SOUTH AFRICAN ACTION ON SWAZILAND

In South Africa, the disgust with Swaziland’s King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is spreading.

A trade union-led campaign to condemn and isolate the Swazi regime is now getting wider support, including from the Church and the ruling ANC, the Afrol News agency reports.

The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) has increasingly sought provocation. It hosts and finances the Swaziland Solidarity Network, a main source of international information about rights abuses in the kingdom. But the union also assists underground Swazi unionists; organises protests inside and outside Swaziland; sends in protesters; and even has blocked the Swazi border.

Only last month (September 2010), South African trade unionists streamed into Swaziland to participate in a pro-democracy protest. Several were stopped at the border and sent back. Others were detained by Swazi police and some report being beaten up. COSATU, it seems, is as war with the Swazi regime.

To read the full report, click here.