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 report was ‘imminent’ and as soon as the report was ready the ILO would be among the first to get a copy, he promised.
Doesn’t he sound a reasonable chap? Readers will know that Jele was at a May Day rally this year and all of a sudden the Swazi security forces hauled him in. Within days he had died in government custody.
An inquest was started and before we knew it police and prison officers were shown to be liars. A documents about Jele’s arrest had been forged and an independent pathologist cast doubts on the Swazi state’s official line that Jele had committed suicide.
The international community took an interest in Jele’s case. And then, all of a sudden the inquest was adjourned with no date set for it to be resumed.
And that’s where we stand.
The inquest hasn’t ended and there’s no plan to finish it.
Now, what is that Dlamini has just told the ILO? The publication of the inquest report is imminent. Sorry but that sounds like an outright lie to me. The report cannot be ready because the inquest isn’t over. Never mind about publishing a report, many of us would simply settle at the moment for the inquest to be resumed.
Prime Minister Dlamini must think we are fools. He can’t get away with telling any old rubbish to the ILO in the hope that they would take his word for it.
And what do the Swazi media think they are up to by reporting Dlamini’s statement as if it were true, after they devoted so much attention to Jele’s inquest while it was running.
This follows a series of meetings and activities to highlight the need for democratic reform in Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and where political parties are banned and branded ‘terrorist entities’.
The SDC has announced it will, in collaboration with its South African counterparts (SDC-SA), labour and civil society partners, be rolling out mass protest activities and intensify civil disobedience that will culminate in the global week of protest slated around Independence Day on 6 September 2010.
The SDC also called on the European Union (EU), the United States of America, Denmark, Australia, and ‘all our international labour solidarity network partners’ to either impose or campaign for the immediate imposition of economic sanctions on the present undemocratic regime in Swaziland until it accepts multiparty democracy.
TUC member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Governing Body Sam Gurney has spoken to the Committee on the Application of Standards at the ILO Conference in Geneva about the appalling abuses of human and trade union rights in Swaziland. Here is his speech.
Swaziland: time for human rights - remember Sipho Jele
This is my second conference and although last year I was on another committee I attended the discussion on Swaziland, as the British TUC - whom I represent here and on the ILO Governing Body - have always taken a close interest in the struggles of our Swazi colleagues.
I was most struck by the intervention of the employer spokesperson last year who, and I paraphrase, said that he had been involved in cases relating to Swaziland before this committee since 1997 and that almost every year he had heard the government's representatives say the same thing:
legislation was being changed;
the situation was improving; and
Swaziland would soon be compliant.
He concluded by saying he was tired of hearing this again and again and seeing no change. Well sadly I say there has been change, but it has been change for the worse. For instance only today we have been told of a new law to remove the right to bail for anyone arrested for taking part in protests.
I am tasked with adding to the historical context for today's discussion and giving one example of current repression. This is important because it shows why the representative of the Swaziland government's statement must be taken with a high degree of scepticism.
Swaziland gained its independence and, it was hoped, genuine freedom for its people in 1968 with the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
However in 1973 the then governing party effectively ceded absolute power back to the King and established the long lasting state of emergency that, despite the hope invested in the 2006 constitution, effectively remains in place to this day.
Swaziland joined the ILO in 1975 and in the following years ratified a large number of conventions, 16 in a single day in 1978.
Sadly as we have heard it has honoured many of them only in the breach and in particular has failed on conventions 89 and 98.
With political parties banned, unions have continued to play an essential role in representing the interests of ordinary Swazi citizens and they have paid a high price.
Others have already cited the list of repression they have faced including:
violent attacks on workers in the textile and sugar industries which have been reported in detail to the ILO;
the attacks on former SFTU leader and governing body member Jan Sithole which we discussed last year; and
recently we have seen suspicious burglaries and thefts of computer equipment from union leaders' homes and a bomb attack on the house of Alex Langwenya. The culprits are unknown, but the fact that the police arrived minutes after the attack, before they had even been called, and proceeded to arrest Mr Langwenya himself is not very reassuring.
The full list is long and depressing.
I want to comment today on one of the most recent violations that has occurred since the Committee of Experts report.
As brother Gina has said, on May Day this year Swazi trade unionists gathered at the Salesian Sports ground to celebrate international workers day.
Their banners read 'workers unite and fight for decent work and social justice in Swaziland.' Sentiments I hope nearly all in this room would agree with.
The police, using the Suppression of Terrorism Act, swarmed the stands allegedly searching for people wearing the T-shirts of banned organisations. Many were violently arrested, including guest speakers, indeed the head of the Swazi Consumers Association was arrested on the grounds he was not 'a worker.'
Most of those arrested were later released. However nothing was heard of union member Sipho Jele, his family were interrogated for over four hours, but were not told where he was being detained or what was happening to him.
On the 4th of May his body was released to them and they were informed that he had hanged himself from the rafters of the prison toilet and must be buried immediately.
Very few people believe he really killed himself.
Colleagues when you read the requests and recommendations in the expert’s report, when you consider the statements of the Swazi government representative today and when you think about the conclusions this committee will issue, I ask you consider the history of broken commitments and to remember Sipho Jele and all those fighting for their most basic rights in Swaziland today.
We must show them that the ILO can take action that will lead to real change.
The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) is launching a ‘civil disobedience’ campaign in its fight for human rights.
This follows a decision by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to send a delegation to the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, to investigate human rights violations.
SDC says today (14 June 2010) that activities will start this month and will culminate in a global march for democracy on Swaziland’s Independence Day – 6 September.
SDC says, ‘Swaziland is already not only currently visibly in a state of emergency, but the country also increasingly resembles a police/military state where the state security forces have firmly hit the panic button and engaged in erratic behaviour as they violently crack down on political dissidents courtesy of the globally-condemned Suppression of Terrorism Act (2008).
‘The defiance campaign launch happens at an interesting time when local labour federations have, alongside their international solidarity partners, successfully put Swaziland firmly in the dock in the ongoing ILO Conference in Geneva. To this end, an ILO delegation is due to begin a formal investigation of human rights violations, which, for the first time, places Swaziland’s human rights scorecard on the global radar screen.’
If the ILO finds against Swaziland’s rulers there is a real possibility that sanctions will be imposed against the kingdom.
