South African businesses push for more pressure on Zimbabwe

By Tererai Karimakwenda
13 January 2006

As the political and economic crisis next door in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate, businesses in South Africa are becoming more concerned and impatient with their government’s deafening silence and soft approach. Labour organisations in the country have been speaking out against the Mugabe regime’s abusive treatment of workers for years now, with the powerful umbrella labour group COSATU at the forefront. But now businesses are urging the Mbeki government to abandon its current methods.
A report in South Africa’s Business Day newspaper quotes several very influential businessmen calling for a new approach on Zimbabwe. Warren Clewlow, who sits on the boards of four top 10 listed companies in SA, urged government to stop its unsuccessful behind-the-scenes attempts to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis and start vociferously condemning what was happening.

Business Unity SA (Busa), the umbrella body for all business organisations in South Africa, was also reported to be critical of the government’s "quiet diplomacy" policy on Zimbabwe. Busa chief operating officer Vic van Vuuren, who visited the country recently, said the mood among businesspeople there was "very, very despondent" - and the situation was deteriorating. The Business Day report said many South African companies had lost export and import business to and from Zimbabwe. These factors have contributed to the outcry for a change in South African policy.

COSATU condemned a Tuesday raid by Zimbabwe police on the offices of The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The acting spokesman Patrick Craven then turned his attention back home and called on President Thabo Mbeki to take a firmer stand on Zimbabwe. He told us that although they have never opposed the government’s policy it has not produced results. Craven believes all of Africa should exercise the peer review mechanisms that are part of the African Union charter and put on more pressure to change the Zimbabwe crisis.

Yet in the face of all this criticism, and given the recent riots outside Pretoria in which foreigners were attacked by the locals, the South African government has remained silent. Last week government officials refused to comment on the African Commission’s resolution criticising human rights violations by the Mugabe regime.