OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Wednesday
THE leader of South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, says the South African government’s policy of “soft diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe has failed.
“Just talking softly, saying please to President Robert Mugabe has not helped,” Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told the independent eTV television station.
Vavi said it was clear that the expulsion at the weekend of two foreign journalists from Zimbabwe was an attempt by Mugabe’s government “to silence those who are critical”.
Earlier the director-general of the foreign ministry, Sipho Pityana, said Zimbabwe had assured South Africa that a Uruguayan journalist and a correspondent for the BBC had been expelled because their work permits were not in order, not because the government was clamping down on the press.
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma last week said the government would not bow to pressure from business and the opposition to take a tougher stance over events in Zimbabwe.
She said South Africa would not “become combatative” towards the Mugabe government but continue to behave in a spirit of good neighbourliness.
Meanwhile, the Star reports that the white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has become the latest casualty of the crackdown on critics of the Zimbabwean government when all negotiations and dialogue with it were banned.
The government claims that the CFU, which represents the country’s 4 500 large-scale commercial farmers, has been enlisting foreign support to destabilise Mugabe’s leadership, and the government now views the CFU as a political party.
Announcing the decision, the chairman of the land acquisition committee and the minister of local government and public works, Ignatius Chombo, said the government would only talk to individual white farmers interested in giving up their land for redistribution.
Chombo said the government was in fact considering banning the CFU. He confirmed that the CFU had this week appealed to the government for dialogue but ruled out any negotiations with the organisations.
The CFU has, however, firmly denied such accusations, saying it had tried all within its abilities to engage in meaningful dialogue with the government but had hit a brick wall because the government was using the land issue only for politicking purposes.
ZA*NOW:
World wags warning finger at defiant Zim February 19, 2001
Mugabe government plumbs new depths February 18, 2001
Down, but far from out February 16, 2001
Mugabe axe falls on Zim’s judiciary February 13, 2001
Mugabe grabs control of Zims judiciary February 5, 2001
State terrorism strikes at Zims heart February 2, 2001
State arms used in Zim press blast February 2, 2001
Zimbabwe’s judiciary on collision course with executive January 25, 2001
Top judge lashes lawless Mugabe January 9, 2001