It’s started. Less than a month after he was illegally appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, Barnabas Dlamini has clamped down on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in the kingdom.
The Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) was due to march on the Cabinet offices in Mbabane yesterday (7 November 2008) to deliver a petition. Instead, police halted the march and illegally transported SWAYOCO leaders to various parts of the kingdom.
This illegal transportation is a common tactic of the police when they want to disrupt protests. This even happens when the march and protest in question is entirely legal (even under Swaziland’s strict laws that are designed in effect to stop protest).
The Weekend Observer reports today that the protestors had been allowed to visit the Prime minister’s office to deliver their petition, but ‘this was not to be as police were deployed at strategic places to prevent them from making their initiated march. As that was not enough, the police deported members of the organisation to various parts of the country to avoid them from regrouping.’
The newspaper continued, ‘SWAYOCO President Wandile Dludlu said they received a directive from the Regional Commander Senior Superintendent Velaphi Sibandze that they were no longer permitted to stage the march.’
The excuse given by the police to ban the march is bizarre. According to the Weekend Observer, Dludlu said the Regional Commander told them that the Prime Minister had already received the petition. This is obviously nonsense, since the marchers were in possession of the petition and intended to hand it over yesterday.
Of course, this was just an excuse to stop legitimate protest in Swaziland, highlighting the arrogance of the Prime Minister and the police force who work for him.
The Regional Commander confirmed to the Weekend Observer that the police had received an order to stop the march, but he refused to give further details.
Meanwhile, SWAYOCO says this isn’t the end of the matter and it will try again to deliver the petition.
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