Cosatu: Lekota allays fears

2004-10-27 11:02

Donwald Pressly

Cape Town - Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told journalists on Wednesday that he believed the matter of the deportation of members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) from Zimbabwe "could have been handled differently".

Speaking on behalf of the international cluster ministers at a briefing at Tuynhuys on Wednesday, the minister said, however, that he could not see the link between holding a free and fair election there next year and the abortive visit by the Cosatu delegation.

Lekota said trade union groups came and went from South Africa without the South African government being aware of their visits and "similarly in Zimbabwe" groups came and went without any one reading about it.

He said the government would have to study the facts of the incident, but did not know "why an incident between Cosatu and the Government of Zimbabwe should affect elections next year".

Lekota was responding to journalists about whether this was bad news for next year's elections.

As far as the South African Government was concerned Zimbabwe had at the Mauritius summit accepted "the principle and guidelines of SADC elections".

Diplomats, however, were investigating the Cosatu incident.

Earlier this week Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - led by Morgan Tsvangirai - visited President Thabo Mbeki.

Would take more to 'bedevil' realtionships

Seeking a postponement of the elections from March to June, the opposition has suspended participation in the election unless electoral laws reflected SADC guidelines.

Lekota, meanwhile, noted that the Cosatu delegation had been dropped at the Messina border town in South Africa. Earlier reports indicated that the delegation headed by Cosatu deputy president Violet Shibone had been taken to the border by bus overnight.

The delegation had already met the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions before being taken from their hotel and bundled out of the troubled country.

Lekota, who repeatedly noted on Wednesday that Zimbabwe was a sovereign state, said that for relations to be "bedevilled" there would have to be more than a single incident of this kind: "There has to be a sustained process ... until (we) can say relations will be bedevilled".

Asked in particular whether the booting out of a delegation would not compromise the process of international monitors being sent in for next year's elections, he said the SADC delegations would be determined by the relevant governments.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)