The Swaziland Government, embarrassed at international news
reports that King Mswati III decreed that schools should close so children
could weed his fields, is now misleading the public over the matter.
Last
week Minister of Education and Training Phineas Magagula announced
that the opening of all public and private schools would be delayed by a
week. He said in a statement sent to media houses the postponement was due to
‘ongoing national duties’, a vague reference to the Incwala
ceremony, considered by traditionalists to be the Swazi national prayer. It was
also a reference to the annual weeding of the King’s fields that takes place annually
at about this time of year.
Social media, trade unions, and international news agencies
picked up on the story and reported that children were compelled to weed the
fields and this amounted to child
slave labour.
In South Africa, the South African Democratic Teachers
Union (SADTU) and the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said they would
organise a protest march.
SADTU general secretary Mugwena Maluleke told South
African media that regional unions met under the Southern
African Teachers Organisation umbrella to discuss the King’s order.
‘The body has decided to mobilise SADC (Southern
Africa Development Community) governments to change the practice of child
labour. As the SADC body, we will write to SAC protocol to have these practices
outlawed,’ Mr Maluleke said.
The Swazi Government was embarrassed by the outrage
and now the Swaziland Foreign Affairs Minister Mgwagwa Gamedze has said the
date of school opening was moved to allow parents to find spaces for their
children in the system. ‘It has nothing
to do with the weeding of the King’s fields,’ he told
international media.
This directly contradicts the Minister of
Education and Training who said in a written statement the postponement was due
to ‘ongoing national duties’. It also contradicts the Government’s demand
that private schools that had already opened for the new term should close
until 27 January 2015.
King Mswati rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch.
A report
on people trafficking in Swaziland published in 2014 said the King used
forced child labour to work in his fields. ‘Swazi chiefs may coerce children
and adults - through threats and intimidation - to work for the King,’ the
report from the United States State Department said.
See also
KIDS FORCED TO WEED KING’S FIELDS
No comments:
Post a Comment