The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) will lead a protest march to the summit meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday.

Spokesman Patrick Craven said Zimbabwean and Swaziland civil society delegates took a resolution to protest against the participation of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his Swaziland counterpart King Mswati III at the SADC summit.

The resolution was taken at the Solidarity conference of August 10-11.

"We hold dear the firm view that Robert Mugabe and Mswati III are not legitimate leaders of their various countries. They cannot claim any amount of legitimacy to rule their countries, for they have not been democratically elected by the people of their countries," read the declaration from the Solidarity conference.

The SADC holds a summit meeting in Sandton, chaired by South Africa, from August 15 to 17.

The march will start at 11am through the streets of Sandton and a memorandum will be handed over at the Convention Centre.

In addition to Cosatu, other organisations expected to take part in the march are Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Revolutionary Youth of Zimbabwe, People’s United Democratic Movement, Treatment Action Campaign, Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum, Swaziland United Democratic Front, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Zimbabwe Exiles, Swaziland Federation of Labour and the Swaziland Youth Congress.