Cape Town — South African union members vowed on Friday to stop the delivery to Zimbabwe of a consignment of weapons from China which reportedly includes three million rounds of small arms ammunition.
And a public interest law centre in the port city of Durban announced that it was launching a court bid to prohibit the transport of the weapons through South Africa to landlocked Zimbabwe.
The weapons are in containers aboard the Chinese vessel, An Yue Jiang, which has been anchored outside the port since April 14.
Randall Howard, the general secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union, said in an interview with the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) that the union had notified the employers of its members that they would refuse to offload or transport the weapons.
He took issue with government statements which suggested South Africa did not have the legal standing to prevent delivery of the shipment. The issue was "a political question," Howard said, and if shippers tried to use scab labour to handle them, there could be violence.
In Durban, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre said it was applying to the High Court on behalf of two church activists, one of them Durban's Anglican bishop, Rubin Phillip, for an order prohibiting delivery of the weapons.
The centre said South African law required that any transfer of weapons be authorised by a permit, which could not be issued if the weapons could contribute "to internal repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedom" or if the recipient governments "systematically violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms."
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South African newspapers report that the shipment also contains 3,500 mortars and mortar tubes and 1,500 rocket propelled grenades, destined for the Zimbabwean army.
A newspaper which has had access to shipment documentation reports that it is dated April 1, three days after the Zimbabwean elections. It does not disclose when the order for the weapons was placed.
Early reports on the shipment quoted a South African military spokesman as saying that the government committee responsible for arms control had issued a permit allowing the weapons to be transported through South Africa, and that the government had no legal jurisdiction over weapons deals between other sovereign states.
However, the South African Revenue Services, which controls customs posts, said in a statement later that cargo entering South Africa could not be released until a number of procedures had been complied with.
"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," the statement said.
