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Deportation: SACP 'outraged'
27/10/2004 13:05 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The South African Communist Party (SACP) expressed its outrage at the deportation of a Congress of SA Trade Union (Cosatu) delegation from Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe police escorted the 13-member Cosatu delegation from Harare to the border when they went ahead with a visit to the country in defiance of a ban by President Robert Mugabe.
SACP spokesperson Mazibuko Jara said: "We call on the South African government to strongly condemn this action.
"This act is ultimate proof that the Mugabe regime is essentially a dictatorial and undemocratic regime which is not willing to engage honestly with opposition forces and other role-players in the SADC (Southern African Development Community)."
The SA Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition said the Zimbabwean government's treatment of the Cosatu delegation was reminiscent of "racist regimes of yesteryear: the racist white rule of Ian Smith and the racist apartheid regimes."
The Democratic Alliance said the treatment of the Cosatu delegates demonstrated that President Robert Mugabe had little regard for diplomatic relations with South Africa.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said: "This should provoke President Mbeki to break his silence on the Mugabe regime's methods of governance, and give him pause to reconsider the state of Zimbabwe's democracy.
'Height of intolerance of Mugabe regime'
"After all, what kind of democracy needs to resort to using police escorts to remove members of a legitimate South African organisation on a peaceful visit?"
Zimbabwe's largest civic group, the National Constitutional Assembly, due to meet the Cosatu delegation on Wednesday, described the deportation as the "height of intolerance of the Mugabe regime".
"Mbeki must now know what his friends are made of," said the group's chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions-African Regional Organisation (Icftu-Afro), representing 15 million trade union members in 45 African countries, wrote to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe strongly condemning "the barbaric and undemocratic act" of deporting the mission.
"This latest interference and intimidation of trade unionists confirms the consistent and repeated resolve of the government of President Mugabe to restrict and violate human and trade rights," Icftu-Afro said.
The delegation was on its way from Polokwane to Johannesburg after Zimbabwe police bundled them into a bus and took them to Beit Bridge border post overnight. From Musina they travelled by minibus taxi to Polokwane, where other transport was organised for them.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said he expected the delegation to address the media later on Wednesday.
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