SA: Zim must solve own problems

2007-03-13 13:53

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's problems should be solved by the people of that country, the South African foreign affairs department said on Tuesday.

"We have constantly maintained that the solutions to the problems of Zimbabwe will be resolved by the people of Zimbabwe...," spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.

Mamoepa was speaking two days after it was reported that police had arrested and assaulted Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai was among a number of people who held a protest prayer meeting in Harare on Sunday.

One protester was shot dead by police and scores of others were arrested.

Mamoepa said the department had noted the current development and was monitoring the situation very closely.

"Whatever matters of mutual concern exist, government will raise this through existing bilateral mutual mechanisms that exist between South Africa and Zimbabwe," Mamoepa said.

The South African government has been criticised for its "quiet diplomacy" towards Zimbabwe under the repressive rule of President Robert Mugabe.

Meanwhile the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) condemned in the "strongest possible terms" the violence in Zimbabwe and South Africa's response to it.

Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said Mamoepa's response was "shamefully weak."

"Such a response is disgraceful, in the face of such massive attacks on democracy and human rights, especially coming from those who owed so much to international solidarity when South Africans were fighting for democracy and human rights against the apartheid regime," Craven said.

He said the murder of Gift Tandare, the youth chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, the arrest, beating and torture of Morgan Tsvangirai and other leaders of the opposition were clear proof that the government in Zimbabwe would stop at nothing to crush the resistance of the people.

"We call upon the governments of South Africa and the rest of the continent to condemn the Zimbabwe government, demand the immediate release of those arrested and the restoration of human rights."

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said its offices were raided on Tuesday by the police and the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Offices were searched, and flyers, files and some video tapes were seized.

Galileo Chirebvu, the ZCTU's financial administrator, was asked to accompany the police.

"They had a search warrant with them and they said they were looking for subversive material," said ZCTU spokesperson Khumbulani Ndlovu.

Cosatu was mobilising its members in support of the general strike called by the ZCTU for April 3 and 4.

Cosatu has called on all South Africans to join them and show their solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

- SAPA