26 October 2004
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is outraged and angered by the rounding off and expulsion of a COSATU delegation by the Zimbabwean government from Harare. With this act, it is time now that South Africa's workers intensify their solidarity with the workers and poor of Zimbabwe and support for the struggle for the democratisation of Zimbabwe.
We call on the South African government to strongly condemn this action. This act is ultimate proof that the Mugabe regime is essentially a dictatorial and undemocratic regime which is not willing to engage honestly with opposition forces and other role-players in the SADC.
It is time now for the SADC and the South African government to send a clear and unequivocal message to the Zimbabwean government that there is no other route to solve the impasse other than genuine negotiations to agree on institutional arrangements, constitutional amendments and other modalities required before acceptable elections can take place. The ruling party in Zimbabwe fails to understand this and acts consistently to undermine this process.
The South African government must insist that the Zimbabwean government must adhere to the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, which were agreed upon in Mauritius in August this year, must constitute the basic minimum requirements for legitimate elections in Zimbabwe (and anywhere else in our region). President Mugabe solemnly signed these protocols. He undertook (in terms of paragraph 7.1) to implement all the requirements "scrupulously". These principles and guidelines are not, in other words, conceived as some ideal-type, they are the minimum requirements
As the Communist Party, we reject with the utmost contempt the suggestion by the Zimbabwean government that COSATU is an agent of imperialism. Instead it is the bureaucratisation of liberation movements and their departure from the revolutionary agenda that exposes our region to imperialist agendas.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Head of the Office of the General Secretary
South African Communist Party
Tel - 011 339 3621, Fax - 011 339 4244/6880
Cell - 083 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za, sacpho@wn.apc.org (alternate)