Being a Zimbabwean I do not like to post material like the following and I do not want to alarm anybody either. However - in fairness to those of you who have supported and continue to support the good people still fighting to keep Zimbabwe up & running I thought I would copy this off here.

CLOSURE OF BORDERS AT BEIT BRIDGE, BOTSWANA, MALAWI, ZAMBIA AND
MOCAMBIQUE 4TH - 8TH DECEMBER, 2004

Notice that civic bodies in the SADC region are co ordinating a
demonstration at the borders of above mentioned countries in protest of the
bad governance, lawlessness, lack of press freedom, and demanding change.
You are invited to participate. By copy of this notice, please advise your
embassies in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Mocambique that it could be
dangerous to enter Zimbabwe during this period.

* Buses will not move in Zimbabwe
* Normal business will be reduced
* Workers will remain at home
* No flights to Zimbabwe
* Electricity will be cut at State House
* Borders will be closed
* Statue of Robert Mugabe will be burnt
* NGO's in Zimbabwe to participate
* ZCTU to participate
* Churches have been invited
Dignitaries to this demonstration to include Bishop Desmond Tutu and the
COSATU leadership.

For more information, please contact Mr. Joseph Dube of Amnesty
International at 012 320 8155 or CCZ at 011 403 5037

If anybody is able to contact either of these two numbers or get any further information about this - please pass it on to me. I have tried both numbers in Zim with no reply or no connection. I cannot say whether this is a spoof message or not and would prefer not to say who I received it from.

I think I would skip the Demonstration if I was You.

This sounds like a bunch of hooey.

Cosatu Moves to Barricade Zim
Financial Gazette (Harare)

November 4, 2004

Njabulo Ncube
Harare

THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), stung by last week's humiliating deportation of its top officials, is mobilising civic groups in the region to seal entry points into Zimbabwe for four days - a move that could trigger a diplomatic rift between the two countries.

The proposed blockade, being coordinated in conjunction with Amnesty International in Johannesburg, South Africa, is pencilled for December 4 to 8 2004, according to information obtained by The Financial Gazette.

The organisers claim this would be in protest at alleged human rights abuses, "bad governance, lawlessness, lack of press freedom, and meant to demand change."

They said they sought to close the Beitbridge border post at Musina, South Africa, and other entry points into Zimbabwe from Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, effectively barring haulage trucks and other cargo from driving into Zimbabwe.

Although Amnesty International could not immediately comment on the envisaged four-day border posts blockade, notices advising Zimbabwean and regional civic organisations, including the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which invited COSATU on a botched-up fact-finding mission last week, have been sent to concerned groups.

COSATU, the South African labour union, is a close ally of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC). The ANC leader Thabo Mbeki is at the centre of a delicate mediation in the long-drawn political bickering between the ruling ZANU PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

This is not the first time the militant labour union, which President Robert Mugabe's government accuses of having been infiltrated by shadowy apartheid and Rhodesian forces, has tried to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mid last year COSATU threatened to mobilise its affiliates in the northern provinces which border Zimbabwe to demonstrate around the Beitbridge area to "highlight the plight of the Zimbabwean people". The mass demonstrations however flopped.

It also made demands for an interim government in Zimbabwe and the drafting of a new constitution on the basis of which fresh elections should have been conducted. This was after the MDC, born of the ZCTU, COSATU's local counterpart, complained bitterly that ZANU PF had stolen both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The machinations by COSATU could be a double-edged sword for both the Zimbabwean and South African governments. Apart from putting its fragile alliance with the ANC under considerable strain, it could also be a litmus test for Mbeki's much criticised foreign policy on Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean government sees Mbeki as a key ally in the face of an increasing international backlash against perceived human rights violations.

The planned blockage would certainly anger the Zimbabwean government, which has since categorically stated that COSATU can be "king-makers elsewhere and not in Zimbabwe", and would want its wings clipped.

It was not immediately clear however, how Mbeki would deal with the situation. Last year, the pipe-smoking South African leader refused to budge to COSATU demands to force a re-run of the Zimbabwean presidential elections. Instead, he pushed ahead with his policy of quiet diplomacy when there was a chorus for a radical push to effect regime change in Zimbabwe. Mbeki's position has always been that Zimbabwe is not an extension of South Africa but a sovereign state.

Harare yesterday indicated it will ruthlessly deal with anyone who joins the blockade from the Zimbabwean side and promised to take up the issue with Pretoria should COSATU maintain its defiance.

Kembo Mohadi, the Home Affairs Minister who ejected the COSATU delegation last Tuesday night, talked tough yesterday, warning that any Zimbabwean found participating in the blockade would be dealt with according to the laws of the country.

"If it is COSATU that wants to close the borders, we wonder what they are desperate for. In any case, to close traffic into Zimbabwe will be a violation of international laws of freedom of movement," said Mohadi in telephone interview.

"We are not going to allow anyone to interfere with our borders internally. We will deal with whomever tries. But if they close from outside, we will take it up with the respective governments to deal with the issue," he added.

ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo, although distancing his organisation from the planned regional initiative, said the expulsion of COSATU had infuriated many unionists in the region and abroad.

"We are not party to anything that will cause problems for the country but the issue of COSATU's deportation has caused a lot of anger. There are campaigns every where to show that Zimbabwe is a pariah state. We are going to make some contact with COSATU again as we have both agreed that there is a problem in Zimbabwe," said Matombo.

"Any move that we are jointly going to make will only be taken after serious considerations. We are yet to do that as ZCTU and our South African counterparts."

Matombo, however, hinted that the closure of borders could be a COSATU initiative working with other aggrieved parties that he did not name.

As the news of the intended closure by the powerful COSATU and its allies filtered through, industry feared it could affect the flow of fuel into the country at a time when the southern region was already reeling from a resurgence of winding fuel queues.

"We have trucks that come via Beitbridge from South Africa but if Beitbridge is closed, we will look at other open avenues, " said Masimba Kambarami, the president of the Zimbabwe Petroleum Marketers Association.

Pattison Sithole, the president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, a majority of whose members are on their knees, said any day lost would not augur well for industry.

"I don't know if it will succeed but any delay will impact on the movement of materials. Any day lost in business has an impact," said Sithole.

Sadly there are two chances of any support on the ground here - None and considerably less than that. Still we can hope that COSATU and the others will actually DO what most people here would love to do but cannot.

As I guessed. Mostly talk, not much action, and even less effect.

Kind of like dealing with other terriosts. You can literally talk yourself to death.