In April 2008, a Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe’s Defence Force
attempted to offload those weapons in Durban’s harbour, so that they might be transported
across South African territory to land-locked Zimbabwe. South African civil society, alerted
to the existence of the arms and anxious that they might be used to suppress democratic
forces in the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s controversial elections, undertook a number of
actions to stop delivery. Among them, they obtained a court order preventing the offloading
and transfer of the arms cargo and the ship then fled Durban in an attempt to find another
southern African port.
But civil society in Mozambique, Namibia and Angola also demonstrated against any
offload and transfer. While the ship was eventually allowed to dock in Luanda it was not
allowed to discharge the arms and set off home to China with its unwanted cargo still
on board.
Zimbabwe made the unlikely claim that it had received the shipment. Either way, it
made no difference. The campaign was deemed to be a resounding success. The issue
became a rallying point for co-ordinated, region-wide civil society mobilisation. Factors
such as the strategic role of media, effective use of regional partnerships and international
co-operation and that the ship represented a tangible rallying point were critical to
success. And the broader geo-political context — that the region’s leaders were seen
to be prepared to actively facilitate Zimbabwe’s lawlessness and were not maintaining a
principled stance of non-intervention — helped to fuel public outrage and contribute to
the impact of the campaign.
