ZCTU questions Tsvangirai why he entered into pact with Mujuru

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the country’s largest labour body which also gave birth to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has questioned MDC-T leader why he entered into an alliance with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.

Tsvangirai signed memoranda of agreement with Mujuru who now leads the National People’s Party and Welshman Ncube who leads a smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change last month but said he said he was not at liberty to talk about the agreements.

“As things stand, we are not at liberty to talk about specific MOU issues but to comment generally on the process and the output,” Tsvangirai spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said.

“Discussions are still on-going both with current and potential partners in the form of political parties and other key networks such as churches, war veterans, students and other stakeholders.

“Suffice to say that the parties that have signed the MOU are at substantive stages of negotiations and once a full agreement is hammered out, a public announcement will be made.”

According to Anadolu Agency ZCTU Secretary-general Japhet Moyo yesterday asked Tsvangirai “why they entered into that coalition” with Mujuru.

“In the ZCTU we have no permanent friends or enemies but permanent interests," Moyo said.

Moyo warned the MDC-T just before the 2013 elections that the party would lose because it had abandoned its core constituency, the workers.

He warned then Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who was also the party’s secretary general that it was the people that voted not investors, clearly indicating that workers’ interests came first.

“Let me be very clear Cde Tendai Biti, mind your language when you are in government because hausati wavakutonga. Ndizvo ka? Be very careful of what you say. You are destroying the party uchiti urikupliza ma investors. Vanhu vanovhota are the poor, not the investor. Mind your language Mr Biti. How do we defend an MDC minister? At least you dialogue with workers.”

Moyo also warned then Public Service Minister Lucia Matibenga, another high-ranking MDC-T member, : “Mai Matibenga, kuma civil servants uko. Talk to those people. Please, please, please! You put us in a difficult and awkward situation to justify the close links that we have colleagues. Ndizvo ka?”

The MDC-T lost the elections dismally but blamed the loss on rigging.

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