Cosatu condemns abduction of Zimbabwe union leader 04-04-07

 

COSATU condemns abduction of Zimbabwe union leader

The Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns in the strongest possible terms the abduction at gun point of Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)

Majongwe, who is also a member of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) general council, was kidnapped by suspected CIO agents on Tuesday afternoon, the first day of the ZCTU's two-day mass stayaway, at a shopping centre in Harare, where he had gone to buy lunch on his way to the PTUZ offices.

A vendor at the shopping centre reported that unknown assailants, one of them brandishing a pistol, had accosted Majongwe and bundled him into an unmarked car which sped off at high speed before people could do anything.

PTUZ president, Takavafira Zhou, has been unable to locate him since. He has alerted the police but says they were not expecting much help from the police, who have been accomplices in the abduction and torture of trade unionists and opposition politicians in the past.

The PTUZ had called on all teachers to take part in the two-day mass stayaway by not reporting for work on Tuesday and Wednesday. But the government responded by cutting the school term short by two days in order to pre-empt the mass stayaway in schools.

This latest outrage confirms the view of both the ZCTU and COSATU that the Zimbabwe government will stop at nothing to try to crush all resistance to its rule. It fully vindicates the ZCTU's reasons for holding the national stayaway.

COSATU demands the immediate release of our fellow trade unionist and the prosecution of those responsible for his abduction. This incident will strengthen our determination to intensify our campaign of solidarity with our fellow workers in Zimbabwe.