Cosatu slams Zim's Zanu-PF

2003-04-17 17:37

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party was a clear example of a liberation movement gone astray, and it was worth asking whether the country's independence needed to be celebrated, the Congress of SA Trade Unions said on Thursday.

"We are absolutely disgusted at the level at which human rights are abused in that country," Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said a day before Zimbabwe celebrates its independence. "We need to ask whether it was worth celebrating anymore."

Vavi said the beating, torture and dehumanisation of President Robert Mugabe's political opponents was an embarrassment to what Zimbabweans fought for.

He asked how the African Union (AU) planned to morally deal with the situation in Zimbabwe.

President Thabo Mbeki said at the weekend that as chairman of the AU he was unable to comment on Zimbabwe because the body had no position.

Zimbabwe's Independence Day commemorates the collapse of the former white-minority government and Mugabe's ascension to power in 1980.

Human rights abuses

A report released on Thursday on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, charges that police were implicated in all the cases reported to human rights health officials in March.

The report was compiled by the Solidarity Peace Trust, comprising four Zimbabwean church leaders and two from South Africa.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance attacked the South African government for successfully proposing that a United Nations human rights examination of Zimbabwe be blocked.

"Why... would the South African government propose that the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Commission) not take a firmer stand on Zimbabwe?" the DA asked

Zimbabwe escaped international scrutiny on Wednesday after 28 African and Asian countries in the 53-member UNHRC supported the "no action" motion on a European Union resolution calling for debate on the issue.

The draft resolution had expressed deep concern over continuing abuse by the Zimbabwean government, including assaults, torture, cases of rape, arbitrary arrests and attempts to clamp down on the country's judiciary.

- SAPA