By Silume Simataa
WINDHOEK – It is indeed an embarrassment of the highest order. The author refers to the pain of shame the Nantu leadership causes to all its members. Nantu members have vested all their faith and dependence on the leadership of their rival union, at least psychologically.
The Namtu leadership has managed to remain soundless amid the cries made by its followership. These cries for union intervention have awakened the leadership of the rival union in the opposite camp. The Nantu leadership, on the other hand, is hastened in slumber.
It has chosen to remain aloof and oblivious to all the embarrassment and despotic management its own members suffer following the industrial activities of last year.
This organization’s leadership has abandoned its own members in the face of danger. A power vacuum has been created and that has since been taken over by a rival union.
The leadership has failed to take advantage of the strength that lies in the number of employees it has as members. It has demonstrated cowardice in the Land of the Brave.
It has wavered where others did not waver. It has become the shadow of yesteryear’s leadership. It has developed and maintained a mentality of conducting activities surreptitiously, depriving its membership of knowledge of what the future holds.
The gulf between the Nantu leadership and its followership continues to widen unabated. The nonchalance demonstrated by this lackadaisical leadership has smothered the hope its followership had of trade unionism in general, and of Nantu in particular.
The rival union stood by the teachers from day one, while Nantu leadership chose to assume the stance assumed by the teachers’ employer. The leadership argues the strike was illegal and it cannot provide solace to its own members now. Ladies and gentlemen, the members do not have to be ‘right’ for the leaders to provide the necessary leadership. A leader that only shows up when times are good, and disappears into ‘thin air’ when times are hard is a traitor. Yes, the leadership should be able to provide guidance when times are difficult.
The insensitivity of the current leadership saw the internal disputes spiral out of hand, even to an illegal endeavor. Some comrades in the far northern parts of the country suffered imprisonment, while those in the center of the country were caught in contempt of court. It is time the Nantu leadership rises and caresses the wounds suffered by its followership. The battle has ended but the fight continues. The time for Nantu to reconcile with itself is now. The union should reconstruct its leadership and reconciliation precedes reconstruction. The union will never reconstruct if it cannot reconcile with itself. The followership is about to break into different splinter groups. The time to rise above the devilish pride and say “sorry comrades” is now. The leaders of a union should solve leadership needs whether or not the strike was illegal. The leadership needs the followership and the opposite is also true. The two shall never be dichotomized, for the dichotomy means the end of it all.
The relationship between the union leadership and its members is identical to that which binds a couple joined together in marriage. It is meant to love each other, in health and in sickness, until death do them part. How can this leadership continue ‘chopping’ the money of its members if it long decided to walk out of the unity with its members? Surely, this is tantamount to conjugal infidelity!
The rival union went with all teachers to court and even shouldered all legal expenses in alleviation of teachers whose membership fees were being paid to their ‘promiscuous’ union.
The Nantu leadership, on the other hand, enjoyed walking side by side hand in hand with the teachers’ employer. Teachers were sent back to schools by the courts of the land for the strike was illegal. This endeavour seemed to fossilize the alliance between Nantu and the teachers’ employer.
The leadership took part in the illegal procedure meant to discipline its own members who took part in the illegal strike. Reams and reams of papers were rolled out and tens of thousands of copies bearing the ‘final written warning’ were sent out to schools.
These letters proved sources of joy for Nantu affiliated principals in schools and they quickly pronounced a cessation to all classes. These ‘puppet’ principals galvanized members of management and stormed into classes where some staunch teachers were busy at work.
Teachers were then cajoled into signing those devilish missives without even giving them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the contents.
Nevertheless, many teachers stood their ground and queried the procedure employed in the institution of such a premature exercise. Some of them, however, gave in to the rhetoric employed by these stooge principals and were convinced into endorsing their signatures on the communication devised for all evil outcomes.
Teachers in certain quarters set out a clamour and their cry was heard by the leadership of the rival union. This union, once again, stood for all teachers and requested the high court to pronounce itself and impose a sense of ‘procedure’ in the whole exercise. This resulted in the cessation of the premature procedure that had seen many teachers regretting becoming teachers in the first place.
Yes, it is beyond the author how the Nantu leadership fails to understand that the path its rival union walks is the one all unions the world over should tread. It is obligatory to all teachers in Namibia to salute the wisdom of the rival union leadership. Indeed, all teachers should thank the leadership of this rival union for its courage, dedication and indefatigability.
• Silume Simataa is a teacher