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Ejection of South African trade unionists a mistake by Mugabe
IBA Weekly Column on Zimbabwe - No 054
November 01, 2004

Zimbabwe's Government might have made a serious mistake in ill-treating and deporting 13 officials of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) last week. The 1.7 million-strong union federation is in a ruling alliance with the African National Congress (ANC), which will now come under greater pressure from within to tackle the crisis in Zimbabwe.

During a surreal drama, members of a COSATU fact-finding mission were arrested at a Harare hotel, manhandled and held for seven hours without food at the airport, and then - to escape a high court order allowing them to remain in Zimbabwe - they were driven dangerously fast in the dead of night to Beit Bridge border post, where they were ejected from the country.

It was, said COSATU vice president Violet Seboni, a 'horrible experience. There is no respect for labour rights in that country, no respect for human rights and the rule of law'.

The 13 unionists first bumped into official opposition to their visit a few days before their flight to Harare, when COSATU received a letter from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare saying it was against them meeting civil society groups that were critical of Government and were mostly 'quasi-oppositional political organisations'.

During a planned four-day visit, COSATU had wanted to meet with the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) - the two federations have close relations - as well as civil society groups and the Zanu-PF Government, to inform a review of the situation in Zimbabwe.

On arrival at Harare airport, the trade unionists were told by officials to sign guarantees that they would not meet civil society activists, but they refused. The next day, Tuesday 26 October, police swooped on them during a first meeting with ZCTU officials in a Harare hotel, and told the unionists they had to leave the country immediately following a cabinet directive.

The COSATU officials were driven to the airport and held for seven hours, but were unable to catch a plane to South Africa. At the height of the drama, COSATU threatened to blockade Beit Bridge border post - a vital trade route for Zimbabwe - within 48 hours if its representatives were 'arrested, attacked or injured'. Seboni told reporters:

'We got to know that there was a court judgment in our favour along the way but it was too late. They never wanted us to go to court today (Wednesday) as had been ordered...They knew they had no winnable case in court and were desperate to get us out'.

The interdict by Judge Tendai Uchena had ordered the State to show cause on Wednesday why the delegation should be deported. Lawyers were unable to find a senior official to serve with the order, and by the time the case was due to be heard the unionists had been ejected.

'Instead of breaking us down, the ordeal has made us more confident. We are workers and this kind of shabby treatment can only strengthen our resolve,' Seboni told ZimOnline.

In a statement Zimbabwe's Government described the mission as 'some dubious individuals claiming association with COSATU, and working with Tony Blair's well-known anti-Zimbabwe, pro-Western interests opposed to Zimbabwe's land reforms'. They had flown in despite the objections of Government in a 'most frontal challenge' to Zimbabwe's sovereignty'.

But Brian Kagoro of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee, an umbrella body representing pro-democracy groups, told the IBA that there was 'nothing new' about the ill-treatment of the unionists, which was common and 'part of the obstructive behaviour of Government'.

The ANC - which has failed via 'quiet diplomacy' to persuade President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to hold crisis talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - was furious with COSATU for going ahead with a mission after Zimbabwe's objections.

Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota declared the trip an 'embarrassment' to the ANC, which called it 'irresponsible'. President Thabo Mbeki reportedly slammed the union federation in an ANC caucus meeting, driving a wedge into an alliance already strained by disagreements.

But some in the ANC support COSATU's position and it remains defiant: Bheki Ntshalintshali, the deputy secretary general, told News24 that the federation had contravened no laws and reserved the right to differ with the ANC and Government:

'There is certainly nothing wrong with trying to establish where matters in Zimbabwe stand, at grassroots level. The ANC and the Government have their own ideas on how to deal with the Zimbabwean crisis. However, we do not agree with them.'

COSATU acting spokesman Patrick Craven told the IBA that the federation would pressurise the Government to acknowledge the human rights problem in Zimbabwe. COSATU's abortive visit will be discussed at a meeting of the central executive committee in the coming weeks:

'The committee will receive a full report of what happened and will decide how to respond. But you can safely say that we aren't simply going to abandon the issue, and in particular our solidarity with colleagues in the ZCTU has been intensified.'

COSATU has for years been expressing alarm at the oppression of trade unions - and indeed, all voices critical of Government - in Zimbabwe, and has called on President Mbeki to take a stronger stand against human rights abuses and lack of the rule of law in South Africa's neighbour.

Brian Kagoro does not believe that COSATU's in-your-face brush with oppression in Zimbabwe will alter the position of President Mbeki's Government. However, he concludes: 'It will influence the popular view of Zimbabwe among civil society groups in South Africa, and they will press the South African Government to take stronger action. This, of course, is always a long process.'

* This column is provided by the International Bar Association. An organisation that represents the Law Societies and Bar Associations around the world, and works to uphold the rule of law. For further information, visit the website www.ibanet.org

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