Union to ask Mbeki to view DVD

2006-10-12 17:18

Johannesburg - A South African trade union leader said she would urge President Thabo Mbeki to break his silence on Zimbabwe on Friday after giving him a film exposing rights abuses in the neighbouring country.

Mary Malete, leader of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) said: "I am meeting the president tomorrow."

Malete said she would try and give Mbeki a copy of a film showing leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) being beaten and arrested by police when they tried to launch an anti-government march on September 13.

The government nipped the protest in the bud by evoking a tough law, which bars "unauthorised" marches.

Lawyers for the ZCTU members said secretary-general Wellington Chibebe had a fractured arm while 29 others sustained bruises and cuts after being assaulted in police custody.

The ZCTU had hoped to rope in thousands to denounce fuel and food shortages, four-digit inflation and 80 percent unemployment - which critics blame on economic mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Four-digit inflation rate

Malete said she would urge President Mbeki - who has been roundly attacked over his so-called "quiet diplomacy" towards Zimbabwe - to speak out against Mugabe, who is seen by critics as a liberator turned oppressor.

"The film is shocking," she said.

"We (South Africans) are complaining about the resources not being enough for us.

What about the thousands of people coming in from Zimbabwe with whom we have to share the meagre resources?"

Zimbabwe is in its seventh year of economic hardship with a four-digit inflation, spiralling unemployment and a huge deficit of food and essential goods, partly blamed on the southern African country's controversial land reforms.

At least three million Zimbabweans are thought to have migrated to neighbouring countries, especially continental powerhouse South Africa, as well as to Europe and the United States in search for jobs.

- AFP