Swaziland (eSwatini) ruled by absolute monarch King
Mswati III is to spend more money on national security in the coming year, the
Swazi Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg announced in his
annual budget.
Prodemocracy campaigners have been active in recent years
and police and security forces have used violence to break up legal
demonstrations.
Rijkenberg did not put a figure on the additional expenditure
in his speech on Friday (14 February 2020).
He told
the Swazi Parliament, ‘Support to our security forces as we pursue economic
stability and growth in the country is key to sustainable development of our
nation. This budget seeks to strengthen public order management and state
security systems which are important factors in ensuring that the country’s
safety and security landscape is conducive for investment.’
The security forces include the army, police force and
correctional services.
In recent years police and other security services
have been criticised outside the kingdom for their brutal attacks on legal
demonstrations. Swaziland is not a democracy and political parties are barred
from taking part in elections. Groups advocating for democracy are banned under
the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
In Swaziland the King chooses the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers.
He also picks senior judges and senior civil servants.
Following elections in 2018, King Mswati appointed eight
members of his Royal Family to the kingdom’s 30-member Senate and another six
to the House of Assembly.
Freedom House scored Swaziland 16 out of a possible 100 points in its Freedom in
the World 2019 report. It concluded that Swaziland was ‘not free’.
In September 2019 police had used teargas, rubber bullets, water cannon
and live ammunition during a strike by public servants. At least 15 people were
injured. The violence happened in Mbabane after what local media called
‘a long day of peaceful protest’. The police
brutality was condemned by international human rights observers.
In September 2018 the Swazi Police were criticised
by human rights groups when they attacked workers led by the
Trades Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) who were demonstrating in Manzini
for salary increases, a national minimum wage and an increase in elderly grants
(pensions). Police used teargas and stun-grenades.
Videos
and photographs of brutal police attacks were uploaded on social
media.
Swaziland Human Rights Network UK in a statement at the time said, ‘The
violent attack on peacefully demonstrating TUCOSWA members is reprehensible as
it was a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of assembly and
expression.’
It added, ‘The eSwatini government has turned the country into a violent
police state where the security services have been turned into tools of
suppression to protect the interests of not just the government but the regime
of King Mswati III.’
The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) said in its
statement following the budget speech, ‘This means labour unions and other
civil society organisations shall be silenced, violently so and no voices of
dissent will be allowed. Citizens must keep quiet, toe the line and that equals
to peace, money has been set aside to procure guns and all sorts of artillery
for that exercise. This is what dictatorships are known for, world over.’
See also
Swaziland
police fire rubber bullets and teargas injuring 15 during national strike
Swaziland
democracy leaders call on absolute monarch to arrange talks for political
change
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