By Karen Breytenbach and Andrea Hart
A delegation from the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) has promised to convey to the the IPU's executive committee the concerns of about 200 Zimbabwean and South African protesters who gathered outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Thursday.
The IPU's acting vice-president, Katri Komi, led about 20 delegates out of the centre, where the IPU is meeting, to talk to the protesters, who were worried about Robert Mugabe's continuing hold on power.
Standing in the street, Braam Hanekom, leader of the refugee organisation People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop), brought traffic to a standstill as he handed Komi and IPU secretary-general Anders B Johnsson a memorandum headed Crisis In Zimbabwe.
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'The people of Zimbabwe have voted. What more can they do?' John Carter, a delegate from New Zealand, addressed the crowd surrounding Hanekom, saying: "We are here to show our support for the protesters and for democracy.
"The eyes of the world are on you, and you can expect a statement from us in due course to reflect that."
Speaking in English and Shona, Hanekom said: "We have a crisis. A crisis in Zim. A presidential candidate is dictating the elections. Mugabe is not the Zimbabwean president."
Xenophobia in South Africa and deportations were making conditions worse for Zimbabweans, Hanekom said. "You cannot send these people back to Zimbabwe. Do you want them to die?"
Regis Mtutu, international campaign co-ordinator for the Treatment Action Campaign, read to the crowd an additional memorandum that said: "The people of Zimbabwe have voted. What more can they do? This crisis is making people lose faith in democracy and electoral politics."
'This crisis is making people lose faith in democracy' In a memorandum to the IPU, the Southern African Media and Gender Institute (Samgi) called for urgent intervention in Zimbabwe.
It urged the IPU to pressure Zimbabwean courts to uphold the constitution and release the presidential electoral results.
Zimbabwean asylum-seeker Paul Sithole, 35, said exiles desperately wanted to go home, but could not do so unless the international community took "serious, not polite, action" against Mugabe's government.
karen.breytenbach@inl.co.za
andrea.hart@inl.co.za
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This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on April 18, 2008
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