Union workers have refused to unload an arms shipment from China to Zimbabwe which is currently docked in Durban, South Africa, despite the South African government’s statements that it cannot interfere with the shipment. From The Times:
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said that it was planning protests at the harbour, saying that the arms would exacerbate the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
…Armed Chinese troops were seen this week in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third-largest city, where up to ten soldiers, carrying revolvers, booked into the Holiday Inn in the city with 70 Zimbabwean officers and men.
Zimbabwe and China have close military ties, but Chinese soldiers are rarely seen on the streets. Witnesses in Mutare claimed that their presence was intimidating. Yesterday the 300,000-strong transport union said that it would ask the Congress of South African Trade Unions for support in the blockade.
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