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Cosatu
calls for ANC clarity on Zim
The
Star (SA)
November
18, 2004
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2304300
Federation condemns
statements made by leader of youth league
The Congress
of SA Trade Unions has urged its alliance partner, the ruling ANC,
to clarify its stance on political and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Federation general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi yesterday slammed recent
statements by ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula likening
Cosatu's criticism of the Zimbabwean state of affairs to that of
right-wing personalities and media.
Mbalula's article
in last week's ANC Today online publication raised serious questions
for the ANC-Cosatu-SA Communist Party alliance, Vavi said, as it
sought to question the bona fides of and cast aspersions on other
alliance partners on behalf of the ANC. "To ensure a proper, open
and comradely debate in the alliance, we need clarity from the ANC
leadership," Vavi said. Among other things, the ANC should clarify
whether it agreed with Mbalula that the government of President
Robert Mugabe still represented a progressive national liberation
movement.
Mbalula's statements
were a chilling warning that events in Zimbabwe could be a foretaste
of what could happen in South Africa if the author had his way,
Vavi said. The only buffer to such a scenario was a strong ANC-Cosatu-SACP
alliance and the country's democratic and progressive constitution.
The article pointed to the need for the alliance to develop a common
understanding of what was actually happening in Zimbabwe, Vavi said.
"Maybe the alliance must send a joint fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe
so that we can read from the same page." A Cosatu fact-finding mission
to that country was recently expelled by Mugabe's government, and
drew criticism from President Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki has urged
Zimbabwe's ruling and opposition parties to agree on a revised election
law before polls in March, to ensure no recurrence of disputes over
the result. Mbeki noted that Zimbabwe's parliament was currently
considering new legislation relating to creating an independent
electoral commission and other changes in the election system. These
were needed "to address concerns that have been raised by the Movement
for Democratic Change and the rest of the world about ... the conduct
of elections", he said. "What we've tried to do is encourage the
ruling party and the opposition to get together."
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