By Dr Takavafira Zhou
Harare (News of The South) – As Teacher Unions informed by our incapacitated members, we agreed that as much as we may differ in terms of ideological pursuasion, we either had to pursue a common goal of capacitating teachers and guaranteeing their health and safety in schools or else perish as fools.
It is within this framework that we have been belting joint communiques be it to line Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Public Service Commission, parliamentarians and our latest communique to the President of Zimbabwe. I am, therefore, one person who spent the whole of yesterday defending my brothers and sisters in Zimta that there is no way they could be nichodemously meeting the President in the absence of other unions. Not that it is a crime to do so, but that it did not resonate with the mood of the moment and a common sense revolution that was thawing in teacher trade unionism.
I am one person who was shocked to read a confirmation circular from Zimta that they met President Mnangagwa. I am certainly not a Zimta member and may not therefore be privy to the wisdom of Zimta members in taking this unilateralism. But if inference from a circular from Zimta is anything to go by, its because they are the largest teacher union and many hitherto free riders have been joining them. My humble submission to colleagues in Zimta is that our current incapacitation struggle is not about how big a union is, but unity in diversity and collective decisions to guarantee maximum gains and minimum losses.
At any rate what matters in a fight is not the size of the dog but the size of the fight.* In our United Front we combine both size and agility. It is this combination that had neutralised threats. After realising that threats would not work, including Hon Matema’s so called *gap filling where there are no gaps, the gvt had moved a gear up to try to riddle our rare collective unity.
My humble submission to Zimta is that two heads are better than one even if the other one is silly. Wisdom is like a baobab tree no single person can embrace it. The best foot forward is our United Front and its not too late to revert to it for the cause of our incapacitated members.
To incapacitated teachers this is no time for balkanisation. This is time for unity of purpose in order to restore the purchasing power of our eroded salaries. Lets amplify our clarion call for US$520-US$550.* Lets create an ionic bonding across the union divide and whip union leaders to walk our talk and talk our walk. Its a question of life and death. There are no different shops for any union members and neither can gvt pay better salaries for certain members of a union. All teachers are fundamentally incapacitated irrespective of unions they belong to. It is union members that must give their respective union leaders a genuine mandate to pursue. Such a mandate must at this historical juncture promote unity of action across teacher union divide if ever we are to be taken serious by our gvt. All level headed teachers must have realised how threats from ministry officials have been rendered useless or evaporated like a morning dew.
To Hon Matema teachers are incapacitated. No amount of monitoring can change this reality. The best you can do is to listen to the voices of incapacitated teachers and stop belting threats that have no traction. Its never too late to change course.
Our message to Public Service is that we are sick and tired of *facade of lies over non existent negotiations. We do not recognise the surrogate Apex Council but the United Front of Teacher Unions.
To the President, Mnangagwa, our expectation from a responsible leader at a time of crisis in the education system is to pull everyone together rather than playing one union against others. There is danger of gvt role slipping into a form of state paternalism instead of pursuit of fair labour practice if gvt cherry picks who to talk to at a time of great incapacitation of teachers across the union divide. We also hope your respected office would not entrench within the African proverb that when a leopard wanted to eat its young ones, it first accused them of smelling like a goat. Our commitnent to dialogue as expressed in the United Front of Teachers’ petition still holds. We cannot tell you what to do but as President, we can only hope you will act responsibly.
The incapacitation struggle continues unabated. Its duration would be determined by gvt’s ability to intervene and end starvation wages, let alone guarantee health and safety of teachers and pupils.
Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)
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