FinGaz
COSATU lobby Mugabe ouster
Godfrey Marawanyika
6/26/03 10:01:04 AM (GMT +2)
President Thabo Mbeki's much criticised delicate foreign policy on Zimbabwe goes under a litmus test with the powerful and militant Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) positioning itself to aggressively push the South African leader to force President Robert Mugabe, currently balancing on a political knife-edge, from power and call for an interim government as a precursor for the ushering in of new political dispensation.
The move by the South African labour union, a key ally of the ruling African National Union (ANC) during the liberation of the country, was unanimously agreed on May 28 and 29, at a meeting convened in Johannesburg to actively support calls by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and other stakeholders, "for an interim government in Zimbabwe and the drafting of a new constitution on the basis of which fresh elections should be conducted"
Before the ink is even dry on the paper on which its resolution is written, Cosatu is already mobilising its Northern Province affiliates to organise mass demonstrations around the Beitbridge area to highlight the plight of the Zimbabwean people.
The Northern Province lies just after the Limpopo River which borders Zimbabwe and South Africa, its biggest trading partner. One Cosatu official said the dates for the demonstrations were yet to be fixed as "we are waiting for some issues to be addressed from there (Zimbabwe)" without elaborating. The demonstrations are set to spill-over into Zimbabwe.
According to confidential information obtained by this paper, Cosatu's leadership resolved at their Johannesburg meeting that they would shortly be sending a fact-finding mission into Zimbabwe comprising of all its affiliates, before cracking its whip on Mbeki to deal with Zimbabwe's crisis and force a re-run of Zimbabwe's presidential election. This follows their meeting with the ZCTU in Johannesburg last month.
"I can confirm that Cosatu met President Mbeki last month and they talked about Zimbabwe, where the President explained his positions", said the South African presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo. He however professed ignorance over the planned demonstrations scheduled for the Northern Province.
George Charamba, the permanent secretary in the Department of Information and Publicity in the President's Office and his boss, Jonathan Moyo were both said to be out of the office yesterday.
Willard Chiwewe, responsible for Special Affairs in the President's office said, " People protesting against their governments, I don't think that is consistent with their Pan Africanist position. Instead Cosatu could learn a lot from the solidarity that European Union or American labour organisations have. They will be out of the way of the Pan Africanist view which President Mbeki has been doing"
Sources from Johannesburg indicated that Zimbabwe's issue, which had been simmering under within the ANC's ruling block, could boil over, exposing that the alliance has not been singing from the same song sheet over efforts to curtail a long-standing crisis in Zimbabwe.
President Mbeki has come in for a flak over his silent diplomacy at a time there has been a chorus for a radical push to effect a regime change in Zimbabwe.
Calls for megaphone diplomacy and decisive action on Zimbabwe come at a time when there is an ill-feeling within both the ruling Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over each party's sincerity in the aborted talks to find a negotiated settlement to the country's still unfolding crisis. The protagonists of the negotiated settlement felt that the political impasse is a millstone around the country' neck.
While it is widely believed that a negotiated settlement could avert further trauma so far suffered by Zimbabweans in the country's increasingly violent political divide, both the MDC and Zanu PF, led by what observers feel are the country's biggest political egos, Morgan Tsvangirai and President Mugabe respectively, have been playing hardball.
President Mugabe under whose stewardship the economy has collapsed into a recessionary heap has all along been exploiting the power of incumbency, and always reminds his critics that his ruling Zanu PF fought for the liberation struggle.
The MDC however argues that although the war of liberation was important, it is now of the past and will not be a rallying point for the future. Given the sweeping nature of the economic melt-down, the MDC has been tapping into a deep well of disenchantment of Zimbabweans frustrated with social depravation.
The decision by Cosatu, which was taken by its executive committee, is expected to break the crucial alliance between Mbeki's government and Cosatu. Cosatu's leadership is intent on taking Mbeki hostage over his quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe, which has been widely criticised as ineffective in dealing with the country's political and economic crisis.
"Cosatu will lobby the South African government to pressurise President Mugabe..to accede to the demands by trade union movement for democracy, restoration of rule of law and free political activity," the Cosatu executive declared in minutes obtained by The Financial Gazette.
The Cosatu executive said it had a "historical duty" to help find a solution to Zimbabwe's problems and ensure democracy and free political activity.
Cosatu confirmed their position on the planned demonstrations on Tuesday this week.
"This will not in any way affect our relationship with the ANC at all. I believe President Mbeki is arguing for the same political settlement in Zimbabwe. So our stance will not affect our relationship with the government since we are working for the same solutions", said Patrick Craven, a Cosatu spokesman who could not however say when the planned demonstrations would take place.
"The resolution that was taken by Cosatu was a result of our meeting with them last month. After the meeting that's when they came with that position and I must say we are very much humbled by their response since we come from the family of both regional and international labour unions", said Wellington Chibhebhe, the seretary general of the ZCTU.
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