A Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) official who met leaders of the Zimbabwean trade union movement in the Cape Town on Friday says President Robert Mugabe’s time as head of his state should end.
Cosatu Western Cape regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich has also called on the South African government to impose sanctions as a tool to end the unjust government in the neighbouring country and to end President Thabo Mbeki’s silent diplomacy in dealing with the Zimbabwe government.
He said: “Robert Mugabe himself is a man whose time has come; he must leave politics. If you are using the machinery of state to defend your own position then you are no longer driven by the best interests of your people.”
Ehrenreich was speaking at a press conference on Friday afternoon after meeting Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions — who was eliciting support for his union federation’s action to demand that his government sort out the current financial crisis in his country in two weeks.
Ehrenreich said: “While many of us understand the battle against colonialism, what is unfolding in Zimbabwe now is having a more negative effect … 350 000 workers have been displaced on farms. We want to make calls on the South African government to start applying pressure on the Zimbabwe government.”
“We sell fuel and a number of materials to Zimbabwe; we must start applying pressure. Sanctions was a tool used to end apartheid [in South Africa], it must be used to end other unjust forms of rule [in Zimbabwe]”.
Referring to Mbeki’s silent diplomacy, he said: The time for quiet diplomacy in the face of human rights abuses are past. We can’t be quiet when women are raped and men of the country are being killed.”
Matombo indicated that his trade union was against talks on forming a government of unity between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. He said his people wanted an election and a Constitution which protected the rights of workers.
They particularly did not want to see the imposition of International Monetary Fund and World Bank structural adjustment policies being imposed on any new administration in the country, he said.
Asked if he expected a change of government in Zimbabwe, Matombo said: “The conditions in Zimbabwe suggest a change of government; those conditions seem to have ripened. We see that there is likely to be a change …but if the current president leaves that is a change of government, isn’t it? It can be Zanu [staying in the administration] and be a change of government [without Mugabe].” – I-Net Bridge