Peaceful end to Cosatu's Zim picket

About 200 members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) who picketed at the Beit Bridge post near Musina on the border with Zimbabwe dispersed peacefully on Friday afternoon.

“The situation at the border was very tense and there was a strong police presence, but it was a peaceful demonstration,” said Cosatu’s Limpopo provincial secretary, Jan Tsiane.

He said many people did not participate in the picket as “Friday morning’s problem created lots of uncertainty and we were not sure if 500 people would be given permission to demonstrate”.

Cosatu planned the picket in solidarity with Zimbabwean workers and against the alleged curtailment of their rights by that country’s government.

“We are sending a message that we are in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe,” said Tsiane.

Earlier on Friday, the number of pickets was increased from 200 to 500 after an agreement was reached between Cosatu and the Musina local municipality in the Pretoria High Court.

But the court ruled that the other limitations imposed by the municipality still stood. The demonstration had to be held at least 200m from the border post.

Tsiane said many Cosatu members “did not know whether to come to the venue.

But we expect to see lots of improvement next week and we will continue to engage and discuss with authorities how we are going to conduct our forthcoming pickets on March 18 and 30.”

Tsiane said picketers were carrying placards with slogans such as “All in solidarity of the Zimbabwean people”.

Tsiane said most of the people expected to take part in the picket were from near Musina.

On Thursday night, Cosatu was granted permission by the South African Police Service to hold the picket.

Limpopo police said on Thursday that Cosatu had only applied for permission to picket and had later changed its application to include a march.

“They were given permission to picket, but not to march,” said Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba. “We can’t allow them to march when they’ve applied at such a late stage.”

One of the reasons Ramatseba gave was that traffic on the N1 highway through the border post would be disrupted by the march.

On Wednesday, a group of Cosatu members protested outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria.

They were protesting against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and asking that a fact-finding mission be sent to investigate the running of elections on March 31.

Cosatu plans to continue picketing the embassy in the run-up to the March 31 election, spokesperson Patrick Craven said.

The protests will culminate in a vigil at Beit Bridge on the night before Zimbabweans go to the polls.

In February, Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu’s secretary general and president of the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council, was stopped from entering Zimbabwe, along with a Cosatu delegation.

Also in February, two South African-based trade unionists were deported from Zimbabwe, shortly after arriving at Harare International airport.

Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Wellington Chibebe said at the time that Bobby Marie and Vihemina Prout were deported after failing to produce “security clearance letters from the ministry of labour”.

He said the two travelled to Zimbabwe at the instruction of the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council.—Sapa