South Africa’s largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), and its counterpart, the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), have threatened demonstrations including blockades of all borders to Zimbabwe.
This comes after the leaders of Cosatu and the ZCTU met on Thursday at Tshipise in the Limpopo province of South Africa.
This was the meeting that would have taken place in Harare on February 2 had the Zimbabwean government not refused entry to Cosatu’s 20-strong fact-finding delegation for the second time.
The Cosatu fact-finding mission was sent in response to an invitation of the ZCTU to discuss the political and socio-economic problems facing workers and the trade-union movement in Zimbabwe.
”The meeting was an emotional heart-to-heart exchange of views, beginning with the singing of Solidarity Forever and the Internationale. It reaffirmed the right of trade unions of all countries to visit each other to discuss issues of common concern, without seeking permission from any government, providing only that they obey the laws of that country,” the two unions said in a joint statement.
The two unions added that international solidarity is a fundamental principle of the ZCTU, Cosatu and trade unions throughout the world, and must never be conditional on government support.
The ZCTU reminded the meeting that when its leaders were arrested and jailed in 2003, they were immediately released after Cosatu issued a statement threatening to blockade the border unless the leaders were released within 48 hours.
The representatives of the ZCTU reported on the deep crisis the country is facing, both political and socio-economic, ”in the context of the history of the Zimbabwean national revolution”.
The union said that under the sweeping provisions of the Zimbabwean Public Order and Security Act, police permission is required for virtually all trade union events, even traditional celebrations such as May Day and International Women’s Day, and workshops on HIV/Aids.
”Even when permission is granted, it is hedged with conditions concerning venues and agendas and an insistence that there must be no statements that undermine the authority of the president of the republic.
”All these regulations make it impossible to interact with and report back to the membership. The trade unions were supposed to have been exempted from all these provisions but the police enforce them just the same.”
Independent movement
The ZCTU reaffirmed that it is not aligned to any political party but an authentic and independent trade-union movement, whose policies are determined by its national congress.
ZCTU added that its finances are stretched because of all the legal costs of the court cases in which its members have been involved and the government’s ban on the receipt of any funding from foreign organisations.
The union pointed out that its efforts to engage in social dialogue with the government and business are constantly thwarted by the government issuing statements that, for instance, refer to agreements with the unions which were never reached.
The ZCTU also reported on the economic crisis facing what was formerly the ”breadbasket” of Africa. Unemployment is at 80%. Inflation rocketed to 644% in December 2003. At present, it has dropped to an ”equally disastrous” 150%. Of the 12-million Zimbabwean citizens, five million are living in the diaspora, with an estimated 2,4-million in South African and Botswana.
In the ZCTU’s view, conditions for free and fair elections do not exist at present. There is still strong resentment at the outcome of the 2000 elections, 37 results of which are still being contested in the courts.
In five cases where the courts have overturned the results, the MPs are still attending Parliament pending appeals.
The union claimed that people who were born in Zimbabwe and the five million living outside the country are now denied the right to vote.
”The voters’ rolls are a shambles. No foreign journalists are to be allowed in the country to cover the elections without a tacit approval of the minister of information.
”Local media outlets, including the Daily News, have been closed down, under the Access to Information and Privacy Act, which makes a free press impossible. NGOs have been crushed by the recent NGO Act, which has cut off their foreign funding.
”Opposition parties do not have access to the media, and violence from the war veterans and youth militias is an ever-present threat. The elections are to be administered by government officials. No observers from outside Africa will be allowed and the number of domestic observers is also severely restricted.”
The ZCTU also alleged that mobile polling stations have been scrapped and votes are to be counted at the polling stations, which poses major security risks.
”Overall, there is not yet compliance with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocols and the prospects for free and fair elections are bleak.”
Demands adopted
The meeting adopted the demands that the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Privacy Act must be scrapped and that there must be a genuinely independent electoral commission.
The meeting demanded that the voters’ roll be sorted out and that SADC observers be sent in to assess if conditions for free and fair elections exist.
An end to the prohibition of entry to Zimbabwe of Cosatu and other civil society formations is also among the demands decided upon at the meeting.
Cosatu and the ZCTU have called for a special executive meeting of the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council to organise concerted action in support of these demands.
The delegation will propose at the forthcoming Cosatu central executive committee meeting that a South African civil society conference on the crisis in Zimbabwe be convened to coordinate solidarity and deepen people-to-people contact.
Cosatu will brief its alliance partners on the meeting and urge the South African government to mobilise the SADC, African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development structures to insist on the implementation in Zimbabwe of their own election standards. — I-Net Bridge