SWAZI DEMOCACY CAMPAIGN LATEST

The following is a statement from the South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) of COSATU about the launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign and the abduction of Swazi student leaders by the police.

SAMWU PRESS STATEMENT.

11 February 2010.

SAMWU fully supports the Swaziland Democracy campaign and the necessity of such a campaign.

Yesterday morning, a group of representatives from trade unions, civil society and faith based organisations were gathered in Johannesburg to finalise a programme to launch the new Swaziland Democracy Campaign. The Campaign is designed to be an active partnership of Swazi and South African organisations committed to achieving democracy in Swaziland. It is to be formally launched on Sunday 21st February after a strategy workshop the day before.

As if to emphasise the absolute necessity of such a Campaign, news came through from Swaziland via text messages while we were meeting, informing those present that four prominent student leaders had just been arrested by the police and taken to an undisclosed destination. Other students were manhandled and threatened with state violence if they tried to intervene. Part of the town where a student protest was planned was cut off by armed police.

This is just one example of the day to day terror that exists in Swaziland and that serves to completely contradict the manipulated image of a peaceful kingdom ruled over by wise men and much loved royal elite. The royal Swazi regime can boast two shocking world records. The first is that they have maintained through force, the longest State of Emergency in Africa, for 36 years to be exact. A State of Emergency that grants the repressive state draconian powers of arrest, bannings and ‘disappearances’ the like of which was not out of place under apartheid.

The second world record is that Swaziland has the highest infection rates of HIV than anywhere else in the world. Infection rates that are no doubt exacerbated by chronic poverty and the absence of even basic facilities for the overwhelmingly poor population. This stands in stark comparison to the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the royal elite and their shameless hangers-on.

We commend the Swaziland National Union of Students and all those other progressive forces who have dared to stand up and fight for their rights despite the constant threat of suppression. We demand the immediate release of the student leaders and an end to the repressive actions of the state.

We applaud all of those who have courageously committed themselves to forming the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, even though they risk being victimised for daring to voice the need for human rights within a democratic Swaziland.

The new Campaign will call upon the South African Government and SADC countries as a whole to acknowledge that within their ranks they are effectively protecting a regime that denies its citizens even the most fundamental rights. This cannot continue without being challenged. A very large number of organisations in Swaziland, South Africa and across the world have already committed themselves to the Campaign. There is no doubt in our minds that the days of the Swaziland regime are limited. As South Africans and democrats everywhere celebrate 20 years of Nelson Mandela’s walk to freedom, we would do well to remember that the once powerful apartheid regime once poured scorn on those demanding freedom as the much less secure Swazi regime does today.

We urge all those who are inspired by the progressive actions of students and the countless others who have refused to remain subjugated, to embrace the new Swaziland Democracy Campaign and attend its launch on Sunday the 21st February at 11.00am the Civil Centre in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.