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Cosatu sets date for Zimbabwe blockade
Daily News Online
February 24, 2005

http://allafrica.com/stories/200502240514.html

Johannesburg - The powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has set March 9 as the date on which it will start its mass action against the Zimbabwe government .

Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's secretary general, announced this in an interview with Sapa, a South African news agency, on Thursday.

Cosatu's planned blockade of the border post at Beitbridge and picketing of other Zimbabwean interests are in protest against the refusal by Harare authorities to allow a delegation from the labour union to enter Zimbabwe last month.

Cosatu sent a 20-member delegation to Harare on a fact finding mission after allegations that the Zimbabwean government was violating human and workers' rights, harassing supporters of opposition political parties and suppressing freedom of the press.

The delegation was unceremoniously kicked out of the country moments after touching down at Harare International Airport.

Angered by the ill-treatment by the Zimbabwean government, Cosatu promised to launch a blockade against President Mugabe's regime.

Vavi told a Zimbabwe solidarity conference held in Pretoria on Thursday that the aim of the picket would be to tell the Southern African Development Community (SADC) it had to act to enforce its own guidelines.

This included ensuring that its observer mission to the Zimbabwe election on 31 March was invited to the county three months in advance. "It is now only five weeks away," he said.

The picket will start at the Zimbabwe High Commission in Pretoria and will continue until the election, Vavi said. "We invite all who are fighting to highlight the Zimbabwe plight to participate."

The Democratic Alliance (DA), an opposition political party in South Africa, also sent its own delegation on a fact finding mission to Harare, only to be sent back at the airport.

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