http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=750957
Union refuses to unload arms ship
SapaPublished:Apr 17, 2008
Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in
Durban and transported
to Zimbabwe increased today when South Africa's
largest 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 engage support from the
Congress of SA Trade
Unions (Cosatu).
Defence secretary January Masilela told Sapa today
that the scrutiny committee of the
National Conventional Arms Control Committee's (NCACC)
, which he chairs,
had approved the conveyance permit on Monday already.
He said a inspection team from the NCACC would still
have to ensure the
cargo met the requirements of the permit before the
cargo could begin to be
transported to Zimbabwe. The permit would be endorsed
by the NCACC when it
meets next month.
Asked about the controversy surrounding the shipment
Masilela said: "This is
a normal transaction between two sovereign states. We
are doing our legal
part and we donâ't have to interfere."
In Cape Town, government communications head Themba
Maseko said the country
could not stop the shipment from getting to its
destination as it had to be
seen to be "treading very carefully" in its relations
with Zimbabwe, given
the complexity of facilitating talks between the
Movement for Democratic
Change and Zanu-PF.
Chris de Vos, the secretary general for the United
Transport and Allied
Trade Union, said the union was "not happy" about the
arms shipment being
transported through South Africa.
"We are going to request an urgent meeting with the
management. We are aware
that members are very uncomfortable with the
situation," he said.
He said that while no decision had been taken by the
union on offloading the
weapons and arms, the union leadership was not in
favour of the weapons
being transported.
Democratic Alliance defence spokesman Rafeek Shah said
the government's
approval to allow the arms to be shipped was "the
surest sign yet that
government has completely lost the plot on the
Zimbabwe issue".
Shah said: "The worldâ?Ts astonishment at President
(Thabo) Mbekiâ?Ts
political defence of Robert Mugabe will likely turn
into outright anger as
we are now not only denying the existence of a crisis
in Zimbabwe, but also
actively facilitating the arming of an increasingly
despotic and desperate
regime."
Kallie Kriel, AfriForum chief executive, said the
organisation intended
organising "an extensive campaign of peaceful
demonstrations in an effort to
prevent a consignment of Chinese arms from being
transported from Durban
across South African territory to Zimbabwe".
The SA Institute of Race Relations said on Thursday:
"It would be
unconscionable for South Africa to allow an arms
consignment through its
borders en route to Zimbabwe."
Spokesman Frans Cronje said that if the shipment went
ahead, "South
Africaâ?Ts culpability in the Zimbabwe crisis would
then be without
question".
Noseweek editor Martin Welz told Sapa yesterday that
"the cargo ship was
openly delivering a containment of arms for Zimbabwe".
He said he had copies
of all the documents, including the bill of lading and
a packing list.
The controversial cargo packed into 3,080 cases
included three million
rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used with the AK47 assault
rifle), 69 rocket
propelled grenades, as well as mortar bombs and tubes.
The cargo is,
according to the documentation, valued at R9.88
million. Welz said: "Itâ?Ts
very detailed and even has the phone numbers."
Increased media interest around the shipment prompted
both the SA Police
Service and the SA Revenue Service to send their top
public relations
officers to Durban to deal with media enquiries.
Adriao said he would only comment on the ship once it
had docked in port
while Lackay said that the work of the SARS "is guided
by the SARS Act and
the confidentiality provisions in the Act".
Lackay said: "SARS Customs does not release cargo
until the Customs
declaration has been processed and the requirements of
the any other
legislation have been adhered to. On the basis of the
documents submitted by
the shipping line - the company operating the vessel -
SARS Customs decides
whether there is a potential risk, whether cargo must
be inspected and
whether or not goods will be detained.
"These are standard Customs procedures that apply
daily to any cargo vessel
entering a South African port of entry. At this time
the vessel.
"An Yue Jiang is at outer anchorage or off-port limits
and therefore the
cargo is not deemed to have been imported into South
Africa yet," he said.
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