23 April, 2008Workers in South Africa forced a Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe to leave the South African port of Durban after failing to unload.
SOUTH AFRICA: A Chinese ship, owned by the large state-owned company COSCO, called AN YUE Jiang arrived on Wednesday, April 16, at Durban, South Africa. The Bleeds newspaper reported it was carrying nearly three million rounds of ammunitions for small arms and AK-47s, about 3,500 mortars and mortal launchers and 1,500 rockets for rocket-propelled grenades. The paper said it had a copy of the ship's cargo documentation, finalized on April 1 three days after the Zimbabwe national election.
A South African government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, had confirmed that there were weapons on board but gave no further details.
The weapons were packed in large red and blue containers piled high on the ship's dock.
The ship came as Zimbabwe began a partial recount of votes from the March 29 elections. It is generally believed that they show Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party clearly losing its majority to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for the first time.
The recount of 23 of 210 constituencies could overturn the results of the Parliamentary elections, which have not so far been officially announced.
According to the South African President Thabo Mbeki, the 77 tonnes of weapons aboard AN YUE Jiang were legal cargo and would be transported 1,000 miles overland northwards to Zimbabwe.
But Randall Howard general secretary of the South African Transport union (SATAWU), to which the Durban Dockers belong, warned, "as far as we are concerned, the containers will not be offloaded."
An Anglican archbishop argued the arms were likely to be used to crush the Zimbabwe opposition following the disputed March 29 elections.
Human rights groups had petitioned for a block on the arms and dock workers had refused to unload the shipment.
The IMF Regional Office, in collaboration with other GUF's in the region, is currently engaged in a real solidarity campaign with many civil society organizations and unions in the region to stop the Chinese vessel cargo from using the Angolan port or any other port in the region, to offload Mugabe weapons.
Letters have been sent to the IMF affiliate in Angola, the national center and the transport union requesting them to work with other civil society organization in the country to put pressure on the Angolan government to prevent the Chinese vessel cargo from using the Angolan port.