Zim expatriates urged to vote

2008-03-17 09:47

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's main labour union on Sunday called on millions of Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa to go home to vote in the country's March 29 elections, South Africa's Talk Radio 702 reported.

Zimbabweans would vote in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections in two weeks, in which analysts said President Robert Mugabe faced the greatest challenge to his 28-year rule due to an economic meltdown and opposition candidates including a ruling party renegade.

"The situation back home is unfolding, therefore I appeal to them to cross the Limpopo (river) and come and cast their votes," Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe told Talk Radio 702.

An estimated three million Zimbabweans live and work in South Africa, out of a total Zimbabwean population of about 12 million.

Mugabe 'buys votes'

The 84-year-old Zanu-PF leader Mugabe faced a strong challenge from Simba Makoni, his former finance minister who would run as an independent candidate, and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Working class urban dwellers were the stronghold of the opposition MDC, but many of these had left the country as economic migrants to countries including South Africa.

Mugabe's challengers and critics accused him of buying votes to win the elections.

South Africa's SAPA news agency quoted Chibebe as saying: "The government has doled out billions of Zim dollars to the members of the armed forces as unsolicited loans. This is daylight vote-buying."

Critics said subsidised loans and farm equipment for farmers, as well as promises by Mugabe last week to increase government workers' salaries also amount to vote-buying.

Zimbabweans had suffered from the world's highest inflation - more than 100 000% a year - which had eroded incomes in the southern African country. Some teachers, the bulk of state workers, were on strike and doctors had also threatened to strike, crippling essential services.

In power since independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe denied mismanaging the economy and said it had been sabotaged by Western states as punishment for his land reforms, which included confiscating farms from white farmers.

- Reuters