Response to Raymond Majongwe's scorn and vitriol towards ZCTU

In an extraordinary development of events, ZCTU issued a Press Statement in response to what Raymond Majongwe's comments which appeared in the Daily News of 13 June 2011.

ZCTU advised Majongwe that in trade unionism we are comrades and brothers and definitely need each other

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is taken aback by Raymond Majongwe’s scorn and vitriol towards the ZCTU published in the Daily News of 13 June 2011 said the statement.

First and foremost, it has never been a culture in ZCTU for leaders to campaign for positions and to denounce each other in the press. It is our firm belief that members on the shop floor know what they want and know who is capable of delivering. Majongwe’s claims that  “the current leaders running the ZCTU have over stayed and are running out of ideas on how to administer the labour movement “ are tantamount to cheap campaign posturing.  Majongwe being a ZCTU General Council member is fully aware that the ZCTU has held its congresses after every five years according to the dictates of the organisation’s constitution. It is therefore deliberate misrepresentation on Majongwe’s part to say that the current leadership has overstayed. The ZCTU leadership serve at the pleasure of the congress.

For Majongwe to also claim that the leaders have run out of ideas is more like pointing a finger at himself because by virtue of him being a General Council member, Majongwe is in fact in the leadership of the ZCTU. Decisions at ZCTU are by popular vote or support. Whilst Majongwe’s statements can be attributed to ignorance and school boy excitement due to the interest of running for the post of the Secretary General, we view the statements as reckless and irresponsible.

In the article he further alludes to the fact that he has been labelled a member of the CIO, to us this is news and insightful as we have never heard the claims before. What Majongwe omits to mention however, is his public and zealous involvement in the COPAC exercise. He omits to mention how he ditched ZCTU in favour of COPAC only to quit towards the ZCTU Congress. Our members on the shop floor are not blind to such shenanigans. We think Majongwe should have been wise enough to maybe say what he is going to do differently than attacking the incumbent leadership.

Just a word of advice to Majongwe - in trade unionism comradeship and brotherhood are our watch words because we need each other.

The statement was issued by Japhet Moyo who is the Acting Secretary General of the ZCTU.

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