A major trade union in Botswana has resolved to help the people of Swaziland to remove King Mswati III from power.
Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) at its annual meeting last weekend (3 December 2011) said it was planning a trip to Swaziland to share ideas on mobilisation and how to stage successful campaigns.
Mmegi, a Botswana newspaper, reported that BLLAHWU called on the Botswana government to take a firm stand against ‘the dictatorship of Mswati’ to ensure democracy in Swaziland.
BLLAHWU secretary general, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa said King Mswati was living a lavish lifestyle while Swaziland’s economy was ailing.
The decision to help the people of Swaziland ‘topple’ Mswati has been widely reported in the Botswana media.
The Echo newspaper had the news as its main front page story yesterday (8 December 2011). In a story headlined ‘UNION TO HELP TOPPLE MSWATI’ it reported KesitegileKekgonegile, BLLAHWU president, saying the union did not want to see King Mswati ‘dethroned from his kingship’.
The Echo in a report that has not appeared online quoted Kekgonegile saying, ‘We are saying the people of Swaziland should be helped to usher in a democratically-elected government. By saying so we are not calling for regime change of a government that would have been democratically elected.
‘What we are talking about is for the Swazis to gain freedom of association and the right to choose whoever they want to have as their leader through the ballot and not a situation where people have not been given a chance to exercise that right.’
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