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COSATU
responds to mindless allegations by Zimbabwean Sunday Mail
Congress
of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
February 06, 2005
COSATU rejects
with contempt the unfounded claims by one of the Zimbabwean government’s
mouthpieces – The Sunday
Mail – that the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) funded its missions to Zimbabwe.
COSATU reached
self-sufficiency in 1991, barely six years after it was formed.
We run our organization from our members’ subscriptions. Indeed,
of the 20-member observer mission, the COSATU General Secretary
and 1st Deputy President were funded directly by COSATU
and all the affiliated unions paid for their representatives.
The ICFTU is
a confederation to which COSATU members, together with more than
150 million workers all over the world, are proudly affiliated.
The ICFTU may carry the burden of being perceived to have been a
weapon in the hands of the West during the Cold War era, but it
is blatantly untrue that it remains US-backed. COSATU, together
with many other progressive trade unions joined the ICFTU in the
late 1990s and have transformed it into a combatant for the interests
of the workers and the poor.
The Zimbabwe
government, and others who think like them, are either trapped in
the 1970s and 1980s or are victims of their own propaganda. Indeed,
if one were to compare Zimbabwe’s disastrous structural adjustment
programmes, introduced at the behest of the Western powers, with
the economic policies of the ICFTU – one would see who is the true
representative of the real interests of capital.
Interestingly
the Sunday Mail, together with other government mouthpieces, including
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation TV, were the only media allowed
to come through and interview the member of the COSATU mission whilst
they were being turned back at the immigration desk in Harare on
Wednesday. All the media critical of the government were not given
the same access. The first question these pseudo journalists asked
us was why we came despite the government’s objection. The second
question was who funded our trip to the country.
The fundamental
problem for the Zimbabwean government and its cronies in the media
is that they tell blatant lies, knowing that they are falsehoods,
and then later start to believe their own lies and propaganda. It
has become part of their blunt weapon against all those critical
of their failed policies that they must be inspired by the Western
powers. The unions, the opposition, civil society and everyone not
supportive of the total chaos in Zimbabwe is pigeon-holed and called
stooges of white or Western interests.
The Zimbabwean
government expects everyone to be supportive of its chaotic management
of the economy that has resulted in record 80% unemployment, 80%
of citizens living below the poverty line, inflation in three digits
and an economy declining by 20% annually. In the planet where the
Zimbabwean government is living, it is revolutionary to starve citizens
and brutally deny them their basic freedoms.
A siege mentality
and paranoia seem to govern government actions. From this mindset
they have convinced themselves that they act in the best interests
of the Zimbabwean revolution, when, under the Public Order and Security
Act, they will not allow a meeting of more than four people, and,
under the Access to Information and the Protection of Privacy Act,
they take away all media freedom.
Yet hundreds
of thousands of Zimbabwean freedom fighters who fought against Ian
Smith’s settler regime were inspired by the need to attain basic
freedoms for their people. It is these very basic freedoms such
as the freedom of speech, movement and assembly that those in power
today are doing everything to deny to Zimbabwean citizens.
Instead of addressing
this, the Zimbabwean government sees enemies and creates conspiracy
theories. Its paranoia and siege mentality is a breeding ground
for repression and the denial of basic human and trade union rights.
Paul Notyhawa
(Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg, 2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24
Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940
E-Mail:
paul@cosatu.org.za
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