Police are expected to clash with trade unionists in
Swaziland today (1 May 2013) as workers try to celebrate May Day, despite a
court ban.
The Industrial Court this week banned the Trade Union
Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) from organising in a rally at the Salesian
Sports Ground, Manzini. The court said TUCOSWA was not recognised as a
labour federation in Swaziland and therefore had no rights to organise the
event.
The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) called the court
ban on TUCOSWA, ‘a desperate ploy by the regime in Mbabane to stop workers from
asserting their rights to form a federation’.
The party called on all workers to defy efforts to ban
TUCOSWA from the May Day celebrations.
The ban is the latest in a series of attempts by Swazi
state authorities to stop people in Swaziland protesting about forthcoming
elections in the kingdom. Political parties are banned from taking part and the
parliament that will be elected will have no powers. King Mswati III rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
TUCOSWA is one of a number of trade unions and political
organisations calling for a boycott of the election, due at a date yet to be
announced by the king.
Police have been heavy-handed with democracy activists in
the past two weeks. On
19 April, the date of the king’s 45th birthday, acting without a court order, they broke up an election meeting at the Msunduza Township in Mbabane. Organisers of
the meeting have been charged with sedition.
A week earlier on 12 April, the 40th anniversary of King
Sobhuza’s Royal Decree that in 1973 turned Swaziland from a democracy to a
kingdom ruled by an autocratic monarch, the Swaziland United Democratic Front
(SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC), attempted to hold a public
meeting to discuss the election.
Police, again acting without a court order or warrant,
refused to allow the meeting to go ahead and physically blocked entry to the restaurant
where the meeting was to be held.
Police said the meeting was a threat to state security.
CPS general secretary Kenneth Kunene said in a statement, ‘What the Mswati regime doesn’t understand is that the workers’ rights to form
TUCOSWA is being supported by trade union confederations and organisations
across the world. The regime is further digging its own grave by banning
TUCOSWA.’
Last month (April 2013), the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
(OSISA) reported to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)
meeting in The Gambia that Swaziland was becoming a ‘military state’. OSISA
reported that the Swazi army, police and correctional services were being
deployed to ‘clamp down on any peaceful protest action by labour or civil
society organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic elections’.
Separately the same month, the US Embassy in Swaziland
voiced its ‘deep concern’ about the way the police engaged in ‘acts of
intimidation and fear’ against people seeking their political rights.
In its annual review of human rights in Swaziland, just published,
the US State Department recorded, ‘The three main human rights abuses were
police use of excessive force, including use of torture, beatings, and unlawful
killings; restrictions on freedoms of association, assembly, and speech; and
discrimination and abuse of women and children.’
See also
NOW, ELECTION MEETINGS ARE ‘SEDITIOUS’
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