POLICE BRUTALITY: NEW TESTIMONY

Another eyewitness has described how Swaziland police harassed and assaulted pro-democracy activists during this week’s freedom demonstrations.

Christine Olivier, deputy president of South Africa’s National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa), told how she and other non-Swazis were deported from Swaziland after they entered the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and attended a meeting to support the Global Day of Action for democracy in Swaziland.

‘We were deported on the basis that we entered the country illegally and we want to disrupt peace,’ she told a press conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.



They were rounded up on Monday (6 September 2010) while meeting to be briefed on a march.



Olivier said Swazi police asked local union leaders to identify the foreigners at the meeting, and when they refused, herded everyone into police vans and took them to a police station in Mbabane.



‘We were made to write statements that we were not arrested, but being questioned for being illegally in the country,’ she said.



‘We were humiliated and if they felt that your statement is not the one they wanted, they made you rewrite it.’



She said a delegation of 33 members, six from Numsa and 27 from the SA Municipal Workers’ Union went to Swaziland for the pro-democracy campaign.



‘Two of our members were assaulted on Tuesday evening, while being taken to the border,’ the South African Press Association reports her saying.



‘We were handled in an inappropriate manner. For once, we experienced the brutality of the Swazi police.’



She said about 10 police officers escorted her to a hotel in Manzini to collect her bags.



‘It was scary, at one stage I was not sure whether I will be taken to the border,’ she said, adding that by expelling foreign nationals Swaziland's government wanted to spread fear among the locals.



‘Our telephones were bugged on Monday, even today [Wednesday 8 September 2010] our numbers have been blocked. We are unable to speak to comrades in Swaziland.’



Olivier’s eyewitness testimony follows that of Peter Kenworthy of Africa Contact, Denmark, who reported this week that he was detained by Swazi police, assaulted told he would ‘never return to your country. You will die here’.

METALWORKERS ON ACTIVIST KILLING

The following is a statement from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) concerning the death in jail of Sipho Jele.

Numsa Statement on the brutal death of a Swazi Activist

for wearing a Pudemo T-Shirts on May Day Celebrations!

06 May 2010



The NATIONAL UNION OF METALWORKERS OF SOUTH AFRICA (Numsa) is deeply saddened by the heinous killing of the Swazi activist and Pudemo member Comrade Sipho Jele in custody after being arrested by King Mswati’s police during May Day celebrations for wearing a Pudemo T-Shirt.



We wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and the liberation movement – Pudemo – for the death of a brother, grandson and comrade.



Cde Jele was detained on May Day for wearing a Pudemo T-shirt, and subsequently police took him home in search of a Pudemo membership and political material, and retuned him to custody. On Tuesday 4 May 2010, Mswati hit-squad masquedering as police officers returned to report to his grandmother that Cde Jele committed suicide whilst in custody. We all know that in old apartheid South Africa, the notorious CCB police did similar things to many activists of our movement who perished mysteriously in custody.



As our symbol of our ongoing solidarity with the oppressed people of Swaziland. We call on our revolutionary South African government as led by the people’s movement to cut all diplomatic ties with Swaziland. This call will go a long way as part of exerting pressure to the Mswati regime to introduce democratic reforms and free political activity.



We call on Pudemo and the Trade Union movement to highlight the heinous killing of Cde Jele, by intensifying the Swazi struggle, and commit to unflinching solidarity against the royal Tinkhundla regime.



Numsa calls on President Jacob Zuma who once worked in the underground / uMkhonto weSizwe inside the Southern African region, to be our custodian for democracy in Swaziland. Numsa can no longer tolerate that our ANC and Republic President Zuma can be seen with a butcher in public in the person of King Mswati who denies the Swazi citizenry the right to freely associate, to freely speak and to freely assemble. The South African government on behalf of our people must lead in calling for sanctions and all other measures to bring democracy and multi-party elections to Swaziland now.





Castro Ngobese

National Spokesperson