Re: [Marxism] Zimbabwe Refutes *Tyrranicide* Rice's Allegations

["Patrick Bond" <pbond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> "She had the chance," Mudenge said, "of acknowledging
> that the government is sending out positive signals to
> the people through adecrease of cases of open violence
> against political opponents."

In the context of the ruling party's partial meltdown (a massive purge of
the more vocally radical nationalists), this is a very rare official
admission of repressive rule. But it doesn't impress SA trade unionists,
who'll probably be booted just as they were last October:

***

Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 January

Cosatu to go ahead with Zimbabwe visit

Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) does not require the
Zimbabwean government's permission to visit their counterparts in that
country, the union federation said on Friday. It was responding to comments
made by Zimbabwe's Labour Minister, Paul Mangwana, that Cosatu should not
seek to return to the country. "Really what is the problem of this animal
called Cosatu?" Mangwana told The Financial Gazette weekly on Thursday. "We
have our own labour unions and I don't think we need foreign labour unions
to solve our problems," he added. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven
responded on Friday by saying: "We don't think we require permission. We've
always maintained that missions of this kind don't require the permission of
the government." He said Cosatu had not yet received a reply from Mangwana
to a letter, "written out of courtesy" to inform him of the union's proposed
second visit. Craven said of Mangwana's comment: "We hope that he's not
speaking for the government as a whole." If that was the case, it
illustrated the problem that trade unions faced on a daily basis in
Zimbabwe. Cosatu's first mission ended on its first day when a 13-member
delegation was unceremoniously deported from Harare on October 27. Cosatu
secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi will meet his counterpart from the
Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, Wellington Chibebe, in Cape Town on
Saturday to discuss the second visit to the country. The dates for the trip
have not been fixed yet. "Cosatu is going to use the meeting to get an
update of Zimbabwe as far as trade union rights are concerned," Craven said
on Friday. "Our view is that under the current political climate, conditions
for free and fair elections do not exist," he said. "We are also interested
in talking about our planned visit to Zimbabwe. We want our fact-finding
mission to take place as soon as it can."

***

Star (SA), 19 January
We're not getting tough on Zanu PF, says ANC
By Angela Quintal and Christelle Terreblanche
African National Congress secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe has played
down reports that the ANC was turning up the heat on the Zimbabwean
government ahead of the March poll. Comments that he made at a press
conference in Johannesburg on Monday - in particular that the treatment of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was not conducive to
free and fair elections - were widely reported as a signal that the ANC was
hardening its stance against Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF. This coincided with
media reports that a South African intelligence agent had been arrested in
Zimbabwe for spying. In parliament yesterday, Motlanthe deflected questions
from Independent Newspapers about whether the ANC had in fact toughened its
stance. "It is actually a fiction to claim there is something like quiet or
loud diplomacy," he said. "We have dynamic discussions with both parties in
Zimbabwe and we believe we are very diplomatic." Motlanthe, accompanied by
the ANC's head of Presidency, Smuts Ngonyama, said the ANC was speaking to
the parties in Zimbabwe "in a manner which they would listen to". "We should
not conduct ourselves in a way where we shout and issue invections," he
said.
Motlanthe held extensive discussions with ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe and
addressed MPs in an informal caucus yesterday. Asked whether parliament
would send an observer team to Zimbabwe, Goniwe said South African MPs
intended getting involved in the election only under the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) banner. Meanwhile the head of communications in
the Presidency, Murphy Morobe, said he was not aware of any trip to Zimbabwe
planned by President Thabo Mbeki. Rumours that Mbeki would visit Zimbabwe to
lead a SADC fact-finding mission were fuelled by a statement from a group
calling itself Concerned Zimbabweans, as well by as a statement from
Democratic Alliance MP Joe Seremane yesterday. But several government
officials said they were unaware of any proposed visit by the president.
Mbeki and his cabinet ministers went into a three-day lekgotla today, in
which Zimbabwe is among the issues to be discussed in the context of
regional developments in SADC and Nepad. Seremane, in his statement
yesterday, welcomed Motlanthe's comments that the MDC should be afforded
basic democratic freedoms such as the right to hold public meetings and
access to state media.

***

Cape Times (SA), 20 January
SACP backs Cosatu plan for visit to Zimbabwe
By Karima Brown
Pretoria - The South African Communist Party has come out in support of
Cosatu's second planned visit to Zimbabwe. The SACP says it is in favour of
continual engagement to end the political crises in the neighbouring
country. "The more visits, the more dialogue and engagement on the political
crises in Zimbabwe, the better," said Jeremy Cronin, deputy
secretary-general of the SACP. "Cosatu plays an important role in monitoring
the situation in the run-up to the election and is an important,
non-politically partisan organisation helping to watch developments in
Zimbabwe." It was important to find ways to maximise the impact of the
Cosatu visit and presence, especially considering that there were forces in
Zimbabwe and in South Africa who were keen to provoke and see the delegation
being booted out of the country, Cronin said. "The priority is not regime
change, but the democratisation of Zimbabwe and there are forces that will
seek to disqualify Cosatu's observer role. Tactically (the Cosatu
representatives) need to think about how the visit will play out."
The SACP, which has repeatedly questioned whether the elections expected in
March in Zimbabwe can be free and fair, also welcomed the ANC's tough stance
on the ruling Zanu PF. The ANC has said that the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) must be allowed the freedom to hold public meetings.
This was an important message to get across before the elections, Cronin
said. "The key is not so much only the election or even its outcome, but use
of the election as part of a democratisation process. Beyond the political
blockage, there remain huge economic and social challenges that need to be
addressed." With less than two months to go, the MDC has yet to say if it is
to take part in the polls. It has cited violence, increasing intimidation
and the ruling party's control of the media as reasons why any election
would be fundamentally flawed. The MDC also wants guidelines to be drawn up
for the conduct of political parties and laws to curb and punish
perpetrators of the violence and intimidation it believes has helped Zanu PF
win other elections.


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