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Tafara Shumba Correspondent
Professor Tom Morris, a legendary public philosopher and Chairman of the Morris Institute of Human Values, once defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

“Sometimes doing the same thing a second time when it hasn’t worked the first time is indeed just foolish,” said Prof Morris, whose prophetic definition is apposite to some terrible twin organisations in Zimbabwe.

For those who are in the dark, it emerged this week that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), are jointly mooting plans to stage street demonstrations on April 11, to protest against the perceived economic meltdown.

Sources said preparations for the demonstrations were at an advanced stage with several T-shirts already printed by the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) in Belgravia.

The International Labour Organisation will bankroll the demonstrations through its Africa Solidarity Fund, it was further revealed.

However, sources said disagreements over the modalities of the demonstrations could mar them. The MDC-T and ZCTU are reportedly in a tug of war as they scramble to take charge of the demos.

Former ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe, who is now with the ILO, is said to have directed that the labour union must be on the steering wheel while MDC-T mobilises and provides supporters to partake in the demos.

Japhet Moyo, the union’s incumbent secretary-general, is believed to be amenable to that directive.

On the other hand, ZCTU first deputy secretary-general, Gideon Shoko, wants the MDC-T to take charge of the demos.

ZCTU and MDC-T have been holding numerous demonstrations from the time they tasted the white man’s money.

Nevertheless, these demonstrations have yielded nothing. Even the erstwhile sponsors of these demonstrations have since withheld their money, for they realised that they were pouring it into a bottomless pit.

It will be utmost insanity for these former benefactors to re-invest their money in a venture that has not been paying dividends since 1999.

It’s public knowledge that the terrible twins are stone broke.

Insiders said ZCTU was no longer able to pay rentals for its Chester House offices until the Southern Clothing and Textiles Workers Union of South Africa came to their rescue through the influence of Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

These demonstrations are, therefore, designed to seek relevance that can attract funding.

While they should be applauded for this cunning plot, which the gullible ILO swallowed hook, line and sinker, the MDC-T and ZCTU must be reminded that using that threadbare scheme will only save to qualify them into Professor Morris’ definition of insanity.

They have unsuccessfully tried demonstrations for the umpteen times.

They fail to accept the painful truth that demos do not work in the Zimbabwean context. People are tired of partaking in demonstrations that are tailor-made for personal aggrandisement of the main actors of ZCTU and MDC-T.

The landslide victory of zanu-pf in the 2013 polls is a testimony that people know the source of their misery. They know who called for the sanctions that have caused job losses and the general economic decline.

In a public debate hosted by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) March 26, 2015 at Holiday Inn, the youths bluntly objected to the speakers’ calls for the youths to take to the streets and express their anger physically.

Instead, the youths demanded the opposition to proffer alternatives that can take this country out of the economic quagmire occasioned by the sanctions.

Jacob Mafume, Godfrey Kanyenze and Webster Chinyanza from MDC-Renewal, LEDRIZ and MDC-T respectively, had attempted to incite youths to demonstrate.

Their speeches were in resonance with the planned demonstrations.

They said the youths must rise and “demonstrate towards the source of the problem.” They also told the youths that the social media had made it easier for them to rise and claim their space the Arab Spring way.

These clueless and egotistical politicians only want to use the youths as political pawns. These politicians, some of whom mask themselves behind trade unionism, only seek to make capital for themselves out of the demos.

They were in the inclusive Government from 2009 to 2013 where they did nothing for the electorate that invested its votes in them despite that they controlled ministries that could have provided them with the opportunity to fulfil their electoral pledges.

They had promised one million jobs in their Jobs, Upliftment, Investment Capital and Employment (JUICE). Not even a single job was created by the MDC-T.

According to the Brenthurst Foundation survey, there were 350 manufacturing enterprises in Bulawayo employing 100 000 workers before the inclusive Government. As of 2012, when industry was now under the MDCs, the companies were reduced to 250 with a workforce of 50 000.

As of 2012, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries had only 50 paying corporate members where it once enjoyed 700 when zanu-pf was in power alone.

The ZCTU never demonstrated against the MDC-T despite the later’s actions that were at cross-purpose with labour. The MDC-T even went to an extent of snubbing civil servants who wanted a dialogue over their working conditions. Tsvangirai had promised to improve their salaries and working conditions before he entered the inclusive Government.

When they got into the inclusive Government, Tsvangirai and his lieutenants slept. They focused on personal enrichment and forgot about their electoral promises.

Moyo himself fired a salvo at the MDC-T during its policy conference in 2013, for shunning the founding values that gave the party a mandate to advance the working class agenda. Moyo just ended at that mild berating but never talked of demonstrations.

He knew he would not get the funding for the demos as the MDC-T and ZCTU drew it from the same source. Thus, the demos are not about the workers’ plight as ZCTU wants the world to believe. It is just a Madhuku way of getting funds.

Ironically, just 18 months after zanu-pf promised 2,2 million jobs under Zim-Asset, the MDC-T and its political allies are already demanding them. Miracles are only found in the Bible. You cannot plant a tree and expect its fruits on the same day. The zanu-pf Government is doing a lot to make this economy work again.

Tsvangirai and friends must wake up and see the mega deals that progressive nations such as China and Russia have signed with Zimbabwe. He must also look at the business delegations coming from his erstwhile sponsors. These business delegations have shown their intent to invest in the country and these deals will provide the much-needed employment.

In fact, the MDC-T and its allies must undergo an eye operation so that they can see what the zanu-pf Government is doing to empower people through its indigenisation and economic empowerment policies. The informal and farming sectors have empowered many citizens.

zanu-pf’s thrust is to empower citizens rather than create an employee. Unfortunately, the only employment that the MDC-T and ZCTU know is the one offered by a white man.

MDC-T and its allies only want to veer off zanu-pf from its development agenda. Nevertheless, the ruling party’s development train cannot stop because a puppy has barked.

These revelations come at the rear of many other exposes of MDC-T’s planned sinister activities intended to cause mayhem in the country and subsequently cause an early election.

Last year Tsvangirai told a South African television channel, E-TV’s 360 Degrees, that he was working on strategies to force President Mugabe to an early election.

He also told his supporters during the party’s 15th anniversary celebrations in Masvingo last year, that his party would adopt a confrontational approach against the zanu-pf Government.

Thus, MDC-T and ZCTU no longer have anything to offer save to incite civil disturbances in the country.