Not much has changed for students in Swaziland since the day 20 years ago this Sunday (14 November 2010) that armed troops and police invaded the University of Swaziland to brutally suppress a peaceful student demonstration.
In the present day, the main progressive student organisation in Swaziland, the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), states that there is political repression in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and student leaders are being targeted.
‘We still have an undemocratic government and a military state, [and] the oppression, exploitation and repression of the students and the population at large has reached new greater heights.’
In a statement SNUS said, ‘A number of students leaders have been forced out of the country's institution of higher learning, eg Wandile Dludlu (former president of the Swaziland national union of students and chairperson of Uniswa, Kwaluseni Campus,2005-2006), Bhekie Khumalo(former president of Swaziland College of Technology 2008-2009 and the Swaziland National Union of Students (2009-2010), while others has been forced out of the country, the latest victim being the former president of Uniswa (2009- 2010) and human right activist Pius Vilakati who was forced to leave his studies at the university with one paper left for him to finish his studies.
‘He was being sought by the military police for making a speech on behalf of the students in a funeral of a worker and human right activist [Sipho Jele] who died in police custody for wearing a T-shirt of one of banned political groups.’
SNUS said, ‘All this victimisation, harassment and physical assault of our leaders will not dampen our spirits in a quest for a better country but it will fuel our struggle for democracy and sound education system.’
On 14 November 1990, the Swazi government dispatched armed police and military units to the Uniswa campus to disperse peaceful boycotting students. It was a crackdown of unprecedented violence in the history of the university. In the ensuing melee several students were crippled for life, hundreds injured and one woman successfully sued the government for the loss of an eye.
The students were boycotting classes over a number of issues, including the poor quality of food provided in residence to extremely low allowances and lack of faculty lectures. Among their demands was that a student and lecturer who were members of the banned political organisation, PUDEMO, and who had been charged and acquitted of high treason, should be reinstated at the university.
The following is a media statement from the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) about the mass protest march that took place in Manzini, Swaziland, on Wednesday (8 September 2010).
PUDEMO CONDEMNS STATE ARROGANCE AND TERROR ON INNOCENT PROTESTORS
8 September 2010
The protest action that was in Mbabane did not accomplish its intended objective of presenting petitions to the government. Once again the oppressive and repressive nature of the state was witnessed by the protestors.
In the first instance, the Minister of Labour did not come out to receive the petition, a trend that has been going in the country for many years when petitions had to be presented to government. The government wanted to send a junior office to receive the petition. This shows the disgusting attitude the government of the country has towards its people.
The second factor causing the protestors not to present the petition was the arrogant, provocative and repressive behaviour of the state police. The police wanted to forcefully remove Wandile Dludlu from the protestors because he was deemed not to be part of those who should protest against the state. And police were acting on an instruction by the state which has given itself the right to dictate who should protest against it! In the process, the police assaulted and manhandled several protestors in the skirmish that ensured resulting to two workers getting forcefully and brutally thrown and held inside a police caspir that was on standby.
Earlier in the day the President of PUDEMO Mario Masuku was visited by state police acting on government instruction to take and keep him at the Police Headquarters in Mbabane on the pretext that he was not supposed to attend the protest action. Later on he was escorted home where he was placed under house arrest for the duration of the protest action.
This is the hallmark of the Tinkhundla regime. It sustains it power over the people through force, intimidation, harassment, fear and repression while it tells the world the direct opposite of existing concrete conditions.
This dictatorial and arrogant behaviour and tendencies of the state in Swaziland deserves the strongest and unreserved condemnation by the civilized and democratic world. PUDEMO condemns this undemocratic and disrespectful behaviour by the state. We have always expressed clearly over the years the arrogance of the state and all we got for telling the truth was to be labelled unSwazi, disrespectful and most of all terrorists.
However, this arrogance and terror orchestrated by the state will not deter us and the struggling masses of our country until the constitutional multiparty democracy is achieved.
This is the Amnesty Internationalreport into the state of human rights in Swaziland. It covers the year 2009.Among the chief concerns of Amnesty are the ways that the Suppression of Terrorism Act is being used to suppress legitimate political dissent in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and the use of excessive force by the Swazi police against peaceful demonstrators.
Amnesty’s report (unsurprisingly) echoes the report on human rights in Swaziland issued by the US State Department in March 2010.
The rights to freedom of association, expression and assembly continued to be repressed. Security legislation was used to violate people’s rights. Police used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. Torture and the unjustified use of lethal force by law enforcement officials were reported. Nearly 70 per cent of Swaziland’s population lived in poverty and a quarter of the population required food aid. Women and girls continued to be disproportionately affected by violence, poverty and the country’s HIV pandemic.
Background
The new government that took office in October 2008 continued to respond to political opposition and dissent by using the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA). In July, civil society organizations met in Manzini and called for greater protection of human rights, including rights linked to health, education, housing and security, and for an end to violence against women and the repeal of the STA. The government’s National Smart Partnership Dialogue, held in August, was criticized by political organizations and civil society for failing to be inclusive.
In September, the government announced the appointment of the Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration, which had been pending since the new Constitution came into force in 2006. However, the King appointed the Commissioners without enabling legislation and full public consultation or involvement in the nominations.
Delays in judicial appointments began to be addressed, but there were continuing concerns about effective guarantees of judicial independence.
Counter-terror and security
The media and journalists faced continuous pressure and some overt acts of intimidation. Police increasingly pressed journalists to name their sources and to refrain from publishing certain information which, under the STA, could associate them with the activities of organizations declared to be terrorist. The Times of Swaziland was pressured to stop publishing the weekly columns of a government critic, Mfomfo Nkhambule. On 21 May, the Supreme Court ruled, in a case brought by trade unions and political organizations, that there was no conflict between the right of Swazi citizens to form and join political parties under Section 25 of the Constitution, and Section 79, which allows participation in elections only on the basis of “individual merit”. A dissenting ruling, by Justice Thomas Masuku, had found that the substantive right to freedom of association protected under Section 25 was nullified by Section 79 and that this derogation could not be reasonably justified.
Torture and excessive use of force
Despite growing domestic and international criticism, the government declared it would not amend the STA. The authorities also used other security legislation to arrest and prosecute government critics.
On 3 June, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko was arrested under the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act, allegedly for uttering words “with a subversive intention” at a public gathering. Following court appearances, he was remanded into custody at Sidwashini Maximum Security Prison. On 10 June, his lawyers obtained a High Court order to allow him confidential legal access and two days later he was released on bail. No trial date had been set by the end of the year.
In July, police arrested political activists Mphandlana Shongwe and Norman Xaba at a civil society gathering in Manzini, apparently for shouting slogans and wearing T-shirts associated with organizations proscribed as terrorist in 2008 under the STA. They were released on bail. No trial date had been set by the end of the year.
On 21 September, on the first day of the trial, the High Court acquitted Mario Masuku, President of the proscribed People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), of a charge brought against him under the STA. The court found that the state’s evidence was either inadmissible or failed to prove the case.
The trial of the remanded South African national Amos Mbedzi on subversion and other charges in connection with the attempted bombing of a bridge in 2008 was postponed until March 2010.
Police and other security officials, including informal policing groups, continued to use excessive force against criminal suspects, political activists and unarmed demonstrators. Incidents of torture and other ill-treatment were also reported. The problem of impunity for such abuses remained unaddressed. Although the new Commissioner of Police, Isaac Magagula, stressed the need to respond to the public’s concern about crime without resorting to “police brutality” and limited police use of lethal force to circumstances where the lives of police or others were at risk, victims of police abuses continued to have no access to an independent complaints investigation body.
Sixteen defendants charged in 2006 with treason in connection with bombing incidents were not brought to trial. They remained out of custody under conditional bail. The government had still not made public the report of an inquiry into their allegations of torture in pre-trial detention.
On 16 April church and labour union organizers had to call off a march for free education after violence erupted. A breakaway group damaged property and assaulted a police officer. The security forces used disproportionate force against some demonstrators, including a man whom they beat with batons, kicked, strangled and stamped on apparently because he had insulted the national flag.
Freedom of association, expression and assembly
The sweeping and imprecise provisions of the STA and associated severe penalties continued to intimidate government critics. Civil society activists and government opponents reported increased incidents of harassment, searches and seizures of materials, and monitoring of electronic communications, telephone calls and meetings, some of which were disrupted by the police.
On 4 September, Wandile Dludlu, president of SWAYOCO, the Swaziland Youth Congress, was unlawfully arrested by four police officers near the border with South Africa. He was taken to a forested area near Bhunya and interrogated about weapons while being subjected to repeated suffocation torture, with his hands and ankles tied tightly behind him. About seven hours later the police dumped him, uncharged, in Mbabane. He needed hospital treatment for injuries and psychological trauma consistent with his allegations. He lodged a criminal complaint against named police officers at Mbabane police station, but by the end of the year the investigation had not resulted in any arrests. He also lodged a civil claim for damages.
On 21 September, Correctional Services security officers, without issuing a warning to disperse, assaulted political activists who had gathered peacefully to wait for the release of Mario Masuku (see above) from Matsapha Central Correctional facility. The security officers also demanded that journalists stop filming and photographing their actions. They seized cameras and other reporting equipment and verbally abused, threatened and physically assaulted several journalists. The police investigation into the incident had not resulted in any arrests by the end of the year. In addition, no publicly known steps were taken by the authorities against the Department of Correctional Services, despite public calls for an inquiry into the violence and the intimidation of media workers.
Poverty, HIV and the right to health
Swaziland’s HIV prevalence rate remained the highest in the world. Most recent available UNAIDS statistics indicated that 42 per cent of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in 2008 were HIV positive. Access to antiretroviral treatment for AIDS continued to increase, but lack of access to adequate daily food, particularly in rural areas, continued to impede the ability of people living with AIDS to adhere to the treatment, which must be taken with food at regular intervals daily.
An estimated 256,383 people required food aid. Fifteen per cent of households were headed by orphaned children.
In October on World Poverty Day, the UN Resident Coordinator expressed concern that there were no signs of abatement in poverty levels.
Substantial gender differences in rates of poverty and HIV infection persisted, with women disproportionately affected and infected. Women continued to experience violations of their sexual and reproductive rights through violence or threats of violence from male partners refusing to use condoms.
In November, the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Swaziland was launched with official support. The maternal mortality ratio was estimated to be 370 per 100,000 live births in 2006.
Women’s and children’s rights
In March, the High Court ruled that the government was obliged, under the Constitution, to provide children with free primary school education. However, the Prime Minister stated that the ruling could only be implemented in phases from 2010.
Finalization of draft legislation affecting women’s right to equality under the law and on children’s rights continued to be delayed, despite the appointment of additional legislative drafters by the Ministry of Justice to speed up the reform of laws in conflict with the Constitution.
In October, parliament passed the People Trafficking and People Smuggling (Prohibition) Bill.
Death penalty
Although the 2006 Constitution permits the use of capital punishment, no executions have been carried out since 1983. No new death sentences were imposed in 2009. Three people remained under sentence of death.
The following is a media release from the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] about police tactics at the recent May Day / Workers’ Day celebrations
03 May, 2010
A Most barbaric form of "Dialogue" at May DayCelebrations by State police
Staying true to its new found but rather imaginary self-image of a tolerant and democratic government that is open to dialogue with the country’s opposition, the government of Swaziland had a rather unique sort of dialogue this weekend during the May Day celebrations. In a move which infuriated members of the two organizations who had converged at the Salesian sports ground in Manzini, the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), the police disrupted the celebrations by arresting invited guests and workers and confiscating their recording equipment.
The reason given for taking in these four for questioning and disallowing them from taking part in the celebrations was the false statement they are not employed and thus should not participate in a function of workers. Despite the fact that it is untrue that all four are unemployed and cannot fit the definition of the word worker, unemployed people have always participated in May Day celebrations and in fact many of the people present at the event were not employed. The real reason behind what the workers have labelled “a barbaric act by police” is that these four are associated with the Liberation movement [PUDEMO] in the country. They were later released after it was certain that they had missed out of the celebrations. Other workers, however, were detained and charged.
An unidentified man from Ncabaneni was arrested and charged for contravening the controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act by wearing a t-shirt bearing the PUDEMO logo. Another unidentified man was also detained for unknown reasons but was later released without being charged. A teenage girl who was part of a drama group that performed at the event was saved by throngs of workers from the police who wanted to arrest her under the terrorism act as well for merely shouting the words “VIVA” to one of the proscribed entities. While all this was going on, a group of workers from SNAT, the teachers’ organization were taking pictures. This did not go down well with the police who confiscated the camera and only agreed to give it back to its owners after they had deleted all the pictures that showed their barbaric actions.
Despite being infuriated by the fact that their speakers had been barred from the event by the police who were intent on disrupting it, the workers decided to go ahead with the celebrations. It was evident, however, that the spirit of the event was not as jubilant as it otherwise could have been.
As the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] we strongly condemns this barbaric behaviour of the Swazi police under the command of King Mswati and call for urgent intervention by SADC into the Swaziland situation before is too late.
Issued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] South Africa chapter
