South African labour leader barred from entering Zimbabwe

By Lance Guma
19 May 2006

Immigration officials barred the Secretary General of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Zwelinzima Vavi from entering Zimbabwe on Friday. Vavi arrived in Harare at 12:15pm aboard a South African Airways flight. He was refused entry as he tried to clear an immigration checkpoint and was promptly sent to the departure lounge. According to the ZCTU spokesperson Mlamleli Sibanda, Vavi was back in South Africa by around 3pm. At roughly the same time the High Court was sitting to hear an application by the ZCTU to challenge the deportation.

The ZCTU says it is buoyed by a previous High Court judgment passed in the week striking down the deportation of three congress delegates, Nina Mjoberg (LO Norway), Alice Siame (Zambia) and another COSATU official, Jani Mhlangu. Sibanda says as soon as they get another judgement on Friday the Cosatu leader should be back in the country to attend their congress. ‘After the first three, no one else was deported until Vavi came,’ he explained. They invited around 43 delegates but some withdrew fearing further deportations following Wednesday’s events. Only 22 delegates have been allowed in, suggesting that government had a list of those it did not want in the country.

Sibanda says about 15 delegates had been expected from Malawi but they withdrew at the last minute citing financial constraints. Only one delegate is now expected from Malawi. The congress, which is hosted every five years, started on Friday and is due to end on Saturday. The ZCTU spokesman says this is the unions 6th ever congress and the government was trying to influence leadership changes by constantly harrassing them.