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Zim: Cosatu wants tough action
02/08/2003 22:13 - (SA)
Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - A top Cosatu official has called on South Africa to impose sanctions to end President Robert Mugabe's reign in Zimbabwe.
And, said Western Cape regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich, President Thabo Mbeki's silent diplomacy to deal with it's neighbour's problem, must end.
Ehrenreich on Friday held talks with leaders of the Zimbabwean trade union
movement.
He said it was time for Mugabe to go.
"Robert Mugabe himself is a man whose time has come; he must
leave politics. If you are using the machinery of state to defend your own
position then you are no longer driven by the best interests of your
people.
"While many of us understand the battle against colonialism, what is
unfolding in Zimbabwe now is having a more negative effect ... 350 000
workers
have been displaced on farms. We want to make calls on the South African
government to start applying pressure on the Zimbabwe government."
"We sell fuel and a number of materials to Zimbabwe; we must start
applying
pressure. Sanctions was a tool used to end apartheid (in South Africa), it
must
be used to end other unjust forms of rule (in Zimbabwe)".
Referring to Mbeki's silent diplomacy, he said: "The time for quiet
diplomacy in the face of human rights abuses are past. We can't be quiet
when
women are raped and men of the country are being killed."
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is against talks on forming a
government of unity between the Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic
Change.
President Lovemore Matombo said his people wanted an election and a constitution which protected the
rights of workers.
They particularly did not want to see the imposition of IMF and World
Bank
structural adjustment policies being imposed on any new administration in
the
country, he said.
Asked if he expected a change of government in Zimbabwe, Matombo said:
"The conditions in Zimbabwe suggest a change of government; those conditions
seem to have ripened. We see that there is likely to be a change ...but if
the
current president leaves that is a change of government, isn't it? It can be
Zanu (staying in the administration) and be a change of government (without
Mugabe)."
- I-Net Bridge (Business)
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