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Zimbabwe government bans Cosatu mission
SABC News
October 22, 2004

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has expressed its outrage at the Zimbabwe government's banning of a Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe, days before its departure on Sunday, claiming the mission was "not acceptable".

The mission was meant to hold meetings with representatives of all the people of Zimbabwe, to get an accurate picture of the situation in the country and make a contribution to the search for a settlement to the political, economic and labour crisis, said Patrick Craven, acting Cosatu spokesman.

Cosatu received a letter yesterday from the Zimbabwe ministry of public service, labour and social welfare stating that some of the civic society organisations which Cosatu was to hold meetings with were "critical about the government of Zimbabwe... and indeed most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations".

The letter went on to say that the mission was "predicated in the political domain" and that some of the organisations were involved in "the political discourse of Zimbabwe".

The letter lists the Crisis Coalition, the National Constitutional Assembly, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches. - Sapa

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