MARCH TO PROTEST ACTIVIST KILLING

Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, Swaziland National Association of Teachers, the Swaziland Federation of Labour and supporters will march to the office of the Prime Minister on Friday (14 May 2010) to deliver a petition to protest at the death in jail of democracy activist Sipho Jele.

The march will follow a post-mortem on the body of Jele that is expected to take place tomorrow (12 May 2010).

The family of Jele say that they will have their own pathologist at the post-mortem who will work alongside a pathologist appointed by the Swazi Government.

Jele died in jail – the Swazi police claim he was committed suicide by hanging himself with a blanket – after being arrested for wearing a PUDEMO T-shirt at a Workers’ Day celebration.

SWAZILAND UNIONS STEP UP PROTESTS

Trade unions in Swaziland have vowed to continue to march to defend the Swazi Constitution, despite a threat from the prime minister to ban all protests in the kingdom.

Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed prime minister of Swaziland, threatened to ban all protests after trade unions and civil society groups staged a march earlier this month (April 2009) to try to force the Swazi Government to honour its constitutional obligations to introduce free primary schooling. The Swaziland High Court has ruled that the government should uphold the constitution.

Despite police attempts to illegally ban the march and violence during the protest, the trade unions have said they will continue the protest and have called for two days of action next month.

The Swaziland Federation of Labour, the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions and the Swaziland National Association of Teachers in a joint statement said they have no regrets in holding the demonstration and would march again on 19 and 20 May.

The trade unionists accused parliamentarians of having been cowed to silence as government violated the constitution and ignoring the court judgement in support of free primary education.

They said they would continue with the action because the government needed to be marched against and protested against until it changed course.

The statement said, ‘We note the threats from the prime minister to ban marches. He must remember that the courts (despite the contempt his government treats them with), will be the final determinants on the proposed bans.

‘Despite all that, Mr Prime Minister the protests will continue. We cannot do otherwise and be silent whilst our taxes are wasted. If parliamentarians simply keep silent and fold their arms, for reasons best known to them, we will not.’

ABUSED LIFE OF THE SWAZI CHILD

Who would want to be a child in Swaziland?

Hardly a week goes by without some news of another atrocity committed against children. The latest reveals that teachers are having sex with their pupils. Last year 100 teachers were investigated on charges of having sex with pupils. That hundred only represents the cases that were reported and dealt with, there is every reason to suspect that many more children are being abused than this number suggests.

According to Muziwethu Mhlanga, Secretary General Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), one of the reasons teachers get away with child abuse is that parents, especially in rural areas, ‘sold’ their daughters in return for groceries from male teachers.

He told African Eye, ‘We have incidents where parents send their daughters to go and clean for a male teacher or tell him to bring his washing so that their daughter can wash for him, or even go to the extent of cleaning his house.’

He said poverty exacerbates the problem.

Mhlanga added, ‘There are a lot of things wrong in this country and we can't only accuse teachers of abusing school children. There are a lot of people in the country who grab young girls against their will to make them wives, while some take advantage of the fact that they are poor and promise to do everything for them (in return for sex).’

Mhlanga is quite right when he says that it is not only teachers who abuse children (sexually and physically).

I have written many times about the plight of Swazi children. They live appalling lives of deprivation and abuse. Here are some of the articles I have written. When you put them altogether they make a depressing picture of the life of the Swazi child.

One in three children is sexually abused. Click.

Four in ten children are so malnourished that their growth is stunted. Click.

Hunger and lack of medicine kill up to one Swazi child in seven before they reach the age of five. Click.

About 3 000 Swazi households are headed by children. Click.

Eight year olds scrap for food on streets of Mbabane. Click.

Two children have been jailed in Swaziland for being vagrants Click.

Police fire live bullets at schoolchildren protesting against their deputy principal. Click.

Twenty teachers lined up to thrash children in a sadistic corporal punishment ritual. Click.

Eighteen primary school children were ‘whipped’ because they were eating their lunch from buckets. Click.

Children are subjected to whipping as punishment by Swazi law courts. Click.

A representative of an international aid agency working in Swaziland called for some Swazi children to be sterilised to stop them having children of their own. Click.

Children get a raw deal in the Swazi Press, where in some cases the reporting of children does not uphold the rights of vulnerable children and the reporting of victimised children further victimises those children. Click.