Cape Town — The international union federation which has been tracking a Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe  said Tuesday the weapons have not been delivered.

Contradicting numerous reports in recent days suggesting that the weapons were shipped to Zimbabwe through Angola or Congo-Brazzaville, the general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), David Cockcroft, accused the Zimbabwean government of spreading “propagandist lies.”

Also on Tuesday, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, reiterated to a news briefing that the Chinese government had told him it had recalled the An Yue Jiang, the vessel carrying the shipment, and that it was returning to China.

Cockcroft said the latest reporting arose from a “recycled claim” made two weeks ago by Zimbabwe’s deputy information minister, Bright Matonga, that the weapons had been offloaded in the southern Angolan port of Lobito.

When Matonga made his statement, added Cockcroft, the An Yue Jiang was 230 nautical miles south of Lobito. Two days later, it bypassed the port and “tried to sneak into Luanda undetected.”

Referring to reports suggesting the weapons were offloaded in the port of Ponta Negra in Congo-Brazzaville, Cockcroft said the ship “been nowhere near DR Congo or Congo-Brazzaville.” At the end of last week, the ITF had located the ship on a course consistent with a return to China.