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Letters
=Cosatu’s views misrepresented=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wishes to register the strongest complaint about the article by Karima Brown, Abusing Zuma’s accuser erodes hard-won rights (February 17). It completely misrepresents the views of Cosatu on gender violence, and we demand that you set the record straight.

The article claims that “Zuma’s backers have been silent on the crowd’s unacceptable behaviour. And by failing to unequivocally support the complainant’s right to tell her side of the story without being bullied, the SACP and Cosatu have made a mockery of their supposedly principled stance on rape and gender violence”.

Had Ms Brown, or any other reporter from Business Day, attended the Cosatu media conference on February 16, they would have heard the federation’s leadership emphatically restate the policy of the central executive committee in respect of the rape charges against the ANC deputy president.

That policy says that the rights of both the accused and alleged victim must be fully respected. The accused has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, and to receive a fair trial. The alleged victim has the right to bring charges, and to present her case to the court. We deplore any attempts to bully or intimidate any of the parties to the case. The law must take its course.

Ms Brown then proceeds to make the even more outrageous and defamatory statement that “what these organisations have done, with the enthusiastic and often violent backing of a mob, was to roll back the hard-won rights of women to be heard when they speak out against abuse, and the right to live in a society free of rape and violence”.

Cosatu has never supported violence; it has never mobilised any mob; it played no part in organising the picket at the high court. If Ms Brown has any evidence of any of this, why has she not gone to the police to report those she believes to be responsible for such a serious crime? We demand that Business Day retract this statement.

Cosatu has never wavered in its opposition to violence against women, and has always demanded that the courts deal severely with anyone who is found guilty of any form of such violence, most especially the serious crime of rape. We support the full weight of the law being used to protect women from such crimes.

Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions, Braamfontein


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A158207**

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