Past presidents praise Zimta

23 Aug, 2015 - 04:08 0 Views

The Sunday News

Robin Muchetu Senior Reporter
FORMER president of the Rhodesian African Teachers Union (Rata) in the early 1960’s, Cde Cephas Msipa says Zimbabwe needs only one teachers’ union if the country is going to have meaningful development and better the lives of educators. The former president said this during a session for past presidents during the 34th Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) Annual National Conference in Harare yesterday.

“I understand there are seven organisations that are claiming to be representing teachers in this country. It is a total waste of money and other resources. All we need is one organisation which is Zimta,” he said.

Some of the teachers unions include Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ), Public Service Association (PSA), Rural Teachers Union in Zimbabwe, among others.

The former president said he was proud of Zimta’s apolitical stance, saying they must stick to it.
“I urge you to stick to this stance and I support it fully. You have to remain apolitical. In fact, teachers the world over have to be apolitical,” he said.
Cde Msipa said teachers had an important role to play in the development of any country.

“All leaders in whatever sector they operate are your products, they passed through your hands. Your main function should be to help students at every level to discover their innate abilities and talent,” he said.

This, he said, was possible if the leaders were apolitical. He added that children come from different backgrounds and their parents expect fair treatment as politics was divisive in nature.

“Give no room to your students or their parents and the community in general to think that you are biased or unfair because of your political party membership,” he said.
Cde Msipa said during his tenure (1961-1964) he emphasised to the then members that they were stronger as long as they did not allow party politics into their association.

Another former Rata president Mr Heyi James Malaba (94) said during his tenure in office, there were topical issues that prevailed that dealt with the concerns of African teachers of that time.

“We wanted the colonial government to fund black educational facilities to the same extent as our white counterparts. We did not agree that the burden should be borne by missionaries and mission schools,” said Mr Malaba.

“As teachers of that time we realised the whole was greater than individual parts. We also firmly believed that a collection of voices had more effect that a single voice and thus we believed in unionism.”

He also concurred with Cde Msipa on the issue of being apolitical.
“We were firmly opposed to the racialised politics of the day. Remember that our means of fighting for equality were limited by the fact that as civil servants we were meant to be apolitical,” said Mr Malaba.

The former presidents said they were impressed with the levels of professionalism that were being exhibited by Zimta and said this should go on as a means to strengthen the association.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds