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The SADC and Zimbabwe
Patrick Craven, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
August 27, 2007

The Congress of South African Trade Unions deplores the apparent lack of any real progress at the SADC Summit Meeting in Lusaka to resolve the worsening economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe and the lack of transparency in the way the heads of government discussed the issue.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is having a devastating effect on the workers and the majority of the people. Unemployment is over 80%; inflation is estimated to be at 7,635%, and shops are running out of many essential food and other products. Thousands of people are fleeing into neighbouring countries every day, in a desperate and often dangerous attempt to escape the poverty, hunger and political repression that afflicts them in Zimbabwe.

Political repression continues unabated. The latest outrageous attack on democracy is the government's reported demand that the Attorney General prosecute Wellington Chibebe, Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The charges relate to statements he made on 1 May urging workers to launch mass protests against Mugabe, and others attacking the government's "price war" and a call for a day of "national action in August". In no democratic country could such statement conceivably constitute a criminal offence.

According to President Mbeki's letter from the President in ANC Today, 24 August 2007, the SADC Summit Meeting, "approved the urgent initiation of a process that would identify the measures that the SADC region should take to assist in the economic recovery of Zimbabwe". In reality however there is little in the President's letter to suggest the sort of radical measures that the situation demands.

The SADC Secretariat report merely says that "the restoration of the country's foreign exchange generating capacity through Balance of Payments support is crucial: however, the most urgent action that is needed to start this process is to establish lines of credit to enable Zimbabwe to import inputs for its productive sectors, particularly for agriculture and foreign currency generating sectors".

It also calls for SADC to "do all it can to help Zimbabwe address the issue of sanctions, which is not only hurting the economy through failure to get Balance of Payments support and lines of credit, but also through reduced markets for its products. Sanctions also damage the image of Zimbabwe, causing a severe blow to her tourist sector".

It further calls on the Zimbabwe government "to implement robust policies to reduce the overvaluation of the exchange rate, to reduce the budget deficit and to control the growth of domestic credit and money supply which fuel inflation, and to reduce price distortions in the economy. Equally important is the need to avoid frequent changes in policy initiatives, which have caused uncertainties and led to the view that the policy environment is unpredictable."

These policies, even if implemented, would do no more than tinker with the massive problems the country faces. The main reason for the lack of inward investment and the extension of credit lines is not the sanctions imposed by Western countries, which are mainly directed at individual government leaders, but the chronic economic instability and brutal political repression, which the SADC report ignores entirely.

There is also no news of any progress in the diplomatic efforts co-ordinated by President Mbeki to find a political solution through dialogue between government, opposition parties and civil society.

While COSATU and the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordination Council (SATUCC) have always recognised that the solution to these problems ultimately has to be the responsibility of the people of Zimbabwe themselves, we have repeatedly called for the SADC governments to take a much tougher line with the ZANU-PF government on the abuse of human rights and workers' rights in particular.

That call become more urgent by the day. All SADC countries are now being affected directly by the crisis, as they are hit by the waves of immigration from Zimbabwe.

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