The Pan Africanist Congress has cheered the decision by Harare to boot out a Congress of South African Trade Unions fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
”The PAC would like to congratulate the government of Zimbabwe for not allowing Cosatu to become the barking dog of the reactionary forces that are aimed at the destabilisation of the national sovereignty of the people of Zimbabwe,” the party’s national organiser, Ntsie Mohloa, said in a statement.
”The PAC is in no doubt that South Africa has been used by reactionary forces as a springboard to destabilise the revolutionary gains of [the] people’s government of Zimbabwe. At the same time, Cosatu has been consistent in presenting itself as an agent of reactionary force in South Africa.”
The PAC has often expressed itself in favour of President Robert Mugabe’s often-violent land-redistribution campaign that has seen most white farms confiscated and given to party cronies and pro-Mugabe war veterans — many too young to have experienced the conflict that ended in 1979.
Mosiuoa Lekota, chairperson of the African National Congress and Minister of Defence, said his party was ”a bit” embarrassed by the deportation.
”I know why the press feels very keen on this issue because clearly it is a bit embarrassing to us as the ANC. We are part of the tripartite alliance,” Lekota told reporters at Parliament.
The Democratic Alliance said it believes Cosatu was shockingly treated in Zimbabwe, party chairperson Joe Seremane said.
Seremane said the incident shows tyrants have to be condemned, not applauded.
”The propaganda that Cosatu is working with ‘Tony Blair’s and well known anti-Zimbabwe, pro-Western interests’ merely highlights the fact that similar charges levelled against the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] are vile propaganda by Zanu-PF against legitimate oppositions,” Seremane said in a statement.
”The incident emphasises the Mugabe regime’s long-standing preference for the use of strong-arm tactics to crush any possible threat to its rule.”
The African Christian Democratic Party’s Rudi du Plooy said free countries welcome fact-finding missions, particularly from countries that are favourably disposed to them.
”Zimbabwe has chosen to show its arrogance and underline its ignorance pertaining to matters of state. This hostile act of a regime that has a questionable human-rights record is not only directed at Cosatu but is an act of hostility towards the entire South Africa.”
The Inkatha Freedom Party said it was shocked by the brutal treatment meted out to the Cosatu mission.
”If this is the way Zimbabwe treats a delegation from one of the South African governing party’s allies, one shudders to think how the Zimbabwean trade unions are treated. It holds nothing good for next year’s elections in Zimbabwe and we call on the South African government to visibly engage in talks with Zimbabwe, as quiet diplomacy has shown to be ineffective,” said the IFP’s LK Joubert. — Sapa
Cosatu member tells of Zim eviction