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COSATU deportation shows Zim true colours
Zvakwana.org
October 27, 2004

The events surrounding the recent visit by a delegation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have revealed the true colours of the government of Zimbabwe.

The zanu pf regime has been trying for years to paint itself as a responsible, legitimate, democratically elected government with the interest of all Zimbabweans at heart. It has tried to blame its shortcomings on external factors, particularly influence by the British and other Western governments. It has long defended its actions as in the interest of Pan-Africanism, and has declared itself open to scrutiny by any African government or organisation, particularly those with a history of resisting colonialism or "liberation war" credentials.

If the government has nothing to hide, if its behaviour is as admirable as it would have us believe, how then does it explain its recent treatment of the COSATU delegation? This treatment was extended across several ministries and therefore reveals not an isolated incident or misunderstanding, but is instead indicative of the co-ordinated effort by the government of Zimbabwe to hide the truth of its actions and policies from every day Zimbabweans and the world at large.

COSATU represents the South African worker. The organisation is a member of the Tri-Partite Alliance in the South African government, including the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. The government of Zimbabwe has long turned to the South African government, and the ANC in particular, to defend its actions and to speak for the legitimacy of its behaviour. Why then would the government turn back a delegation comprised of members of ANC partners COSATU? Moreover, COSATU in its own right has strong credentials of resisting "imperialist influences," as evidenced by its strong ties to the Communist Party, and also its active, vibrant sacrifices which were so essential in dismantling South Africa's apartheid regime, efforts which the government of Zimbabwe itself supported in many ways.

What then is so offensive about our brothers and sisters in COSATU paying a visit to meet with their Zimbabwean counterparts in the trade unions and a cross section of Zimbabwean organisations to find out for themselves what the situation is like in Zimbabwe? Why would the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare try and ban such a visit before it even took place, if it had nothing to hide? When the delegation decided to come all the same, would security agents detain the visitors for almost two hours at the airport in Harare if the state had nothing to hide?

After they had entered, why would security agents and officials from the department of immigration interrupt their meeting with the ZCTU if the government had nothing to hide? Why were the COSATU members taken to the airport to be deported if the Zimbabwean government is as transparent, democratic and responsible as it would have us believe? When the members of the delegation were taken to the airport to await their expulsion, a High Court Order was handed down to prevent their deportation. But the officials at the airport refused to accept the order. Why would they refuse if the government was as free of misdeeds as they claim? And why did the Ministry of Justice not insist that the High Court Order be accepted, if the government was open to its African neighbours finding out more about our situation? And why, when there was no flight to take the COSATU delegates back to South Africa, were they driven by road to Beitbridge, abandoned at the border post and told to find their way back to Johannesburg?

The SACP said it best: "The [expulsion of the COSATU delegation] is ultimate proof that the mugabe regime is essentially a dictatorial and undemocratic regime. We reject with the utmost contempt the suggestion by the Zimbabwean government that COSATU is an agent of imperialism. Instead, it is the bureaucratisation of liberation movements and their departure from the revolutionary agenda that exposes our region to imperialist agendas."

The Zimbabwean government's mishandling of this visit is in every way a victory for the people of Zimbabwe. It exposes the zanu pf regime for what it really is-a paranoid, suspicious, failing dictatorship with everything to fear and nothing to offer the people. The history of our continent is full of dictators who oppress the people. And people who get UP, stand UP, join hands and work together to confront dictatorship and create a government of the people. Such will be the fate of the small dictator mugabe and his cronies, try as they might to hide.

Zvakwana! Enough! Sokwanele!

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