Hundreds descend on Beitbridge border for COSATU demo

By Tererai Karimakwenda
19 April, 2007

Hundreds of members from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) gathered at the Beitbridge border post on Thursday to demonstrate in solidarity with the workers in Zimbabwe. COSATU acting spokesperson Patrick Craven said this was the continuation of a campaign which was launched on April 3rd and 4th this year, during the mass action stay-away organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). He said hundreds of Zimbabweans living in South Africa had also turned out for the event and he hoped it would encourage many more to take part.

Explaining further Craven said: “It is one of the founding principles of COSATU that we must act in solidarity with workers under attack.” The powerful labour group has also organised protests at the border of Swaziland in solidarity with workers in that country who are under siege.

In Zimbabwe, officials from the ZCTU including President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe, have been arrested and tortured on several occasions as part of a government campaign to replace them with a group more sympathetic to the ruling party. But the umbrella labour union said they refuse to betray the needs of the workers and will continue to fight.

The majority of workers in Zimbabwe are earning wages below the poverty datum line. When they express their frustration by demonstrating, as is allowed by the constitution, they are beaten severely and arrested.