South Africa: Union refuses to unload Chinese arms bound for Zimbabwe

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080418203902897

Friday, April 18 2008 @ 08:39 PM PDT
Contributed by: WorkerFreedom
Views: 120

Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased on Thursday when South Africa's biggest transport workers' union announced that its members would not unload the ship. SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) general secretary Randall Howard said: "Satawu does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons.

Zim arms2008-4-17 22:48Durban - Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased on Thursday when South Africa's biggest transport workers' union announced that its members would not unload the ship.

SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) general secretary Randall Howard said: "Satawu does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons.

"Our members employed at Durban container terminal will not unload this cargo neither will any of our members in the truck-driving sector move this cargo by road."

He said the ship, the An Yue Jiang, should not dock in Durban and should return to China.
"South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation between the Zanu-PF and the MDC."

"The view of our members is that nobody should ask us to unload these weapons," he said.
Satawu said it planned to ask for support from the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).

FULL story at link.

[rpannier]

1. Unfortunately the Chinese have moved the ship to the Mugabe-enablers in Angola

The situation in Zimbabwe is getting a lot worse, but as long as Mugabe has Angola's unflinching support he's protected.

[applegrove]

2. Good for the Union. That's the spirit.