SWAZI DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN HOTS UP

The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) is set to officially launch this Friday (30 July 2010).

This follows a series of meetings and activities to highlight the need for democratic reform in Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and where political parties are banned and branded ‘terrorist entities’.

The SDC has announced it will, in collaboration with its South African counterparts (SDC-SA), labour and civil society partners, be rolling out mass protest activities and intensify civil disobedience that will culminate in the global week of protest slated around Independence Day on 6 September 2010.

The SDC reports that 53 participants representing at least 16 different civil society organizations met two weeks ago and agreed to work with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on human rights issues surrounding the Swaziland Constitution, the Suppression of Terrorism Act, the Public Service Act and the Media Commission Bill.

The SDC also called on the European Union (EU), the United States of America, Denmark, Australia, and ‘all our international labour solidarity network partners’ to either impose or campaign for the immediate imposition of economic sanctions on the present undemocratic regime in Swaziland until it accepts multiparty democracy.