ZCTU elections

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party on Sunday failed in a bid to "hijack" the powerful Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the cradle of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), South Africa's 'Cape Argus' reported.

Despite lobbying by senior ZANU-PF officials, the party's candidates for the top jobs in the ZCTU national executive were narrowly beaten by
MDC-supported candidates in elections. Wellington Chibhebhe was elected as secretary-general, the most powerful position in the union congress. He had been backed by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, himself a former ZCTU secretary-general until he formed the MDC last year, the newspaper said. Another MDC-backed candidate, Lovemore Matombo, was elected ZCTU president while the head of the MDC women's league, Lucia Matibengu, was elected first vice-president.

But the state-run 'Herald' newspaper on Monday quoted Matambo as saying that the ZCTU was a non-partisan body, which was not "the soul of the MDC". In an interview, he said the labour movement would work with any politicians concerned with the welfare of workers. In his address to the congress, Tsvangirai had said that the labour movement was "the soul" of his party and without it the MDC would die.