Zimbabwe deports SA trade unionists

Zimbabwe deports SA trade unionists

MUGABE

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• Law to ban indecent or obsence comments about Mugabe

• SA Zimbabweans rally against rights abuses

• Zimbabwe bans NGOs

• MTHULISI MATHUTHU: NGOs inconvinient for totalitarian project

• Zim unionists arrested after Cosatu visit

• Cosatu threatens Zimbabwe border blockade

• Mbeki's government embarassed by Cosatu deportation

• Cosatu leaders stuck in Zimbabwe

• Cosatu leaders deported from Zimbabwe

• Defiant Cosatu goes ahead with Zim mission

• Madhuku charged, released after 12 hours

• Madhuku arrested in dawn raid

• Zim holds public hearing on NGO Bill

• Economic cost of NGO Bill

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE officials barred South African trade union leaders from the country Wednesday, stopping them at Harare airport and ordering them to return immediately to South Africa.

In a move that highlights frictions between Zimbabwe and its most important regional ally, Zimbabwe carried through with a vow to stop the visit by leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which Harare has accused of being an agent for western critics meddling in its internal affairs.

"There is a prohibition form waiting for all here containing all our names, so the plan was to kick us back," COSATU Secretary-General Zwelinzima Vavi told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) from Harare airport.

Another member of the COSATU team, Rosaline de Wee, told Reuters by telephone the group would not resist deportation.

"We have been kicked out formally ... we are about to go (home) on the very same flight we came with."

Zimbabwe labor leaders waved at their South African counterparts who responded with waves and victory signs from behind the immigration barrier.

"Where do you think you are? This is not Africa, this is not Zimbabwe, this is North Korea!" Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General Wellington Chibebe shouted jokingly at the South African visitors.

President Robert Mugabe's government had threatened to jail the COSATU team on arrival, but officials later said the group would be deported to avoid embarrassing South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has promoted a policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards his country's troubled northern neighbor.

COSATU, the powerful umbrella group of South African trade unions, is an official alliance partner of Mbeki's ruling African National Congress (ANC) but has taken a much tougher line on Zimbabwe than the South African government.

The abortive COSATU trip came as Zimbabwe readies for March 31 parliamentary elections seen as a test of how far Mugabe's government has yielded to international pressure for a fair vote, and of the popularity of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a party with strong labor links.

The MDC had been due to announce a decision this week on whether it would contest the election, but party sources said the decision could be delayed for up to a week until a regional group sends a delegation to Harare to determine whether free and fair polls can be held.

The Zimbabwe official said Harare wanted to send a clear message to South African unions that it would not be bullied.

"The message is that we should still show that Zimbabwe is not a banana republic, and we will not allow them to treat us as one," he said.

Mugabe's government expelled a similar COSATU fact-finding mission last October, saying it was acting in concert with Western countries led by former colonial ruler Britain.

Mugabe says he is being targeted for retribution by Western powers opposed to his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks - Reuters
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