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Govt bars Cosatu mission
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
October 24, 2004

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=828

THE government on Thursday scuttled a planned visit by the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) saying its mission was "political".

A Cosatu delegation was due in Harare today for a five-day fact finding mission as regional bodies pile up pressure on the government to normalise the political and economic situation in the country.

But the Secretary for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Lance Museka, wrote to Cosatu Secretary-General, Zwelinzima Vavi, on Thursday pointing out that because the programme also involved meeting organisations critical of the government, "the mission was not acceptable".

Wellington Chibhebhe, secretary general of the ZCTU, Cosatu's hosts yesterday said: "We are awaiting Cosatu's reaction but on our part the letter is a non-event because we invited Cosatu and it is not coming on behalf of the South African government but of South Africa's trade unions and there is no need for the government to ban it."

The deputy secretary general for the ZCTU, Collin Gwiyo, also blasted the cancellation of the visit and said he did not see why the government was becoming jittery because,"the Cosatu visit would largely be fraternal".

National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, said the government's reaction was a sign that it was desperate and against the wall. "The government's reaction is a sign that it has run out of ideas and is now clutching at straws. "

Cosatu leaders were also expected to hold talks with representatives from Crisis Coalition, National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and Zimbabwe Council of Churches, a decision which appears to have riled the government.

Museka told Vavi: "These organisation are critical about the government of Zimbabwe and indeed most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations. Again, the proposed meeting with Zanu PF and MDC officials demonstrates the political nature of the mission to the extent that it has to be within an agreed framework of dealing with the political dimension of Labour within the two countries.

"In view of the foregoing, the mission is not acceptable and Cosatu is advised to liaise with Hon Mdladlana (SA Minister of Labour) with a view to revisiting the original agenda.

"In order to avoid inconveniencing your members who are supposed to travel to Harare on Sunday the 24th October 2004 you are kindly advised to inform them in time that the mission has been called off."

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions President Lovemore Matombo, whose organisation was due to host Cosatu, said: "Their (Cosatu's) intention is very clear. In order to apprise themselves of the Zimbabwean crisis, they have to strike a balance by meeting the two rivals."

"We (ZCTU) wrote to Minister Mangwana, inviting him to meet the delegation in his capacity as labour minister, but we have not received any confirmation from him," said Matombo who added that Zanu PF had snubbed Cosatu on numerous occasions.

"It is also Cosatu's wish to interact with Zimbabwean civil society organizations, given the impending threat of closure by government through the proposed NGO legislation," he said.

Among other things, they were expected to find out government's position on the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Bill, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Electoral Bills and the fate of farm workers on farms controversially acquired by the government.

The NGO Bill was presented to the House on October 6. It seeks to ban foreign funding for NGOs whose core business is human rights and governance issues.

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