The deportation last week of a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) delegation from Zimbabwe was unfortunate, but had happened because the visit was politically motivated, the South African Parliament’s foreign affairs portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
Briefing members, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Moyo, said Cosatu had been forewarned its delegation’s plans to meet “quasi-oppositional political organisations” were not acceptable.
The warning had come in the form of a letter — from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in Harare — to Cosatu, sent on October 21, before the delegation’s visit.
Referring to the letter, Moyo said the political nature of the visit by the 13-member delegation was confirmed by a planned meeting between Cosatu and Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, and between Cosatu and the Movement for Democratic Change, that country’s opposition party.
Cosatu had also planned meetings with the Crisis Coalition, National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwean Election Support Network, Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwean Council of Churches and the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
These organisations are “all involved in the political discourse of Zimbabwe”, Moyo said, quoting from the letter.
“These organisations are critical about the government of Zimbabwe, and indeed, most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations.”
Moyo said copies of the letter had also been sent to the ZCTU; South Africa’s high commission in Harare; South Africa’s Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana; its Cabinet; and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Cosatu’s defiance of the letter and its subsequent deportation from Zimbabwe was “unfortunate”.
If the union had seen Mdladlana before their departure and asked how they should proceed “maybe things would have been, I think, more decent than what happened”.
Moyo also said Cosatu had sent “shop stewards” and not its top leadership to Zimbabwe.
“I thought that the [Cosatu’s] secretary general [Zwelinzima Vavi] would have gone,” he said.
African National Congress MP Rubben Mohlaloga attacked Cosatu during the briefing, saying the trade union’s visit to Zimbabwe had been a “fishing expedition”.
“This was nothing but a fishing expedition. They [Cosatu] wanted to come back with the title of heroism,” he said. — Sapa
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