Zimbabwe: Alliance to defeat Mugabe comes under fire

By John Cassim

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Opposition labor leaders in Zimbabwe Monday questioned why an opposition party was allying itself with a former vice president under longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

During Workers Day commemorations in the capital Harare, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) asked the Movement for Democratic Change's Morgan Tsvangirai “why they entered into that coalition” with the former vice president, Joice Mujuru.

“In the ZCTU we have no permanent friends or enemies but permanent interests," said ZCTU Secretary General Japhet Moyo.

Tsvangirai said the alliance was meant to boost the opposition's chances of defeating 93-year-old Mugabe, in 2018.

After failed attempts to force the government to uphold workers’ rights, the ZCTU and other civil society groups formed a movement, the MDC, in 1999.

ZCTU leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Gibson Sibanda became MDC leaders.

But Tsvangirai has lately been questioned over his party leadership style, resulting in electoral losses since the year 2000.