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COSATU deported again
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
February 02, 2005

The Zimbabwe government has for the second time in three months deported the strong 18-member Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) delegation.

The group comprised Presidents and General Secretaries from various South African trade unions and was led by the COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi. The group was on a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in the country ahead of the March parliamentary poll.

After the deportation of COSATU, the Zimbawe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe addressed a press conference at the Harare International Airport. Chibhebhe told journalists and civic leaders that COSATU had been denied entry into the country and were accused of attempting an illegal entry into Zimbabwe.

The COSATU delegation's visit to Zimbabwe comes on the background of a pronounced stand-off between the labour body and its political ally, the African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party on the way forward to resolve the multi-layered Zimbabwean crisis. President Mbeki has opted for "quiet diplomacy", whilst COSATU argues that the errant Harare regime can only be moved by "megaphone" diplomacy and public ridicule to end gross human rights violations.

On the other hand Zimbabwean government minister, Paul Mangwana and his colleagues in government have said that COSATU is not welcome in Zimbabwe because it is being used by Western powers to meddle in Zimbabwe's political affairs.

The deportation of COSATU makes a mockery of the so-called political reforms being spearheaded by Zanu PF and is a confirmation that Zimbabwe is not yet ready to be part of the community of civilised nations that is characterised by interdependence, peaceful co-existence and the existence offratenal relations among labour unions.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is deeply pertubed by the high-handed reaction by the government and the manner in which it continues to treat a legitimate organisation such as COSATU which was on a legitimate mission. It is a fact that there are thousands of Zimbabweans who are in South Africa both as political and economic refugees and this justifies the concern that the labour body is showing on Zimbabwe.

It must be noted that the only way out of the deep-seated crisis that is bedevilling Zimbabwe is through embracing democratic norms and values and the conduct of free and fair elections in accordance with the SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections.

The Zanu PF government must stop political sloganeering and realise that the high premium that the party places on power politics is not good for the country's economic development.

The Coalition notes with concern the collapse of social services, rampant corruption in parastatals, the reality of the HIV/AIDS scourge, infrastructural dilapidation and the ever-increasing cost of living and that these challenges come on the backdrop of a government that has become inherently incorrigible and is not prepared to rule by consent as oppossed to coercion.

The deportation of COSATU is in direct contradiction to the spirit of South-South co-operation, political and economic integration and solidarity of the African people enunciated in the Constitutive Act oftheAfrican Union and the SADC Charter, Zanu PF is not Zimbabwe's sovereignty and the citizens must not accept a misplaced definition of sovereignty that it means the protection of Zanu PF interests. Sovereignty is everything to do with the protection of the independence and the interests of Zimbabweans and this means that there must not be any preponderant single entity, including Zanu PF that arbitrarily exerts its own influence on the citizenry. COSATU was in no way interfering with the country's sovereignty, if anything they were enhancing the sovereign existence of workers in both South Africa and Zimbabwe through displaying unity and solidarity with each other.

In international relations, governmental relations matter as much as relations between non-state actors such as COSATU and ZCTU do and this is what bothANC and Zanu PF must realise.The state-centric approach to the Zimbabwean crisis leaves out a number of important non-state stakeholders both in domestic and international relations who have a role to play in the resolution of the crisis.

Meanwhile, Crisis Coalition strongly condems the arrest of Itai Zimunya, a human rights activist who was arrested by state security agents whilst at the Harare International Airport to show solidarity with the workers.

Visit the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition fact sheet

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