The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Congress of South African Trade Unions issued a joint statement on Monday warning that if the crisis talks between the Zimbabwean ruling party and its political opposition fail - as some observers say they have done already - the Zimbabwean economy “will completely collapse.”
Trade unionists from both countries met in Johannesburg where ZCTU officials briefed their South African counterparts on the state of affairs in Zimbabwe. COSATU said it will discuss a package of “people-based” humanitarian aid with the governing alliance in Pretoria and civil society partners so as to be prepared for all eventualities.
The unions took up the rising flood of Zimbabwean refugees into South Africa. Union sources said COSATU declared there was no way to stop the exodus from hardship.
ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that time has run out for finding solutions.
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