The Swaziland Attorney-General acted unlawfully when he deregistered the kingdom’s only trade union federation.
His action could only be done by the Industrial Court
after due legal process, one of Swaziland’s leading prodemocracy commentators
said.
Vusi Sibisi, who writes for the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper,
said Attorney-General Majahenkhaba Dlamini had no legal standing when it came
to deregulating the Trades Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA).
Sibisi wrote in the Times, ‘Nowhere does this
law give or provide the Attorney-General unfettered powers, or any powers for
that matter, to constitute himself into a court for the purposes of
interpreting the law.’
There has been an outcry since the deregulation was
announced earlier this month (April 2012), with claims that it was politically
motivated because TUCOSWA, which is a federation of the kingdoms main trade
unions, had called for a boycott of the 2013 national elections because political parties are banned in
Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch.
TUCOSWA also played a leading part in thwarted protests for democratic reform that were held on 11 and 12 April 2012.
The deregulation has been condemned across the world. Earlier this week the US Embassy in
Swaziland publicly called for greater democracy in Swaziland.
Sibisis wrote that the attorney-general should have
challenged TUCOSWA’s registration in court ‘and not constituted his own court
for this purpose’.
He added, ‘The Constitution is unambiguous when it comes
to the interpretation of the law; it is the prerogative of the courts and no
other authority.’
To read Sibisi’s full article, click here.
See also
SUPPORT GROWS FOR UNION GROUPING
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