| The best Zimbabwe news site on the world wide web |  |
| NEWS |
| FORUMS |
| NEWS ANALYSIS |
| READERS' FORUM |
Cosatu leaders deported from Zimbabwe
By
Staff Reporter
A DELEGATION
of thirteen trade unionists from the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (Cosatu) was deported from Zimbabwe a day after they arrived
on a "fact finding" mission.
The delegation - led by Cosatu deputy president Violet Seboni and representing
all affiliated South African trade unions - had landed in Harare at
9pm on Monday.
The Zimbabwe government strongly advised them to abandon the mission,
or if they did go ahead with the visit, not to meet certain organisations.
The 13 were hounded out of the Quality International Hotel by members of Zimbabwe's intelligence services and the police on Tuesday morning, and escorted to the Harare International Airport where they were set to be put on a plane back to South Africa.
Violet Siboni, the leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions team, told AFP: "They've told us to go back. They tell us we must go back because in our passports we were given only one day's stay."
An AFP correspondent in Harare saw the defiant group being driven to the airport from the hotel under police guard.
Before leaving, they shouted "Amandla Ngawethu" or "Power to the People" -- a South African liberation-era slogan.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven in Johannesburg denounced the move, saying it was a slap in the face of both his organisation and the South African government.
"Cosatu is appalled at the conduct of the Zimbabwe police. They invaded the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and just as the meeting of the mission was coming to an end, the mission was escorted by the police back to the hotel and told that the cabinet has decided that the mission must come to an end.
"In view of the fact that the mission was later due to meet the South African High Commissioner (ambassador) to Harare, the move is a snub to the South African government as well as to Cosatu," he told AFP.
Cosatu said the
mission, which would have lasted a week, was to get "an accurate
picture of the situation
in the country" and make a contribution to resolving some of the
problems facing Zimbabwe, especially its trade unions.
Cosatu received a letter from the Zimbabwe Ministry of Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare last week, declaring the mission was "not
acceptable".
At the airport,
they were met by Zimbabwe officials who sought an undertaking from them
not to meet certain organisations and individuals. The Cosatu party
refused to make such an undertaking but were nevertheless allowed into
Zimbabwe.
The delegates had just met Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
general secretary Wellington Chibebe and his deputy, Collen Gwiyo when
police barged in.
The Zimbabwe government had warned Cosatu to cancel the visit, insisting
that some of the civic society organisations which Cosatu was to hold
meetings with were "critical about the government of Zimbabwe...
and indeed most of these are quasi-oppositional political organisations".
The letter said the mission was "predicated in the political domain"
and that some of the organisations were involved in "the political
discourse of Zimbabwe".
The letter listed the Crisis Coalition, the National Constitutional
Assembly, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.
The African National Congress had no immediate comment on the Cosatu
mission on Tuesday.
"There is no comment from the ANC," said spokesman Smuts Ngonyama.
South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for
comment.
JOIN THE
DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com
All material copyright newzimbabwe.com
Material may be published or reproduced in any form with appropriate credit to this website