Operation+Restore+Order+in+Zimbabwe,+COSATU

COSATU media statement – 14 July 2005
=Operation Restore Order in Zimbabwe=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is shocked by the demolition of homes and the destruction of informal businesses in Zimbabwe, which have led to at least four deaths and an estimated 200 000 poor Zimbabwean families being left homeless.

We strongly condemn these vindictive acts by the government and congratulate the South African Council of Churches leaders for exposing what they rightly call the “deliberate destruction of the informal economy, which is meant to cater for the economically vulnerable”.

COSATU also condemns the way the government has treated the people after evicting them. When Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions Secretary General, Wellington Chibebe, visited some of the camps where they have been dumped, they reminded him of the time of the liberation struggle when people were shoved into protected villages. They were heavily guarded by plain-clothed security personnel who do not allow the occupants to talk to ‘strangers’.

COSATU agrees with the ZCTU that “the Government has deprived these people of a basic human right - the right to shelter - and that these people are now refugees in their own country”. They have also been denied their right to earn a living, free association and movement, food for their families, education for their children and access to medical care.

COSATU reaffirms its solidarity with the ZCTU and all the workers and poor in Zimbabwe, who are struggling against a monumental economic and political crisis. With unemployment now at 85%, poverty is forcing thousand to flee the country in a desperate search for work. For thousands who remain, informal trading offered the only hope of earning any money for their families. Now these evictions have swept away that small hope of survival. This action will make already intolerable levels of poverty even worse.

At the same time, democratic rights are being further eroded, with the enactment of yet another repressive law. The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act imposes a fine of $5 million or a jail sentence of up to 20 years or both for anyone who //“who publishes or communicates false statements”// that are perceived to be //“prejudicial to the State”,// and stiffer penalties for anyone convicted of //“publicly”// making or publishing a statement (including any act or gesture) that is deemed as //“undermining the authority of or insulting”// the presidency. These clauses introduce much more draconian penalties for similar offences already contained in the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The consequences of this latest attack on free speech will be severe for trade unions and civil society organisations which are already restricted by a battery of dictatorial laws and state repression, which make it impossible for them to function and represent their members.

In particular we condemn and deplore the continued arrests, beatings and torture of trade unionists like Thabita Khumalo, Secretary of the ZCTU Women’s Advisory Council, whom we welcome here today. We call upon the trade union movement internationally to condemn such actions in the strongest possible terms.

The situation has become a massive tragedy. COSATU reiterates that the only way to begin to solve this crisis and prevent an even greater catastrophe, is to establish a broad-based government of national unity, embracing all political parties, civil society, church and labour organisations, to draw up a new democratic constitution and restore all human rights to the people of Zimbabwe.

Cel: 082 491 1591, Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24, Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940 E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**
 * Paul Notyhawa (Spokesperson), Congress of South African Trade Unions