Zim crisis costs South Africa R9 billion

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Communist Party, alliance partner of the ruling African National Congress, has condemned Zimbabwe's "low-intensity democracy" saying it will seek to engage the opposition and the ruling party in Zimbabwe to resolve the deepening crisis.
After its recent central co

mmittee meeting, the SACP stopped just short of naming the ruling Zanu (PF) regime. It “condemned authoritarianism, torture of political opponents of the regime and gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe”.
Spokesperson Nkosiphendule Kolisile also announced that the party would send its own “fact-finding” mission to Zimbabwe in the next three months.
This is the party’s strongest statement yet on the situation in South Africa’s northern neighbour and the only strongly worded condemnation of the Zimbabwean regime to emerge from the alliance.
There has been concern within the SACP that not enough is being done to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. The party now says it will seek engagement with the Zanu (PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a “complementary and not parallel process” with those of the South African government and the ANC.
The IMF has predicted that inflation in Zimbabwe was expected to exceed 4000 percent next year. It also reported that the Zimbabwean crisis had cost South Africa’s “real economy” more than R9-billion last year.
“The SACP stands firmly for the promotion of an environment in which free political activity can take place without fear of intimidation,” Kolisile said.
The SACP already has ties with other socialist political organisations, such as Frelimo in Mozambique and the Communist Party of Lesotho.
Last month the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) condemned the arrests of Zimbabwean trade unionists for protesting against poor salaries and the poor provision of AIDS drugs.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is expected to picket at the Zimbabwean border “soon” in solidarity with persecuted trade union leaders in Zimbabwe.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the labour federation would “support our fellow trade unionists in their struggle for basic human rights and against poverty in Zimbabwe”.

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