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Government should address workers' issues
Zimbabwe National Students Union
April 30, 2013

The Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) would like to join the workers of Zimbabwe, many of whom are our mothers and fathers in celebrating this year’s Workers Day even though our country’s proletariat has little to celebrate due to a host of issues that the government of the day has failed to address.

As Zinasu we are fully aware that there is an inextricable link between the issues of students and the issues that affect workers due to two main reasons: most workers are parents of students and any hardships they face will adversely affect us, secondly, every student at some point in time will seek employment hence any disregard of the issues of the proletariat today by the government sets a precedence for disregard of the issues of tomorrow’s workers who are today’s students.

As such, Zinasu would like to take this year’s workers day as an opportunity to re-affirm its support to Zimbabwe’s labor movement and call upon the government of national unity to address the issues of workers with immediate effect.

Zinasu is cognizant of the fact that the major highlights of the tenure of the government of national unity have been costly foreign trips by government officials with monolithic delegations that have gobbled millions of dollars and the purchasing of expensive top of the range vehicles for ministers that has equally resulted in a huge strain on the national purse.

Zinasu is further aware that GNU officials are set to afford themselves a ‘last supper’ in the form of exit packages which comprise of stands, houses and more vehicles as has been published in the media recently.

Given this background of avaricious gormandizing of national resources by an elite few whilst workers and jobless citizens are suffering, Zinasu would like to in the strongest of terms chastise and admonish any government official who has ever enjoyed any wealth both ill-gotten or given to him/her by the government under circumstances in which any morally upright individual was supposed to disagree with.

Zinasu salutes Coltart for refusing to take a car offered to him in 2011 by a government with misplaced priorities. He shall go down in the history of our country as the only government official of his time who put the needs of the people before his own.

Lastly, Zinasu would like to acknowledge the role played by the workers movement in fighting for a better Zimbabwe through mass action since Independence.

Without taking anything away from the efforts being carried out by the bodies that represent workers today, particularly the ZCTU and the concerned affiliates of ZCTU, Zinasu strongly feels that a united labor front would be much more effective than the current fragmented set up.

Zinasu urges the two bodies of ZCTU to bury the hatchet and exorcise the ugly demon called factionalism form among their midst. As Zinasu, we went through a difficult period in which our Union was split into two as a result of various factors but we managed to sit together and came up with one union with one voice.

If we, who are of much younger age and of much lesser experience in solving issues could manage to swallow our prides and come together for the good of our union, why should you who are of much older age and wiser minds fail to come together not only for the good of your organization but for the betterment of Zimbabwe which depends on your leadership as the biggest mobilizing agent of citizens in the fight for a better Zimbabwe.

History has proven to us that when the students’ movement and a united labor movement come together they form a formidable force. Let us unite and force the government of the day to address out issues.

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