SWAZI POLICE RAID CAMPAIGN HQ

Stiffkitten’s blog reports today (7 September 2010)

At 8.45 am Swazi police raided the offices of the Swazi Federation of Trade Unions. This happened only five minutes before the planned march of the Global Day of Action was to commence. The reason for targeting the SFTU offices was that the march activity was being organised and coordinated from here, and that the police with in doing so are trying to shut down the legal march entirely.

Sources amongst the organisers of the march have said that the march will continue as planned, however, regardless of the immense presence of police officers and vehicles on every corner of the city. Sources from within the Swaziland Democracy Campaign in South Africa have told Africa Contact that the Swazi military have also been deployed in an attempt to intimidate the marchers.

The police have also arrested the Deputy President of PUDEMO, Sukhumbuzo Phakathi, and it has not been possible for the lawyers of PUDEMO to contact him yet.