Back to Index

COSATU condemns raid on Zimbabwe trade union offices
ZimOnline
January 12, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11429

HARARE - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) yesterday condemned a Tuesday raid by Zimbabwe police on the offices of that country's labour movement and called on President Thabo Mbeki's government not to continue sitting "idly by" while the crisis in its northern neighbour deteriorated.

COSATU, which is part of a tripartite ruling alliance led by Mbeki's African National Congress party and includes the South African Communist Party, has clashed with Mbkei over his refusal to publicly censure human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe's government.

The South African labour union, whose leaders were last year deported by the Harare government when they attempted to visit Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission, has been vocal in its criticism of Mugabe's government.

The union last year organised a series of protests at the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria and at Beitbridge border post between the two southern African countries which it said were meant to highlight human rights violations by the Harare administration.

In its statement yesterday, COSATU said: "The Congress of South African Trade Unions deplores yesterday's raid by armed police on the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

"The raid was a ploy by the government to harass and intimidate them from fighting for workers' rights and freedoms, and that its real aim was to find a pretext to attack the labour movement after the government failed to impose puppet leaders on the ZCTU last year."

Armed police raided the ZCTU's Harare head office and seized the federation's documents on Tuesday, saying they were looking for evidence to prove that the federation's leaders were involved in illegal foreign currency dealings.

But sources within the Harare administration say the raid on the ZCTU offices was part of a plan by Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party to weaken the federation and eventually depose its leaders and replace them with individuals more sympathetic to the government.

Urging the Pretoria government to adopt a more robust stance against its Harare counterpart, COSATU said autocratic rule in Zimbabwe and Swaziland would eventually destabilise the rest of the region and would also render African Union (AU)'s much vaunted African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) meaningless.

Under the APRM, which has been championed by Mbeki and key African leaders, governments submit themselves for review by fellow Africans as part of an effort to promote transparency and democracy on the continent.

COSATU said it reiterated its view that "South Africa cannot sit idly by as the situation (in Zimbabwe) deteriorates. The total collapse of Zimbabwe will seriously affect South Africa and other SADC countries.

"The situation in Zimbabwe, as in Swaziland, whose even more undemocratic regime has been arresting its chief opposition leaders, threatens the whole basis of the AU's African Peer Review Mechanism and its commitment to human rights."

Tension remains dangerously high in Zimbabwe as the country grapples a severe economic crisis that has spawned shortages of food, fuel and just about every other basic survival commodity. The ZCTU and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party have led opposition to Mugabe's government which they accuse of ruining Zimbabwe's economy.

The government denies mismanaging the economy and instead accuses the ZCTU and the opposition of being used by Western governments to topple Mugabe from power to fix him for seizing land from whites and giving it to landless blacks. - ZimOnline

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP