Cosatu thrown out of Zim

2004-10-26 13:30

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's police on Tuesday removed a Cosatu mission from the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and ordered them to leave the country.

Congress of SA Trade Unions spokesperson Patrick Craven told Sapa in Johannesburg that police barged in at the conclusion of the mission's meeting with ZCTU officials around noon and removed them to their hotel against their will.

There they were told the country's cabinet had decided their mission must be ended and they must leave immediately.

"They are refusing to leave voluntarily and are still in the hotel," Craven said.

The team was booked in at the Quality International hotel.

The eight-strong team, led by Cosatu deputy president Violet Seboni, were with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) general secretary Wellington Chibebe and his deputy, Collen Gwiyo, when police arrived.

They were planning to visit a number of ZCTU affiliates later on Tuesday.

The team, representing all Cosatu's member unions, landed in Harare at 21:00 on Monday.

They were met at the airport by Zimbabwe officials who sought an undertaking from them not to meet certain organisations and individuals. The Cosatu party refused to make such an undertaking but were nevertheless allowed into the country.

The mission, scheduled to last a week, was taking place according to Cosatu's congress resolutions and was to get "an accurate picture of the situation in the country" and make a contribution to resolving some of the problems facing Zimbabwe, especially its trade unions.

Cosatu received a letter from the Zimbabwe Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry last week, declaring the mission was "not acceptable".

Efforts hailed by DA

It stated that some of the civic society organisations which Cosatu was to hold meetings with were "critical about the government of Zimbabwe... and indeed most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations".

The letter said the mission was "predicated in the political domain" and that some of the organisations were involved in "the political discourse of Zimbabwe".

The letter listed the Crisis Coalition, the National Constitutional Assembly, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday the South African diplomatic mission in Harare was monitoring the situation.

Earlier in the day, the African National Congress had no immediate comment on the Cosatu mission.

"There is no comment from the ANC," said spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.

The Democratic Alliance, however, hailed Cosatu's perseverance.

"For once Cosatu is setting a good example. If only President (Thabo) Mbeki and the ANC would take a leaf out of Cosatu's book and adopt a more robust approach, we might soon see a resolution of the Zimbabwean problem," DA chief Whip Douglas Gibson said.

- SAPA