The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) belongs to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), but it has nothing to do with the United States, Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Sunday.
Vavi was responding on South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news to an article in Zimbabwe’s state-run Sunday Mail, which claimed both of Cosatu’s thwarted visits to the country were masterminded and sponsored by the Washington-based organisation.
Vavi pointed out that the ICFTU, which has 150-million members, is in fact Belgian-based.
He also said Cosatu financed the two fact-finding missions itself.
Both Cosatu delegations, which had wanted to study the situation on the ground ahead of Zimbabwe’s March 31 parliamentary elections, were deported by Harare for not having official clearance.
The Sunday Mail did not clarify how it had established the link between the US, the ICFTU, and Cosatu, AFP news agency said.
”The latest attempt to invade Zimbabwe … was more for the South African constituency, where attempts are being made to stir anti-Zimbabwe and anti-President [Robert] Mugabe sentiments,” the paper said.
”When it became clear that the mission would not succeed, Cosatu persisted with its mission to Zimbabwe to create an international incident that would change South African people’s attitude towards Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe’s claim ‘laughable’
Cosatu’s alliance partner, the South African Communist Party, said Zimbabwe’s claim that Cosatu is funded by the ICFTU, and by implication by the CIA, is laughable.
”The SACP takes the strongest possible exception to this ridiculous attack on our ally, particularly from a government and party that has lost the support and confidence of key social forces in Zimbabwe: the working class, the intellectuals, the urban poor,” spokesperson Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara said in a statement.
He said Cosatu, through its interaction with the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, is ”expressing South African working-class solidarity with victims of … neo-liberal policies which were actively pursued by the bureaucratic bourgeoisie of Zimbabwe”.
Both South Africa and Zimbabwe have said the deportation of Cosatu has not affected their relations.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Labour, Paul Mangwana, has also gone on record as saying that Cosatu should stick to domestic issues and underlined that Zimbabwe ”is not a province of South Africa”.
The latest deportation of the unionists occurred on Wednesday.
A day later, officials from Zimbabwe’s largest trade union, with whom the Cosatu delegation was supposed to confer, went to South Africa to hold talks.
At the meeting, both sides agreed that the March 31 elections should be postponed to ensure that conditions are in place for a free and fair vote.
Elections held in 2000 and 2002 in Zimbabwe were marred by accusations of fraud and vote-rigging, compounding a political crisis in the Southern African country that has been ruled by Mugabe and his party for nearly 25 years.
Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has decided to contest the March 31 elections, but has also asserted that they cannot possibly be free and fair under the current political climate. — Sapa
Now the DA is going to Zim
Meanwhile, reports Richard Davies, the Democratic Alliance’s plan to send a delegation to Zimbabwe to determine whether next month’s elections can be free and fair is ”highly provocative”, says the African National Congress.
Earlier on Sunday, the DA’s federal chairperson and spokesperson on Africa, Joe Seremane, announced a team from his party will leave ”in the next few weeks”.
Reacting to the news, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said such a plan is ”meant to cause sensation, and will mar elections in Zimbabwe”.
”I don’t know what this sensation is about. Zanu-PF and the MDC have committed themselves to free and fair elections.
”The DA must stay away from that situation … they are not doing any good to our neighbour.”
Asked if he thinks the DA delegation might be turned away if it tries to enter Zimbabwe, he said: ”I wouldn’t be shocked if that was the situation. The DA’s attitude is highly provocative.”
Contacted for comment, Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Sunday his organisation has ”a very different political outlook to the DA”, but it would nevertheless be interesting to see the response of the Zimbabwean government to the arrival of a delegation from that party.
Asked whether he thinks the DA might meet a similar reception to the one meted out to his union, he said this is difficult to predict.
”It’s very difficult to say because the Zimbabwean government has not told us why Cosatu was not allowed in,” he said.
‘Meant to catch headlines’
Also contacted for comment, South African Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said whatever is done by either government or civil society in terms of Zimbabwe has to answer to one question. Does it advance or help the people of that country, ”or is it meant to catch headlines”?
In a statement on Sunday, Seremane said the decision to go to Zimbabwe stemmed from a resolution by the DA’s federal council.
”The federal council notes the disgraceful treatment meted out to Cosatu by the Mugabe government, which obviously believes that no insult or injury to South Africans by Zanu-PF will attract any adverse reaction from the … government [of President Thabo Mbeki].”
Seremane said the council noted the state of civil society, manipulation of food supplies, intimidation of the electorate, and the persecution of opposition MPs and thousands of other opposition supporters in Zimbabwe.
”The restrictions on the media, the partisan nature of the electoral commission and the difficulties of campaigning and obtaining a voters’ roll all contribute to our view that a free and fair election in Zimbabwe at this stage is almost impossible,” he said. — Sapa