodyguards”.
Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe president Mr Takavafira Zhou described the melee as “poverty of leadership”.
He accused ZCTU and ZFTU of deleting their names from the attendance list and organisations which were invited for the workshop. He said quarrelling over who should attend to discuss a national issue was “madness” and “circus”.
“It is madness at its best and poverty of leadership at its worst. We were invited by NAC as representatives of various trade unions. Last night (on Tuesday) they deleted our names from the list of people who were booked at the hotel and replaced them with the names of their girlfriends and bodyguards.
“My name was also cancelled and we were stranded at the hotel until NAC intervened. A provided list was changed in a bid to frustrate us. NAC has been doing these sensitization workshops across the country and they managed to bring together different denominations, traditional healers as well as politicians from different political affiliations, but we as trade unions have failed to co-exist.
“This is sheer madness. NAC wanted leaders of organisations and probably their secretaries for administrative purposes, but ZCTU and other groups closed their offices and came with their girlfriends and guards because they want stipends. As unionists we stooped so low and failed to respect the general principles of those who invited us,” Mr Zhou said.
He added that their faction contributed significantly to National Aids Council because they defined the parameters of workers in Zimbabwe unlike ZCTU and ZFTU who just have big names.
NAC director of communication, Ms Madeline Dube, said the divisions had not inconvenienced them much although it delayed the commencement of the workshop which was supposed to start at around 9am. The event started at around 12 noon.
In a separate interview, ZCTU president Mr George Nkiwane defended their actions, saying it was unconstitutional for them to mix and mingle with PTUZ, among other related groups.
“We don’t work with them. They left our group. They approached the courts over various issues we could not agree on and so there was no way we could mix and mingle under the same roof. They are not part of us. Politically we don’t get along. Legally what we did was right,” said Mr Nkiwane.
