The Democratic Alliance trio prohibited from entering Zimbabwe on Friday said this action undermined the protocol of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
On their return to Johannesburg International airport, chairperson Joe Seremane said Zimbabwe’s heavy-handedness comes at a time when the SADC is easing passport requirements to promote the free movement of people between states.
Seremane, chief whip Douglas Gibson and researcher Paul Boughey flew to Harare on Friday morning for a pre-election fact-finding visit but were sent home on the same aeroplane.
The trio said they will appeal to Zimbabwean authorities their ejection from the country.
Speaking to journalists at the airport, Gibson said the DA’s visit was different from that of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which was also recently prevented entry to Zimbabwe on a similar mission.
”Cosatu is a trade union. We are the official opposition,” said Gibson.
The DA officials said they were insulted by their experience in Zimbabwe, but that the authorities had treated them well.
Gibson added that their experience also calls President Thabo Mbeki’s policy on Zimbabwe into question.
He said the matter will be reported to the SADC parliamentary forum, on which Seremane is a representative, and to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, of which Gibson is a member.
Seremane called the matter petty and said he had ”walked that road with apartheid”.
Reacting to African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) criticism of the visit — deriding Seremane as a ”coconut” — black outside, white on the inside — and accusing the DA of favouring ”mercenaries”, Seremane said this is racism.
”But I have no hard feelings,” he said, adding that the ANCYL is still growing up.
Gibson said his own son has more sense than ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa, who is probably wearing a Gucci outfit and will be a millionaire before the age of 25.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), while ”dissociating itself from the policies and orientation of the DA”, condemned the party’s ejection from Zimbabwe.
In a statement, spokesperson Mlamleli Sibanda said no citizen of the SADC with a valid passport should be prohibited from visiting Zimbabwe.
The ZCTU recently invited Cosatu to Zimbabwe.
This delegation was also refused entry and the ZCTU had to travel to South Africa for the meeting. — Sapa