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S.Africa's COSATU aims for Zimbabwe blockade
Reuters
February 04, 2005

http://www.reuters.co.za

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will lobby regional labour bodies for support to block Zimbabwe's borders as it steps up pressure for political reforms in that country, the union said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe on Wednesday barred COSATU leaders, a key ally of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, who had tried to enter the country on a pre-election fact-finding mission, the second COSATU team to be thrown out of Harare in five months over charges of having a hostile agenda.

South Africa is Zimbabwe's main trading partner and a blockade of its commercial routes would compound its deep political and economic crisis.

COSATU and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) met in the South African border town of Musina on Thursday to discuss Zimbabwe's economic and political situation.

COSATU spokesman Patrick Craven told Reuters that the meeting had resolved to embark on an economic blockade of Zimbabwe, through demonstrations at that country's border posts.

"We will be consulting with our counterparts in the region. The campaign of action will include pickets at the Zimbabwean Embassies and demonstrations at the borders which will be in the form of an economic blockade," said Craven.

"It shouldn't take long. We want to consult with our alliance partners and plan to hold a conference of all the parties involved in democracy campaigns in Zimbabwe so that we can work closely together."

COSATU first proposed -- but later abandoned -- plans to blockade Zimbabwe's borders last October after its first mission was summarily deported by Mugabe's government, which said they were meddling in its internal affairs.

Craven said both COSATU and the ZCTU had agreed that political climate in Zimbabwe was not conducive for free and fair elections and had resolved that independent observers should be sent to monitor the March 31 parliamentary poll.

"An independent electoral commission should be appointed to run the elections and there should be access to the public media for all political parties," said Craven.

COSATU has taken a much tougher line on Zimbabwe than the South African government.

The South African Communist Party, the third element of the ANC's official ruling alliance, has called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ensure regionally-agreed electoral guidelines are strictly adhered to in the March polls.

Mugabe's government has reacted furiously to COSATU's trips, saying the labour union was a conduit in efforts by Western countries led by former colonial ruler Britain to interfere in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

Mugabe, 81 later this month and in power since independence in 1980, accuses Britain and other Western powers of trying to topple him over his seizures of white-owned farms for blacks, and says they are sponsoring the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

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