By Elizabeth Sitotombe
OVER the years, attempts by the West to unseat a democratically elected Government in Zimbabwe have been the order of day.
Each year comes with the birth of new so-called civic society organisations (CSOs) and the regrouping of the existing ones.
They never tire in serving their regime change masters beyond the country’s borders.
From spearheading strikes, boycotts and civil unrest and fake abductions at the behest of their Western masters, it’s a never-ending drama with these groups.
As such, The Patriot never tires of exposing their illegal machinations.
The 2023 elections draw nearer by the day, with the country once again becoming a playground for donation-seeking organisations whose theatrics have become a political and public nuisance for the country.
The opposition has failed dismally in their quest to overthrow the Government as new shenanigans, that include use of local trade unions to influence internal politics in the country, are emerging.
Among groups politicking and making unnecessary noise are unions, such as the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), that have lately been enlisted by the West for the regime change push in the country.
ARTUZ is an organisation that purports to ‘advocate improved working conditions of rural teachers’.
The Patriot has previously exposed ARTUZ as a regime change outfit more interested in the downfall of the ZANU PF-led Government than anything else — even at the expense of its members.
Unions like ARTUZ have been at loggerheads with the Government with the intention of trying to bring the Government to its knees through protests and strikes.
These unions have repeatedly demonstrated that their concern for the welfare of teachers is collateral to their quest to line their pockets with donor funds.
While the teachers’ grievances, and indeed all other civil servants’ grievances, are genuine and their call for a decent living wage justified, ARTUZ has hijacked this ongoing dialogue and negotiation platform and turned it into a confrontational demand.
West’s hand in regime change
Remarks by Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Bureau Tariq Mahmood Ahmad in the UK House of Lords last year exposed an unholy alliance between the British Government and teachers’ unions in Zimbabwe.
When questioned over what the UK was doing to corner the ZANU PF Government, Ahmad revealed that they had been working closely with trade unions, including teachers in Zimbabwe, to discuss ‘salary issues’, unwittingly exposing the not-so-hidden hand behind the current discord between the Zimbabwean Government and teachers unions.
“We certainly have been meeting in Harare with various unions, including teaching unions, most recently in September 2021 on salaries and the impact of COVID-19. Trade unions form an important part of civil society in any country and we engage with them at all levels.” said Ahmad.
Not so long after, 16 leaders of ARTUZ were arrested during an illegal anti-Government protest in Harare.
Police observed that the accused persons had stones and weapons.
The ARTUZ leaders and members, who included founder Obert Masaraure, were charged with intention to promote public violence, bigotry and breaches of peace as defined in Section 31 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
A lot of noise was made by trade unions from across the continent, calling for the release of the members of ARTUZ.
This dovetailed with the organisation’s agenda of indicting the country for human rights abuses.
This is not the first time such incidences have taken place.
In 2018, ARTUZ members demonstrated by walking the 275km-stretch from Mutare to Harare over a period of 10 days.
Along the way, they were arrested countless of times for being a public nuisance.
It later emerged that the demonstrators had been promised US$100 each for participating in the march but ARTUZ greedily became self-serving and failed to deliver.
Now we know why this union is pulling all stops to promote chaos in the country.
Real face of ARTUZ
ARTUZ was formally launched in Harare on March 12 2013 to ‘alleviate’ the plight of teachers in rural areas.
It was fronted by Obert Masaraure, a former ZINASU member and activist whose anti-Government stance is well-documented.
He has a tainted past involving misguided activism at the Midlands State University where he was suspended in 2006, 2008, 2009 and finally expelled in 2010.
In 2017, he attended the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) for Young African Leaders, an institute misnamed and especially dedicated to ‘grooming young people to push for regime change in their countries’.
At this institute, Masaraure was coached for the role he plays to date.
In 2019, Masaraure, like many of his Western handler counterparts Peter Magombeyi and Cecilia Chinembiri, claimed to have been abducted from his home and tortured by security agents for calling for strikes by teachers.
ARTUZ currently has a membership of over 5 534 members and 233 associate members throughout the country.
It has structures in the 10 administrative provinces of Zimbabwe and has also been linked to outfits such as the MDC Alliance.
The connection between ARTUZ and the MDC Alliance is an open secret.
The two’s activities pertaining to the MDC’s rural penetrative efforts are believed to be financially supported by the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Diaspora Association (ZADA), an MDC Alliance front working to raise funds for the party in preparation of the 2023 elections.
ZADA was launched on September 11 2021 and changed its name from Zimbabwe Academic Diaspora Association (ZADA).
Its membership is constituted by Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora.
ZADA claims to be a non-political organisation that seeks to bridge the gap between the Governments, Diaspora stakeholders and local institutions.
This defies logic, seeing as how they are lying in the same bed with both ARTUZ and the opposition party.
But when all is said and done, the West should simply comprehend that their unhealthy obsession with Zimbabwe will soon come to an end.
Unions like ARTUZ are simply singing for their supper.