Zimbabwe home affairs officials expelled 13 members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday, the day after they arrived in the capital, Harare.
The Cosatu delegation was present for discussions with its Zimbabwean counterparts in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
The Zimbabwean government had said Cosatu’s visit was neither ”welcome nor acceptable” prior to their arrival, but Cosatu said it would travel to Harare despite official objections.
Officials in ZCTU said the South African delegation was given a one-day visa to enter the country through Harare International airport.
They were met at the airport by Zimbabwe officials who sought an undertaking from them not to meet certain organisations and individuals. The Cosatu party refused to make such an undertaking but was nevertheless allowed into the country.
Meanwhile, officials from Zimbabwe’s immigration department disrupted a conference between Cosatu and the ZCTU on Tuesday morning.
The two organisations were meeting in the Harare city-centre Quality International hotel when government officials entered and ordered the South African delegation to leave immediately.
The team, led by Cosatu deputy president Violet Seboni, were with ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe and his deputy, Collen Gwiyo, when police arrived.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in Johannesburg that police barged in at the conclusion of the mission’s meeting with ZCTU officials at about noon and removed the Cosatu members to their hotel against their will.
There they were told the country’s Cabinet decided their mission must be ended and they need to leave immediately.
”The Cosatu delegation is now at the airport waiting for the first available flight to South Africa,” said Colin Gwiyo, a ZCTU spokesperson. ”Our own leadership is meeting to discuss what action to take. We may have to take this through the courts.”
Gwiyo said Cosatu ”had every right to visit Zimbabwe”.
Cosatu was to have met with Zimbabwean trade unionists, charity workers and NGOs threatened by proposed new laws that will effectively ban foreign funding of human-rights organisations in the country.
The mission, scheduled to last a week, was taking place according to Cosatu’s congress resolutions. It was to get ”an accurate picture of the situation in the country” and contribute to resolving some of the problems facing Zimbabwe, especially its trade unions.
Cosatu received a letter from the Zimbabwe Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry last week, declaring the mission ”not acceptable”.
It stated that some of the civic society organisations that Cosatu was to meet are ”critical about the government of Zimbabwe … and indeed most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations”.
The letter said the mission is ”predicated in the political domain” and that some of the organisations are involved in ”the political discourse of Zimbabwe”.
The letter listed the Crisis Coalition, the National Constitutional Assembly, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday the South African diplomatic mission in Harare is monitoring the situation.
Earlier in the day, the African National Congress had no immediate comment on the Cosatu mission.
”There is no comment from the ANC,” said spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.
The Democratic Alliance, however, hailed Cosatu’s perseverance.
”For once, Cosatu is setting a good example. If only President [Thabo] Mbeki and the ANC would take a leaf out of Cosatu’s book and adopt a more robust approach, we might soon see a resolution of the Zimbabwean problem,” DA chief Whip Douglas Gibson said. — Sapa