The Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) has vowed to bar Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President, Leonard Hikaumba from contesting for a third term as he has over stayed.
MUZ Secretary General, Oswell Munyenyembe has accused Mr. Hikaumba of having become compromised and toothless.
He claimed that Mr. Hikaumba has not been paying attention to the plight of workers as witnessed during the time workers went on a country wide strike and were victimized by Government.
Mr. Munyenyembe said there is need for ZCTU to have a leader who would take government and other employers to task in the interest of uplifting the welfare of workers.
The union leader was speaking to Muvi TV News in Kitwe.
Hikaumba is the most useless ZCTU president ever. Yes, he has had his time. Kaufela, zwa, kuya bebele.
This Hikaumba has outlived his usefullness or is it his uselessness
He has certainly over-stayed and there is need to revise the constitutions of all national unions to put a limit to tenure of office.
This will bring new ideas into the trade union movement and encourage the youth into leadership positions.
What does he want to do in the third term which he has not done in the two terms? Hikaumba must go, he is highly compromised. He is completely toothless. He is a disgrace to the labour movement.
ZCTU supervises individual Union affiliates to it and not individual workers as this is the primary role of unions like MUZ.MUZ is the most useless union as can be evidenced by poor working conditions the miners are subjected to.Do they want Hikaumba to sideline them and deal with miners directly?
The days of ZCTU President being confrontational or blowing hot air on Government are long gone.The in thing now is CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT with the authorities.How then is Hikaumba useless?
Totally agree with you number 5 on constructive engagement. However there have been incidents in the past where workers were going through all sorts of trouble and did not get covered by GRZ. Whose help did they need then? The voice of the unions’ presido!Unfortunately Hikaumba has not played the role of a father at all.Have you considered his conspicuously silent approach to the shooting of 13 Zambians by the Chinese investor?Constructive engagement should not be done at the workers’ expense. Rather it includes engaging GRZ on issues that may not be pleasant to talk about.Am afraid to say that our Hikaumba has not lived up to this.Martin Luther King once said,” when everything is over it is not the words of our enemies that we will remember, but the silence of our friends.”
It’s high time this Hikaumba goes! There’s no way he can contest again surely. Been ages and he has lost his direction and I hope he is gona go quietly and look forward to other challenges of life. Zwa-Zwa-Zwa! Kaufela
Hikaumba has been a total failure and completely USELESS. The ZCTU has lost its dynamism and its a shadow of its former self. Hikaumba Kozwa mubwa. Uli mukubakuba. uli chiyanga satan webo!
High time he was given a boot.The guy is a complete sell out.
Hikaumba is as useless as No. 5. He has failed to deal with this Animal Farm Government constructively in the minimal wage (K 260,000) or US$52 per month. He is a Joke, just like HUMPTY DUMPTY and SICKLY KUNDA. They all have outlived and should go to the Archives.
Is it a case of the “NCC Bounty” has gone to Hikaumba’s head, or Hikaumba has gone to the NCC???
Boot out this sell out, Judas Iscariot – “Muselela kwakaba” who is behaving exactly like George Kunda over Chiluba’s “London Judgement”, by conveniently compromising the Workers’ Voice for a few pieces of silver.
If you think that whoever replaces Hikaumba will be any effective, think again. Individual Unions have the power to change things for their affiliates. It is people like Munyenyembe who have failed and now want Hikaumba’s position.
I thought ZCTU never existed from the time of the Shamenda’s left the thing? I thought Hikaumba was still a primary school teacher.
The painful reality is that the money which accrues to this position has made our brother to forget his role of defending the workers as opposed to politicking.He sat on the NCC which was just pure professional theft at its best!
Indeed, individual unions are responsible for changing things in their areas of influence, however, ZCTU is responsible for harmonising the workers voices over things such as Minimum Wage, Health & Safety, high profile cases such as the Collum Mine Shootings; Abuse of state coffers considering that majority of tax payers are workers, so govt should be accountable to them!! ZCTU should have sent representatives to Zamtel Negotiations sitting as friends of Post & telcoms workers union to help favourable terms, such that we wouldn’t now be hearing of the current court cases between former workers & new proprietors! ZCTU should have been at forefront at rejecting removal of “abuse of office clause”, becoz if they had, govt & parly would have thought twice before proceeding; So zwa Hiks!!
sad ba hikaumba, we had over trusted you so much but you have disappointed us so much think about the coal mine shooting. where were you mr hikaumba shame on you sir! we say no for third term of office please, please……………………?
flying colours you showed in Ncc but not in zctu shame!
ZCTU is not hikaumba nor an individual. if you want to evaluate hikaumba, first you should evaluate the perfomance of the affiliate unions. ZCTU will never be stronger more than its affiliates. hicks is just being crucified by the failures of the affiliate unions. MUZ has lamentably failed to represent its members, just see the causualisation of labour in the mines and then you will know who muz is. Being a good orator does not mean that one can make a good leader. the other thing is Rayford is serving his final term of office, let him tell us wther his ready to serve for a term. poltical affiliations wll destroy muz and zctu. it happened zctu at the advernt of multiparty politics., where zctu went 2 bed with chiluba’s mmd.and muz want to take as the same way, by going 2 bed with sata’s…