Nkiwane set to step down

ZIMBABWE Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president, George Nkiwane, will step down at the labour organisation's three day conference which kicks off in Harare today.

Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union (ZIBAWU) president, Peter Mutasa, is said to be among the candidates jostling to succeed Nkiwane.

Mutasa is currently the ZCTU's third vice president.

A Special General Council will meet at the beginning of the conference to open nominations for positions.

Only eight affiliates will attend the conference as the other affiliates are not paid up.

ZCTU, the country's biggest labour movement, has a total of 36 affiliates.

Nkiwane, whose five-year term ended on August 31, 2016, withdrew from running for office following a deal between warring trade union factions following a High Court challenge against postponement of the ZCTU conference to next year.

It is thought he had wanted to seek a further term but had changed his mind.

Nkiwane told the Financial Gazette this week that he was not seeking re-election.

"I have had my time and I have served the institution very well as far as I am concerned. It's time for someone else to take over," Nkiwane said.

"I am leaving the position a very happy man. Zimbabwe must know that I am not running for another term. I am against this handiende (I won't go anywhere) culture," he added.

Nkiwane's executive had earlier postponed to June next year the holding of the ZCTU conference, arguing that some unions had not yet paid their affiliation fees.

It had been argued that the unions that were not paid up should be given time to do so to enable them to participate at the conference.

A ZCTU official said there was, however, no consensus within the executive, as some argued that if the affiliates that were not paid up had defaulted since 2009, there was no chance that they could raise their dues within a year.

"That decision was also supported by affiliates who were not paid up," a source said, indicating that this was the major reason why the decision had been consequently challenged by some affiliates.

Presently, only eight unions are fully subscribed to the ZCTU.

The affiliates which challenged the decision to postpone the conference were ZIBAWU, the National Energy Workers' Union and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Trade Union.

They were represented by Lovemore Madhuku, who filed their urgent chamber application at the High Court.

High Court Judge, Justice Lavender Makoni, advised the feuding parties to settle the matter out of court when it went for hearing on Monday last week.

The parties met the following day and agreed that the conference should proceed.

Nkiwane said he had played no role in the postponement of the conference, saying he was only acting on a request by unions who wanted more time to pay their dues.

"Unions came to me and requested that the general conference be postponed to allow them more time to find money to pay their subscriptions. It was on that basis that I called for an extraordinary general council meeting which made that resolution. So it was not a Nkiwane resolution," he said.

ZCTU secretary general, Japhet Moyo, confirmed that the conference will kick off today.

"It is going ahead, nothing has changed," he said.

When asked about who was contesting for which position, Moyo said: "Unfortunately, I do not know about that. The system is that there is a committee that is responsible for that. They do their work and we only come to know about that on the day of elections. We don't even know if those who are currently in their positions will be running."

Besides the position of president, ZCTU has many other electable positions such as three vice presidents and two deputy secretary generals.

Elections for the presidency will be held on Saturday.

The ZCTU, which gave birth to the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, is currently saddled with a debt amounting to US$1,4 million.

The debt is threatening to destroy the country's oldest trade union movement.