The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) would like to express its appreciation over efforts made by its counterpart, the Confederation of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) to stage a demonstration and a boarder blockade over the deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe.
We would like to salute hundreds of COSATU members from the Polokwane Province who besieged the Beitbridge boarder post on Saturday 6 June 2008 to protest against Zimbabwe's stolen elections among a host of numerous challenges facing the Southern African State.
Although the demonstration was on a small scale, the intentions remain of great significant and send a clear message to some leaders of the continent who are failing to condemn the illegitimate regime of defeated Robert Mugabe and his government who is now holding Zimbabweans at ransom.
The ZCTU would like to salute COSATU for its fight for political justice in our beloved country and would like to warn the Mugabe regime that it will not hesitate to mobilize its membership to stage similar demonstrations around the same issues put forward by COSATU in an effort to end the political madness which is being executed on the suffering people of Zimbabwe.
It is also sad to note that most leaders in Africa have failed to take a firm position against Mugabe although they are aware that he lost in the first round of elections which were held under favourable conditions set by the South African Development Community (SADC) and that his victory on the 27 of June can not be acceptable even in the most oppressive regimes around the world.
The ZCTU remains committed to playing a meaningful role of encouraging the government to engage in meaningful dialogue that will see the establishment of a transitional authority that will lead to the holding of free and fair elections under the supervision of neutral international bodies such as the United Nations, the African Union and SADC.
Efforts by Mugabe's government to engage in backdoor negotiations with some sections of the opposition in order to bring a cosmetic unity government will only help to worsen and complicate the countys political equation and this will further delay the democratization of the Zimbabwean society which is long overdue.
Together we stand and divided we fall.