The secretary general of the African Regional Organisation
of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, was
arrested yesterday pending deportation to Ghana for violating the country’s
laws. According to reports, Adu-Amankwah arrived in the country yesterday for
an ‘‘international solidarity meeting with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions’’.
Amankwah was also scheduled to meet ‘‘some’’ Government
officials, the International Labour Organisation and the Employers
Confederation of Zimbabwe to get an appreciation of the situation in the
country. He was part of a three-member ITUC fact finding delegation.
When contacted for comment, the Immigration Department’s
public relations officer, Principal Immigration Officer Mrs Canisia Magaya,
said she was still checking and yet to get the full details of the case.
Efforts to get a comment from the police were fruitless.
Harare lawyer Mr Doug Coltart confirmed Amankwah’s arrest on his twitter
handle. The development comes after there were reports that the MDC-Alliance is
using the ZCTU platforms to train youths in violence and destabilisation
tactics in order to render the country ungovernable and effect regime change.
A ZCTU-affiliated non-governmental organisation, the Labour
Economic Department Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ), is conducting
countrywide workshops where it is using labour issues as a smokescreen to hide
its plot to unseat the Government.
Recently, a workshop was held at Odyssey Hotel in Kadoma,
where the 50 people who attended were paid US$20 each.
The workshop was chaired by ZCTU Mashonaland West
provincial chairperson, Mr Zviito Fungulani, who is also the MDC Alliance
councillor for Chegutu.
In an interview, Mr Fungulani confirmed the training
workshops slated for all towns across the country.
MDC-Alliance instigated violence that saw lives being lost
and property worth millions of dollars destroyed last month. When the security
forces intervened to contain the violence, there was an orchestrated outcry
from the MDC Alliance and the West.
Some Western countries funded the demonstrations through
the Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe, an umbrella body of anti-Government bodies
that was involved in the planning of violent demonstrations dating back to last
year.
In October last year, ZCTU leadership and some activists
appeared in court charged with organising illegal demonstrations. Those who
appeared in court were ZCTU president Peter Gift Mutasa and secretary- general
Japhet Moyo. Herald
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