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COSATU's mission to Zimbabwe
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
November 06, 2004

http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/2004/[Press]COSATU's_mission_to_Zimbabwe--13370.html

The Congress of South African Trade Unions notes the continuing debate around its fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. COSATU reaffirms its support for all attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to the problems of Zimbabwe and acknowledges the sincerity and integrity of the SA government and the African National Congress in their efforts to achieve this.

Diplomacy however must be supplemented by mobilisation of the people to change their own circumstances. Diplomacy has its role and place, but we cannot afford to place all our eggs in the basket of diplomacy. Mass mobilisation and solidarity have an equally important role. The challenge is to coordinate these efforts to reinforce one another and not use one to the exclusion of the other.

It is in this vein that COSATU actively seeks to play a role in the unfolding process of Africa's development and democratisation. COSATU has a right and duty to make its own intervention in pursuit of that goal, and to act in solidarity with our fellow trade unionists in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The federation itself is a product of international solidarity and understands the value of support from the international community.

Apartheid South Africa would not have been brought down in 1994 purely through diplomatic pressure. Apartheid was ended firstly by the struggle of the mass liberation movement, assisted by an international solidarity campaign. While Zimbabwe is not of course equal to apartheid South Africa, there is still a need to express our solidarity with our fellow workers in their fight for trade union rights and for political space.

COSATU has consistently taken a similar view of attacks on trade unions rights in Swaziland, Nigeria and other places and will continue to do so. In the case of Swaziland, we organised a blockade of the border with South Africa, in support of human rights and democracy on no less than four occasions, with the last blockade lasting two full days. The COSATU General Secretary was also unceremoniously booted out of Swaziland at one stage. He is practically banned from Swaziland. This has been widely reported in the South African media.

Recently we organised demonstrations in protest against President Olusegun Obasanjo's attempts to de-unionise Nigeria and muzzle the voice of labour through de-registration of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

Throughout our history we have consistently embarked on similar actions, including in support of the people of Burma, Palestine, Cuba, Colombia, etc. We have on some occasions paid a heavy price for this consistency. We are determined to do so in the future. We will not be intimidated or blackmailed into becoming something else that we have never been. COSATU cannot be held responsible for either the ignorance of those who suggest we have suddenly woken up to target Zimbabwe nor we can be made to account for selective amnesia of others.

Nor can we be held responsible for views expressed by the media, opposition parties and political commentators, in response to the expulsion of the COSATU mission. Most of the time our views are freely available in our public positions and resolutions.

The aim of our mission was not to undermine the Zimbabwean government, nor to embarrass the ANC or President Mbeki. We reject any insinuation that COSATU seeks to unseat the ZANU-PF government. All we have called for is free political activity, repeal of repressive legislation and ending of routine harassment of trade unionists.

It is also preposterous to say that the expulsion of the mission somehow suggests a split in the alliance or that COSATU both deserved and invited expulsion from the Zimbabwe government.

In the most transparent manner, we sent a fact-finding mission in order to appraise ourselves of the developments in that country. We sought to meet with all stakeholders and it is unfortunate that the Zimbabwean government chose not to meet with COSATU.

If other groups such as the DA opportunistically derive political capital out of the COSATU mission, this should not serve as grounds to delegitimise our position.

The letter to COSATU from the government of Zimbabwe stated that the mission was "not appropriate'' because it bypassed a process agreed upon between the governments, labour and business leaders of South Africa and Zimbabwe which was to address the political dimension of labour in Zimbabwe.

An article in ANC Today refers to this as a "Joint Tripartite Commission" between South Africa and Zimbabwe. But in fact no such structure exists. This untruth is being peddled in order to create an impression that COSATU and the ZCTU failed to use existing structures to address their concerns and therefore had other intentions when it sent the mission to Zimbabwe.

The facts of the matter can be corroborated by the ZCTU and the Zimbabwe and South African employers' representatives. They are that at the 2003 ILO annual conference, after an acrimonious debate in plenary where Zimbabwe was being accused of violating workers rights, in a totally informal gathering, literally standing around, the South African Minister of Labour suggested to the COSATU leadership (Ebrahim Patel and Alina Rantsolase) who were with a business representative (Mr Bokie Botha) that South Africa's tripartite parties should initiate a more constructive engagement between the parties in Zimbabwe. Both the ZCTU and the Minister of Labour of Zimbabwe agreed that a meeting involving all the tripartite parties of both countries could be held.

Since then a meeting to facilitate the meeting referred to above was held in South Africa at the end of September 2003 between the Minister of Labour of South Africa, Ebrahim Patel representing labour and Bokie Botha representing South African employers. An attempt was then made to convene the meeting for 3 November 2003.

This did not materialise not because the ZCTU "refused" to travel to South Africa but because the ZCTU genuinely was unable to make the date. It proposed alternative dates to the Ministry of Labour in Zimbabwe. In the 2004 ILO Conference the Minister of Labour of South Africa convened another meeting, now with the President of NACTU, Joseph Maqhekeni, and General Secretary of the ZCTU, Wellington Chibebe, in attendance. This was another attempt to resuscitate the initiative that honestly never took off the ground.

Giving the initiative a name "Joint Tripartite Commission" is an attempt to give a non-existent structure political weight. This forms part and parcel of a strategy to launch a political attack on COSATU and ZCTU by the Zimbabwe government. The question that must be asked is when was this so-called Joint Tripartite Commission inaugurated? Who are the commissioners? When was its first or last meeting? Who attended such a meeting? Certainly COSATU and ZCTU were not part of the meeting. Neither were the employers.

While this was an excellent initiative, agreed very informally at an International Labour Organisation meeting in 2003, meetings to launch it failed to take place and it has unfortunately not become a reality. The initiative could not bear fruit largely because of the timing of meetings not because any party was not committed to the informal mediation.

This process was however never seen as an alternative strategy to the decision by the COSATU National Congress in September 2003 to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe and certainly not a reason to call off the mission.

There has been much quibbling about the content of the letter COSATU wrote to President Mugabe, setting out the aims of the mission. It is very unfortunate that discussion of such a serious matter should have been trivialised around issues of protocol. Giving such prominence to protocol or quoting selectively from the letter in order to show the supposed arrogance of COSATU side-steps the real issues.

No one, except the author of the Zimbabwe government letter, would believe that the reason why our delegation was treated in the manner that it was treated was because the letter requesting audience with President Mugabe did not observe protocol. The letter was merely an expression of a wish to meet with the government. It answers those who have argued wrongly that the mission intended to be 'selective' in its discussions.

The real reason for booting out the COSATU mission is in fact in the letter from the Zimbabwe Government to COSATU. Mr Simon Moyo, the Zimbabwe High Commissioner to South Africa, who admitted that COSATU was kicked out because its visit was seen as being "predated on political domain", has corroborated this. Whether protocol was observed or not, this is the mentality of the authors of the letter - that the mission was in the political domain. This is the cold reality - that the Zimbabwe government has so much to hide that it would risk such a negative publicity by kicking out a team from a genuine trade union movement from a neighbouring country.

Equally, hiding behind spurious notions that the Zimbabwe government is within its right to enforce its immigration laws and other such conditions in order to justify ill treatment of COSATU leaders is not useful.

Of course all countries, including Zimbabwe, have a right to admit or not to admit person seeking entry in the country. We reiterate however that our members did not transgress any immigration rules - a fact which the Harare High Court confirmed when it ordered the government not to deport the COSATU delegation. In fact the Zimbabwean government was acting politically in defiance of the ruling by the High Court. All democrats should have condemned this political act in defiance of the judiciary instead of blaming the victims.

Moreover COSATU remains opposed to the argument that the government of Zimbabwe had an inalienable right to deport the mission. As a signatory to international conventions, it is bound to respect the right to free movement between countries. The mission members broke no immigration laws and were entitled to enter the country.

With the advantage of hindsight indeed we do accept that the letter to President Mugabe could have in some few parts written differently.

The issue is however that the government of Zimbabwe would not allow COSATU, the biggest civil society formation in the country to meet with other civil society formations in Zimbabwe, just as the apartheid and the Ian Smith regimes used to do. In fact many trade unionists from all over the world, in particular those who have been acting in solidarity with the ZCTU, get turned back frequently at the Zimbabwe airport.

For a fuller statement of COSATU's views, we urge readers to look at the article in the Mail & Guardian of 5 November 2004.

Patrick Craven Acting
COSATU Spokesperson
patrick@cosatu.org.za
082-821-7456 339-4911

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