Rutendo Jiri
The MDC Alliance is reportedly spearheading a campaign to use trade unions to resist Government policies.
Since the election defeat in 2018, the Nelson Chamisa led MDC Alliance has faced growing urban unpopularity as most citizens have come to the realisation that the Second Republic led by President, Emmerson Mnangagwa is engaging in massive urban and rural development countrywide.
The MDC Alliance is seeking to manipulate the current salary negotiations impasse between Government and Apex Council as it seeks to push trade unions sympathetic to the opposition to engage in ridiculous salary demands which Government is not in a position to meet under current economic conditions prevailing in the country.
The Alliance is seeking to rekindle the relationship that the founder of the MDC-T, Morgan Tsvangirai, used to ride on in his days as a trade unionist under the banner of the Zimbabwe Congress OF Trade Unions (ZCTU).
This move will see various trade unions including the Progressive Teachers Unions of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZNA), The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) and the Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union (ZPNU) continue to lobby Government with unrealistic salary and working conditions in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For instance PTUZ and ARTUZ have since 2018 stalled salary negotiations as they have remained adamant that Government should pay teachers USD$520.00 which they used to earn in April that year.
This has seen various attempts by Government to address civil servant grievances met with resistance from the various trade unions representing workers.
Since the coming in of the Second Republic, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has provided periodic Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) and Covid-19 allowances to cushion civil servants from the rising cost of living.
At large, Government has continued to address transport challenges, and has since revived the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) which has seen kombis charging ZW$60 while buses charge ZW$40, a downward review from previously hiked charges of ZW$60 and ZW$80 respectively.
In a bid to further assist civil servants, Government seeded ZW$100 million into very low interest loan scheme under the Government Employees Mutual Savings Scheme (GEM) which would see civil servants successfully apply for loans of up to ZW$100 000.
Combined with rapid rural and urban infrastructure development, the Second Republic has made life easier for majority Zimbabweans even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, moves which have made the MDC Alliance more unpopular.
In the face of these positive developments, the MDC Alliance has however chosen to continue in its destructive path using trade unions sympathetic to their cause to reject Government proposals and continue pushing for unrealistic salary and working conditions.
Recently the ZNA and the ZNPU came out criticising Government, after the gazetting of an amendment to the Health Services Act which would, among other things, ban nurses and doctors from embarking on industrial action for more than three days.
ZNA Secretary, Enoch Dongo, in an interview with ZimLive, accused Government of making the conditions of health workers more difficult by crafting what he termed ‘oppressive laws.’
“It’s nonsense at it’s highest level,” Zimbabwe Nurses Association secretary Enoch Dongo told ZimLive. “Instead of improving health workers’ conditions of service, they are busy crafting oppressive laws. It’s a sign of failure by the health ministry,” said Dongo.
In solidarity with the ZNA Secretary, the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association took to twitter to denounce Government’s recent amendment to the Health Services Act and implored Government to find other avenues to address the grievances of health services workers.
“In light of these events, the ZHDA would like to remind the responsible authorities of its zero tolerance to threats targeting its members,” said ZHDA.
The continued resistance to Government policies targeting the health and other sectors by trade unions and other worker representing bodies should be seen as a well thought strategy supported by the opposition MDC Alliance which is seeking to destabilise the country.
The MDC Alliance would be hoping that conditions in the country’s services sector (education and health) continue to deteriorate so that they can eventually whip citizens to engage in public demonstrations and various acts of disobedience.
