BUS STRIKE: UNION LEADERS DETAINED

Three trade union leaders were detained by Swaziland police as a public transport strike entered its second day.

The three, executive committee members of the Swaziland Transport and Allied Workers Union (STAWU), were locked in a cell all day at Mafutseni Police Station.

They were picked up by 15 officers close to their union offices in Manzini, the main commercial city in Swaziland.

One of the detained men, Petros Ndzabandzaba, chief negotiator of STAWU, told local media they were on their way to an arranged meeting with police Regional Commander Richard Tsabedze when they were picked up.

Transport workers in Swaziland were on their second day of a strike that has brought much of the public transport out of Manzini to a halt. Workers are protesting about being forced to use a new bus rank in Manzini that has led to a reduction in passengers.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported police released the three men without charges after seven hours following a request from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Minister.