SCHOOL exams in Zimbabwe should be cancelled because strike action by teachers has left pupils unprepared, a teaching union said on Tuesday.
‘For the record, there was no meaningful learning and teaching in 2008 and all examination classes are not prepared,’ Takavafira Zhou, leader of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), told journalists.
‘Teachers went on strike when classes began in January, demanding pay increases and better working conditions.
‘The strike was briefly suspended following a deal with the government but nearly two months ago the teachers embarked on an indefinite strike.
‘Due to massive inflation teachers have seen their salary shrink to a pittance.’
High school pupils were due to take their final examinations at the beginning of October but have not yet been informed whether they will go ahead.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been on a downturn for a decade with high inflation and unemployment. At least 80% of the population lives in poverty.
The state-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday reported that some teachers were demanding payment in groceries and cash from parents and pupils.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe trade unions regard the new government as like a union between a donkey and a horse.
So it was back to basics for MDC President and Zimbabwe Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai when he was subjected to intense interrogation by members of the ZCTU General Council who had wanted to get it from the horse’s mouth on why he had agreed to sign a political settlement deal with Zanu PF.
For more than an hour and a half, members of the General Council had time to seek clarification on a number of issues, including the deliberate omission of Zimbabwe’s nagging political issues such as the Gukurahundi massacres, Operation Murambatsvina and the post election violence after the March 29 Harmonised elections which Zanu PF convincingly lost to Tsvangirai’s MDC.
According to sources who were in the meeting, Tsvangirai is said to have been surprised that ZCTU was concerned that issues of tripartism had been relegated to a sectoral level with political parties playing a leading role.
In the past, tripartism has always played a pivotal role in issues of governance but of late the government has always tried to impose itself on both labour and business, co-partners in the Tripartite Negotiating Forum.
Other issues which were raised by labour included the deal’s deafening silence on the Gukurahundi massacres in which the government butchered more than 20000 unarmed and defenceless civilians for allegedly supporting the then opposition Zapu.
Members of the General Council also wanted to know why Tsvangirai had not listened to their reasoning not to sign the deal as it was highly tilted against the MDC.
In his response, Tsvangirai is said to have told the General Council that MDC as a political party had decided to go into an agreement with Zanu PF as a compromise.
‘Yes the document is not the best we can deliver to the people of Zimbabwe. It was a compromise document where we had to forgo a number of our demands for the sake of settling the political impasse,’ Tsvangirai is said to have told the General Council.
After the deliberations, the two sides agreed to disagree on the deal, with ZCTU insisting that the deal was not reflective of the wishes of the people.
The ZCTU also told Tsvangirai that it would consider the government as a temporary stop-gap measure which would ultimately lead the country into free and fair elections whose outcome would be acceptable to all Zimbabweans and the international community.
Speaking after the meeting, Tsvangirai said issues which were raised by ZCTU were genuine, but the MDC had to go into the deal to correct the imbalances and create a free and fair environment which would result in a free and fair poll.
‘We are mindful and fully aware that most of our members are drawn from the ZCTU structures.
‘MDC was formed on the foundations of labour principles but now it has become a broad church.
‘We have said to the General Council that we will go and deliberate on the concerns raised,’ said Tsvangirai, adding that Zimbabweans should be assured that he had not lost the principles of labour which had nurtured him over the years.
His parting shot was, ‘Zimbabweans should not lose hope as their party, the MDC promises to deliver and make the deal work.’
Whether Tsvangirai’s promise should be put to the test by the millions of suffering Zimbabweans who have had to endure more than 12 years of continued economic decline, is anything to go by, time will tell.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), has meanwhile set itself on a collision course with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after reiterating its condemnation of the power-sharing agreement signed last month.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who spearheaded the formation of the opposition party during his leadership of the militant labour union signed an agreement with ZANU PF leader Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a rebel faction of the MDC, last month to form a power-sharing government.
Under the deal, which is currently deadlocked over the equitable allocation of ministerial portfolios Mugabe remains president but will relinquish some of his powers to Tsvangirai who becomes prime minister while Mutambara, who heads the breakaway faction of the MDC, will be appointed deputy prime minister.
But the ZCTU, which was influential in the formation of the MDC in the late nineties and which last week labelled the power sharing deal an elitist pact at the weekend, accused the MDC of over-exposing itself to Mugabe and warned that the agreement was meaningless to Zimbabwean workers.
‘The MDC will soon realise that they played into the hands of dictatorship and what they signed was meaningless.
‘The ZCTU reminds Zimbabweans that we should not make the same mistakes we made in 1980 when independence euphoria clouded our minds and ZANU PF took advantage of that to disempower people.
The same has happened during the current deal between the MDC and ZANU PF,’ read part of the ZCTU statement.
Although the ZCTU’s statement was not clear on what action the labour federation will take, it came short of announcing the end of its alliance with the MDC.
‘The ZCTU General Council decision was made with a sober mind. It was a painful but true reflection of what the deal is all about. We have an obligation to tell our members the truth. As we wait for the deal to unfold, we hope to be proved wrong,’ said the ZCTU.