The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) does not require the Zimbabwean government’s permission to visit it’s counterparts in that country, the union federation said on Friday.
It was responding to comments made by Zimbabwe’s Labour Minister, Paul Mangwana, that Cosatu should not seek to return to the country.
”Really what is the problem of this animal called Cosatu?” Mangwana told The Financial Gazette weekly on Thursday.
”We have our own labour unions and I don’t think we need foreign labour unions to solve our problems,” he added.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven responded on Friday by saying: ”We don’t think we require permission. We’ve always maintained that missions of this kind don’t require the permission of the government.”
He said Cosatu had not yet received a reply from Mangwana to a letter, ”written out of courtesy” to inform him of the union’s proposed second visit.
Craven said of Mangwana’s comment: ”We hope that he’s not speaking for the government as a whole.”
If that was the case, it illustrated the problem that trade unions faced on a daily basis in Zimbabwe.
Cosatu’s first mission ended on its first day when a 13-member delegation was unceremoniously deported from Harare on October 27.
Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi will meet his counterpart from the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, Wellington Chibebe, in Cape Town on Saturday to discuss the second visit to the country. The dates for the trip have not been fixed yet.
”Cosatu is going to use the meeting to get an update of Zimbabwe as far as trade union rights are concerned,” Craven said on Friday.
”Our view is that under the current political climate, conditions for free and fair elections do not exist,” he said.
”We are also interested in talking about our planned visit to Zimbabwe. We want our fact-finding mission to take place as soon as it can.” – Sapa