South African trade unionists deported

The Zimbabwean government on Tuesday deported a 14-member South African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU) delegation on a fact-finding visit to the country.

The COSATU team arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday on a four-day mission, after the government warned they would not be welcome, but were eventually allowed into the country.

The police, intelligence services and immigration officers rounded up the delegates on Tuesday as they held a meeting with their counterparts from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions at a hotel in central Harare, the capital.

The head of the COSATU delegation, Violet Seboni, condemned their extradition. "This is absolutely crazy, but we are not angry or surprised. This confirms to the world what we have always said, that there is no rule of law and that democratic space is being closed. Only one side of the Zimbabwean story has been told, but everybody can now see the levels of intolerance."

Immigration officials told IRIN that the cabinet had resolved to deport the South Africans after they refused to give guarantees that they would not meet members of civic society accused by the authorities of being anti-government.

COSATU international relations secretary Simon Boshiel told IRIN: "Immigration officials and members of the police wanted us to give a guarantee that we would not meet with Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe [CCZ], National Constitutional Assembly [NCA] and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches [ZCC]. We could not give them the guarantee because ... we did not understand why this was necessary."

The CCZ groups together labour, churches, opposition political parties, media, civic and human rights groups working for a negotiated solution to Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis. The NCA is an alliance of several organisations campaigning for a new "democratic" constitution, while the ZCC is the biggest representative body of churches in the country.

The NCA was quick to condemn the deportation of the trade unionists.

"What makes the action even more deplorable is that the COSATU delegation had not committed any offence in Zimbabwe," said NCA spokesperson Jessie Majome.