And the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) – unlike the South African President – have taken positive action to stop this happening. “Our members employed at Durban Container Terminal will not unload this cargo neither will any of our members in the truck driving sector move this cargo by road,” says a statement issued by SATAWU.

Hopefully SATAWU’s statement will further throw under the spotlight the inadequacy of President Thabo Mbeki’s so called policy of “quiet diplomacy” in Zimbabwe – so quiet some would say that it is virtually non-existent. Certainly, it is more than a little ironic that SATAWU is normally an organisation supportive of the South African president but on this occasion is clearly at odds with him.

“South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation between Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change,” says Randall Howard, a union spokesman.

And vindication of the dockers' action has come in the form of a High Court ruling in South Africa that the arms cannot be transported to the Zimbabwe border. And this, in turn, again highlights the inadequacy of the South African government’s approach with it having stated earlier: “We are not in a position to act unilaterally to prevent a trade deal between two countries. It would be possible, but very difficult, for South Africa to start intervening.”

The practical situation is, however, that while the South African government dithers – and human suffering in Zimbabwe escalates – the South African people are speaking via direct action. They certainly have right on their side and it is to be hoped that the containers full of arms do not find their way into Zimbabwe via any other African nations’ ports.