Police in Swaziland
stopped an open-air prayer meeting because leaders of workers’ unions were
present.
They said the
gathering was illegal.
It happened outside
the textile firm Tex Ray in Manzini on Tuesday (26 August 2014) where local
media reported about 1,500 textile workers had gathered to hear a local pastor,
Zandile Hlophe, preach.
The workers are
concerned for their jobs after the United States dropped
Swaziland from the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) which allowed the
kingdom to export goods at preferential rates. The US made the move because
Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, has a poor record on political and workers’ rights.
Media in Swaziland have
predicted that as many as 20,000 jobs in the kingdom’s textile industry
could be lost as a result of the withdrawal of AGOA benefits that comes into
force on 1 January 2015.
The Times of Swaziland newspaper reported the prayer meeting was ‘supposed
to last for an hour. The prayer was organised by the Swaziland United
Democratic Front (SUDF) in partnership with the Trade Union Congress of
Swaziland (TUCOSWA) and the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (ATUSWA)’.
The newspaper,
which is the only daily newspaper in the kingdom independent of the state,
said, ‘While the pastor was preaching the word of God to the workers, the
police came and ordered them to vacate the venue within two minutes. The first
reason that the police gave to the organisers was that the gathering was
illegal and it could not be regarded as a prayer because of the presence of
union leaders.’
It added, ‘SUDF
Coordinator Wandile Dludlu, who was with TUCOSWA Secretary General Vincent
Ncongwane and ATUSWA Secretary General Wonder Mkhonza, questioned the
police’s reason of stopping the prayer. Dludlu asked why they regarded the
gathering as illegal and not a prayer because there was a pastor preaching.’
Police regularly break up prayer meetings
in Swaziland, claiming they are ’political’. Political parties are barred from
contesting elections in the kingdom and most are banned outright under an anti-terrorism
law.
In the run up to
the 2013 national election a number of prayer meetings were broken up by police
and state forces.
In February 2013, about
60 armed police forced their way into the
Our Lady of Assumption cathedral while a prayer meeting was taking place. They gave
the congregation seven minutes to vacate the building. The prayer was jointly
organised by SUDF and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC). It had originally
been scheduled to take place at the Bosco Skills Centre in Manzini. The venue
was changed to the cathedral at the last minute after organisers realised the
police intended to block people entering Bosco.
In March 2013, the
Swazi Government banned
a prayer meeting due to take place in Manzini to mark the first anniversary
of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). Without recourse to the law
courts, the government announced that the intended meeting was illegal because
the Industrial Court had recently
decided that TUCOSWA could not be a registered federation in the kingdom.
See also
POLICE BREAK UP DEMOCRACY PRAYERS
CHRISTIANS
CONDEMN PRAYERS RAID
RAID ON
PRAYERS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
ANOTHER PRAYER
MEETING BANNED
RIOT POLICE
FORCE HALT TO PRAYER
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