Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) has published this ‘review of 2010’ in the latest edition (Winter 2010) of its quarterly magazine ACTSA News: ‘Focus on Swaziland’.
Throughout 2010 the efforts of progressive forces in Swaziland to campaign for democracy and rights have been met with an increasing brutality.
On 1 May ‘non-workers’ who attempted to attend a workers day rally were arrested. All were well known activists who had been invited to speak at the event. One rally attendee, Sipho Jele, was detained for wearing a t-shirt promoting the banned political party PUDEMO. He was later found dead in a police cell. Police have claimed that Jele committed suicide, however, an independent forensic pathologist’s report found no signs of suicide.
In June, the International Labour Organisation criticised Swaziland’s human rights record. The Government responded by raiding the homes of union activists.
In September, police raided a meeting of pro democracy supporters in a Manzini hotel, arresting nearly 50 individuals. Foreign nationals in the group were questioned and forcibly deported, and a number of Swazi campaigners were detained and interrogated. Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini later threatened foreign pro democracy activists who visit the country with torture.
In spite of increased harassment and intimidation, the resolve of pro democracy campaigners in Swaziland has not weakened. In November activists marched through the streets of the capital Mbabane to highlight their calls for democracy and rights and oppose forced evictions and demolitions in a number of suburban communities.
The Danish Government has called on Swaziland to investigate why three of its citizens were detained, harassed and beaten up and threatened with death by police and security forces during the Global Day of Actionprotest in September 2010.
The Danish citizens were members of an Africa Contact delegation. They were eventually deported from the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Once they were safely home, Africa Contact made several complaints against the Swazi police and security services. Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation denied point blank that anything had happened to them.
Now, in a letter to Africa Contact, the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Søren Pind, says, he takes the issue of mistreatment of Africa Contact’s members seriously.
‘Denmark has officially raised the matter with Swaziland through the embassy in Pretoria, emphasizing that we are seriously worried about these events. At the same time, we have stressed that we obviously expect the authorities to investigate this matter thoroughly, and that the necessary conclusions must be drawn from these investigations.’
Peter Kenworthy’s stiffkitten blog reports Pind saying, ‘We are worried about the human rights situation in Swaziland’.
The minister was replying to a letter sent to him by Africa Contact.
SDC PROCLAIMS SUCCESSFUL NOVEMBER 17 MARCH IN MBABANE
Press Release
The Swaziland chapter of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) announces the highly successful march for democracy held on the 17th of November 2010 in Mbabane.
The march was a sequel to the Global Week of Action on Swaziland (GWoAS) programme which commenced in September 2010.
We wish to heartily thank our civil society partners such the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), and others for the decisive part they played in ensuring that thousands of their members joined the march between 900hrs and 1400hrs in the streets of Swaziland’s capital despite the unrelenting rain.
We take this opportunity to also extend our gratitude first to our twin-sister the South Africa chapter of the SDC for ensuring that the world knew about the march.
We equally wish to salute the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), UNISON, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), CUAfrica, DAMTP in the UK, POPCRU, and others, for their continually encouraging messages of solidarity and support.
We would like to assure you that your support is valued and is not in vain.
The third instalment of the GWoAS series coincides with the opening of schools in January 2010, where we plan to march for two days. We will announce the relevant details in due course.
You know a monarchy is feeling the heat when errant subjects face a beating with spikes. Last month, the prime minister of Swaziland, Barnabas Dlamini, threatened to use "sipakatane" -- the beating of the feet with of metal or wooden spikes -- to cow pro-democracy activists into submission. His comments came after a protest march triggered fifty arrests and the deportation of several South African trade unionists from Africa's last absolute monarchy.
King Mswati III has led Swaziland, the tiny country wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, since 1986. Ruling by decree, he has maintained the state of emergency his father, King Sobhuza II, instituted in 1973 -- five years after independence.
Forbes magazine estimates Mswati's wealth to be $200 million, making him the world's 15th richest monarch. In a country with the world's highest prevalence of HIV (at 40%), and with seven out of ten citizens living in poverty, Mswati's lavish lifestyle (funded by an annual allocation larger than the education budget) has provoked outrage. Plans to buy a $45 million Bombardier jet in 2002 were shelved but the king's penchant for heavy metal persists, with a purchase of ten BMWs (one for each of his wives) in 2005 and 20 armor-plated Mercedes last year.
The Swazis are losing patience with this conspicuous consumption, however. In August 2008, hundreds of women marched through the streets of Mbabane, the capital, to protest against a shopping trip for nine of the king's wives to Europe.
In February this year, the Swazi Democracy Coalition, an umbrella body of Swazi and South African organizations, including trade unions, churches and NGOs, was formed. The organization rallied hundreds to march for democracy during a common market of Eastern and Southern Africa summit on the seventh of September, as Mswati played host to 19 African heads of state.
The police responded in brutal fashion. Mario Masuku, president of Swaziland's banned political party, PUDEMO, was put under house arrest while his deputy, Sikhumbuzo Phakathi, was arrested at the border. Phakathi remains in detention, fuelling concerns he will meet the same fate as Sipho Jele, a fellow activist who died in police detention earlier this year.
Zanele Matebula, the deputy international secretary of South Africa's largest trade union, COSATU, was one of the 50 activists detained. After four hours of being questioned by police, she and four colleagues were booted out of the country.
"To deport five people, they mobilized about 300 members of the police, military and other officials. It was ridiculous. It was all about the pretence of a strong state," Steve Faulkner, a union spokesman, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper. "But this is a turning point for Swaziland," he added. "In spite of the intimidatory behaviour, the confidence of the people is soaring and they're really getting organized."
Swaziland's future is uncertain, but what is clear is that its nascent civil rights movement is gathering a momentum not seen since independence. With Swaziland economically reliant on its powerhouse neighbor, South Africa, the latter is ideally placed to capitalize on this momentum and pressurise Mswati to reform. But as its approach to Zimbabwe shows, South Africa is notoriously reluctant to step on the toes of her neighbors. It will be up to the rest of the international community to put encourage Swaziland's monarchy to modernize.
According to the Swaziland Solidarity Network, the EU provides £65 million in aid to Swaziland annually, while the US donates approximately $200 million. A blend of targeted sanctions, governance-conditional aid packages and economic incentives could be what it takes to nudge the kingdom towards democracy.
In South Africa, the disgust with Swaziland’s King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is spreading.
A trade union-led campaign to condemn and isolate the Swazi regime is now getting wider support, including from the Church and the ruling ANC, the Afrol News agency reports.
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) has increasingly sought provocation. It hosts and finances the Swaziland Solidarity Network, a main source of international information about rights abuses in the kingdom. But the union also assists underground Swazi unionists; organises protests inside and outside Swaziland; sends in protesters; and even has blocked the Swazi border.
Only last month (September 2010), South African trade unionists streamed into Swaziland to participate in a pro-democracy protest. Several were stopped at the border and sent back. Others were detained by Swazi police and some report being beaten up. COSATU, it seems, is as war with the Swazi regime.
