Riot
police in Swaziland are under fire for using rubber bullets and teargas against
striking workers.
A strike
at Swaziland Plantation has entered its second month amid clashes between
police and workers.
Swaziland
Agriculture and Plantations Workers Union (SAPWU) Chairperson Sibusiso Masuku told
the Swazi Observer newspaper the police
had taken a violent stance against the workers.
On
Wednesday (14 September 2016) the newspaper reported him saying, ‘During the
strike, we the striking workers, saw rubber bullets fired at us by the riot
police as well as teargas. We have also been chased away from the Plantation
entrance where we had originally started our strike. Police have been arresting
us for instigating violence and to add insult to injury, we have had seen some
of our fellow workers being injured during the protest, it has been a bad time
for us.’
The
newspaper reported there had been renewed clashes on Friday (9 September 2016)
between police and unarmed workers.
Masuku
told the Observer, ‘The riot police
are just pawns used by the Plantation Forest Company administration to fight
against us, we feel safer when they are not present as we do not understand
their way of thinking.’
In June 2015, Swaziland was
listed as one of the top ten worst countries in the world
for workers’ rights. It was grouped alongside some of the worst human rights
violators on the planet, including Belarus, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
POLICE
FIRE SHOTS AT WORKERS’ STRIKE
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