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COSATU gears up for border blockade
Zim-Online
February 25, 2005

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=9133

PRETORIA - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will on March 16 blockade Zimbabwe's lifeline Beitbridge border post with South Africa to protest repression, worker and human rights violations by President Robert Mugabe and his government.

COSATU secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told a South African civic society solidarity meeting on Zimbabwe here that the union will also stage protest marches at Beitbridge and hold an all-night vigil at the border post on March 30 - a day before Zimbabwe's crucial general election - to highlight the lack of democracy in that country.

"COSATU will implement a series of protests including a march in Pretoria (on March 9) a picket at Beitbridge (on 16 March), two marches at the border and a night vigil (on March 30)," Vavi told the meeting.

He added: "Is there a blockade, well what is the difference to a march? For the duration of the march, the road will effectively be blockaded."

blockade of Beitbridge even for a few hours will have a devastating impact on Zimbabwe which heavily relies on South Africa, its biggest trading partner, for essential supplies including fuel and food.

Other countries north of Zimbabwe such as Zambia and Malawi will also be hit hard as they route the bulk of their imports through Beitbridge, which is Africa's busiest border post.

South African Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who two weeks ago warned COSATU that Pretoria would not allow disruptions at Beitbridge, could not be reached for comment last night.

But Vavi appeared unperturbed by Dlamini-Zuma's warnings, instead calling on South Africans to abandon their blind loyalty to and admiration of Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party and stand up to repression in Zimbabwe.

He said: "Civic society in South Africa must unashamedly act in solidarity with their counterparts in Zimbabwe. If we close our eyes to the realities of repression, there is a danger we would ignore other future abuses."

Mugabe has reversed the gains of Zimbabwe's bitter 1970s liberation struggle with "massive human rights abuses" now routine in that country, Vavi said.

Under the current repressive environment, it would take "a miracle" for Zimbabwe's March 31 election to be free and fair, the firebrand trade unionist said.

Vavi called on Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) observers to be immediately deployed to Zimbabwe saying the regional observers would not be able to play an effective role if sent only a few days before the poll.

SADC is ready to send observers to Zimbabwe but is unable to do so because Harare is yet to formally invite the regional organisation to send its team.

The two-day civic society solidarity meeting which ends today was organised by the Zimbabwe Solidarity and Consultative Forum.

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party leader Morgan Tsvangirai is scheduled to address the meeting today.

Meanwhile, COSATU president Willie Madisha told a separate Solidarity trade union congress that there were gross violations of workers' rights in Zimbabwe and claimed that there were incidents where some workers there had even been castrated.

"Workers are beaten, maimed and killed. We know of instances where workers have been castrated," Madisha told the congress.

The COSATU president also lamented the plight of hundreds of thousands of former farm workers left jobless and destitute when Mugabe seized farms from white farmers.

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