Tsvangirai: A Kettle Calling a Pot Black
25 February 2015
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Tafara Shumba
Mr Tsvangirai’s response to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor’s recent monetary policy statement exposes the despicable level of the former’s outrageous duplicity and dearth of economic intelligence.
Among other criticisms laid on the monetary policy statement is the freezing of workers’ salaries.  Because of this particular measure, Mr Tsvangirai viewed the complete monetary policy as an anti-worker document that unnecessarily put undue emphasis on wages as the chief cost driver exclusive of other drivers of inflation such as corruption, public utilities and profiteering, among others.”
As someone who touted himself as a redeemer of the workers, Mr Tsvangirai thought he was obliged to speak the way he did, more so at a time when the poor working class has severed relations with him and his party. The statement was, however, at his expense as it laid him open to ridicule.
While what he said, on wage freeze, tastes sweet in the mouth of the gullible, Mr Tsvangirai and his party are the least qualified to behave like a knight in shining armour. The four-year stint they were in government, with public service portfolios in their charge, exposed their pretence of advancing the working class agenda.
Having laid into the monetary policy, the big question that begs for an answer is whether Mr Tsvangirai and his party are in any way clean of the charges he levelled against the RBZ Governor.
The MDC-T came into existence riding on the economic down turn occasioned by the Western economic prescriptions such as the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). The MDC, whose founders were predominantly trade unionists, took advantage of the restive working class whose salaries and working conditions were increasingly deteriorating.
Workers believed then, that the MDC would become their long awaited Messiah. Mr Tsvangirai promised workers a heaven on earth. Even at his inauguration as the Prime Minister, Mr Tsvangirai reiterated that the issue of civil servants’ welfare was upper most on his priority list.
“If we are to successfully address our nation’s humanitarian crisis, we must first address the urgent plight of our civil servants,” said Mr Tsvangirai, a few hours after his inauguration.
MDC-T joined Zanu PF in government in 2009 and got the privilege of controlling the ministries that could have enabled them to offer the heaven on earth they generously promised workers. Nevertheless, the conditions of service for civil servants continued to take a nosedive. The plight of public workers remained unaddressed, with the MDC-T finance minister, Tendai Biti going to an extent of freezing their paltry salaries.
“Given the lack of fiscal space, the government will maintain a cap on the current wage level whilst attending to other revenue enhancing measures,” declared Biti. At one time, Biti even challenged the civil servants to give him stones so that he could squeeze out money for their salary increment. As if that was not enough, Biti even refused to pay the civil servants who had participated in the census programme.
The real reason for freezing civil servants’ salaries was that the MDC-T wanted to please the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2011, an IMF team came to Zimbabwe for annual consultations with the government and it dictated that the government must not entertain public sector wage demands to avoid stoking inflation.
Tsvangirai himself once scoffed at the civil servants’ demand for a pay rise. The civil servants unions had engaged him over the issue with anticipation of a favourable outcome since he had personally promised them.
 “He (Tsvangirai) was not clear as to what government was doing or intend to do to solve our problems. In fact, he told us that he is not government that puts food on the table for civil servants. He told us that we were expecting too much and for us to get anything soon was daydreaming,” said Manuel Nyawo, one of the leaders of the civil servants who had met Mr Tsvangirai.
Civil servants were told that they were daydreaming just because they had asked for a pay that is above PDL.
The former president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union, Lovemore Matombo accused the MDC-T, at its third national congress in Bulawayo in 2011, of shunning the principles that led to the formation of the party in 1999.
“I also want to remind the MDC-T that the founding principals made some recommendations to the party, go back to the founding document, it defines precisely the purpose for which the Movement for Democratic Change was founded,” Matombo said.
Lucia Matibenga, the then MDC-T minister of Public Service, even refused to meet civil servants for discussions over salaries and working conditions. Ironically, she is a former trade unionist herself who should understand the plight of the workers better.
ZCTU secretary general, Japhet Moyo had to warn Matibenga during the launch of the MDC-T’s policy conference in 2013, that her indifference to the plight of government workers puts them in a difficult and awkward situation to justify their close link.
The MDC-T abandoned workers as they pursued personal aggrandisement. MDC-T councillors and ministers amassed obscene wealth while workers wallowed in abject penury. They bought mansions and fleet of cars instead of opening industries.
Moyo also fired a salvo at the MDC-T for being ant-workers. He berated Biti for his reckless utterances to civil servants. This was in reference to an incident in which Biti had challenged the leaders of the civil servants to follow him to the toilet and see for themselves if he could defecate money.
“While we respect the MDC-T’s independence, they should look back and reflect on our founding values that the party was to advance the working class agenda, but going by what happened in the last five years, one can see they had veered off course,” said Moyo
Mr Tsvangirai himself admitted this at that policy Indaba. “Sometimes we are all pre-occupied with what is wrong but we do not spend time to provide what is right,” said Mr Tsvangirai.
Indeed Mr Tsvangirai and his lieutenants were pre-occupied with the fight for their individual opulence. As prime minister, Mr Tsvangirai engaged in profligacy. He was linked to several women, some of whom he married for a fortune.
He celebrated birthdays in foreign hotels at a cost of over US$5 000 per night. The leader of the labour backed party swam in the seas of luxury while the workers, which he used as a ladder to climb to prominence, reeled in abject poverty.
The MDC-T betrayed the hopes and aspirations of workers. It is, therefore, too early for the workers to forget the abandonment they endured at the hands of the so-called labour backed party.
Today, Mr Tsvangirai has the temerity to brand the RBZ monetary policy ant-worker. It is the case of a pot calling the kettle black. Which of their policies were ever pro-workers?
Mr Tsvangirai came up with the Agenda for Real Transformation that was a real threat to workers as it was pro-capital. Among other tenets, the policy sought to deregulate the labour sector, a measure that would make the dismissal of employees easier.
Mr Tsvangirai and his party spoke loudly against the employee ownership trusts, which are part of the indigenisation and economic empowerment policy of the Zanu PF government. For instance, Elton Mangoma, Tsvangirai’s Energy minister then, refused to sign an accord between energy workers and their employers.
He also frustrated the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant, rendering over 4 000 workers jobless. Even their disastrous JUICE that was supposed to create one million jobs, never created a single job. Instead, the likes of Mangoma approved retrenchment at ZESA and Biti froze jobs in the civil service.
Even the sanctions that Mr Tsvangirai called for, impinged on the workers more than on the so-called targeted individuals.
The MDC-T is even the worst employer itself. Its workers go for months without salaries. It dismisses workers willy-nilly without charge and those who are retrenched go without severance packages.
A former researcher with the party, Douglas Munakira, former director general, Toendepi Shonhe and many others, had to engage a lawyer after being unfairly dismissed.
With this tainted record of labour malpractices, one wonders if Mr Tsvangirai and his party are pro-workers, as they want the world to believe. Furthermore, one wonders where Mr Tsvangirai gets the courage to lay into the RBZ monetary policy statement when he and his party are even guiltier of the same charge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 Replies to “Tsvangirai: A Kettle Calling a Pot Black”

  1. You are barking the wrong tree. Venting your bile on Mt wont solve Zim’s problems. It must be appreciated that Tsvangirai did his part, his position as premier did not amount to votes, parliament or president of the nation. he just made things a bit easy for everyone to take a breather and reflect on who has the people at heart, ZANU or MDC. in 2013, apparently people thought ZANU has! Its not like Tsvangirai didnt want changes, everyone knows the battle MDC had while in Govt. Everyone knows how Ncube and Mutambara played king maker and foiled MDC’s outright 2/3 majority!
    Yet myopic ndividuals dont consider all that, its all Tsvangirai’s fault, even if Mugabe lets out the air, its Tsvangirai’s fault!
    You are abusing the power of the pen, mr Shumba.

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