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current issue is always free to everyone
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The Congress of South
African Trade Unions fully sympathises with the decision of
the Movement for Democratic Change to withdraw from what was
clearly going to be a totally unfree and unfair election on
27 June 2008. The federation is appalled at the levels of
violence and intimidation being inflicted on the people of
Zimbabwe
by the illegitimate Mugabe regime, and endorses the view of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), that:
- Political violence
in the country has reached alarming if not catastrophic
proportions;
- The 27 June Presidential
election is not an election, but a declaration of war against
the people of Zimbabwe
by the ruling party;
- Dozens of people
have been murdered due to political motivated violence;
- Thousands of
people have been threatened with death, beaten, tortured
and harassed for expressing or supporting the opposition
political party;
- People are being
forced to attend political rallies, failing which they are
being beaten up;
- There has been
deployment and sprouting of several bases led by the ruling
party militia that are harassing and perpetrating violence;
- The usual polling
officers, i.e. teachers and civil servants, have been sidelined
in the running of elections in favour of ruling party supporters;
- Thousands of
people have been displaced through political violence and
are thereby unable to vote;
- The State President
has made it clear that he will not accept defeat even if
he loses the elections;
- Very few local
observers have been accredited to oversee the conduct of
the elections;
- There has been
continuous harassment of workers on their way to and from
work by youths militia who have been deployed in suburbs;
- Opposition party
agents have been harassed, some killed and therefore unable
to monitor what may happen in some wards on the day of the
election;
- The opposition
has not been granted permission to campaign;
- There is a complete
black out of the opposition in the public media and in case
where it is mentioned, has always been in negative light;
- Potential voters
are being threatened that their names would be recorded
if they voted for the opposition;
- COSATU therefore
supported the decision of the ZCTU not to accept an outcome
of any flawed election, and demands that the leaders of
the SADC and AU governments, whose observers are now in
the country, make a clear public statement that the elections
cannot possibly be free and fair, and to withdraw their
recognition of a 'government' that has no mandate to rule
following their defeat on 29 March 2008, but is clinging
to power by brute force.
Now that MDC President
Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of the Presidential run off
in protest over the conditions articulated by the ZCTU (above),
the COSATU NOBs, in their normal Monday meeting, decided as
follows:
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To
work with the COSATU Limpopo Province
to start mobilising for a blockade to protest against the
violence Mugabe has unleashed against his own people.  This
will also serve as a reminder to the now illegal and illegitimate
government that Zimbabwe
is not an island and that they do need the cooperation of
neighbours like South Africa to survive.
-
To
call on all COSATU's other Provinces, together with civil
society organisations, including those armchair critics
of COSATU's commitment to human rights, to organise rallies
during June and July, and to call on the ANC and SACP to
take similar action in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.
-
To
call on the workers in South Africa, SADC, Africa and the
world over, as well as all progressive citizens of the world,
to work towards a total isolation of Mugabe and his government.
 We
call on all our unions and those everywhere else in the
world to make sure that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere,
including at airports, restaurants, shops, etc. Further
we call on all workers and citizens of the world never to
allow Mugabe to set foot in their countries.
-
To
call on the South African government, SADC governments,
African governments and all other governments not to recognise
Mugabe's illegal government all over the world, and to refuse
to have any dealings with Mugabe other than ensuring that
he work towards a new elections strictly under the conditions
of total observance of the SADC election protocols.
-
To
endorse the statement by the SADC chairman Benjamin Mwanawasa
that there were no prospects for a free and fair lection
in Zimbabwe.
-
To
call on all the governments and employers to support the
application that has been submitted by labour under Article
26 of the ILO Constitution against the Zimbabwe government
for non-observance of the ILO's Convention 87 (Freedom of
Association and Protection of the Right to Organise) and
Convention 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining)
respectively.
These BlackCommentator.com
Guest Commentators are from COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Click here for more information about COSATU.
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