Swaziland police fired
several gunshot blasts while textile workers, mostly women, protested about
poor pay. It was the third police attack on workers in a week and one of many
in recent times.
More than 200 paramilitary
police and correctional facility warders with riot shields, helmets and batons
guarded the entrance to Juris, one of the major factories, according to a local media report.
It happened on Thursday (30
August 2018) at Nhlangano when five firms closed after management locked gates
after workers gathered.
It added, ‘Some of the
employees said batons were also used by the police to disperse the workers,
which resulted in the crowd becoming aggressive.
‘The workers felt they were
being aggressively intimidated by the police and threatened with violence,
while their union leaders were locked up in a series of meetings with
management.
‘There was complete
pandemonium after the gunshots were fired as a group of workers confronted the
police, demanding answers on why some of their colleagues had been beaten up.’
Social media later reported
that a pregnant woman had to be taken to hospital.
This was the third attack
in a week by police on workers in Swaziland (recently renamed Eswatini by
the kingdom’s absolute monarch, King Mswati III). On the previous Friday
police shot and wounded a
schoolteacher during a march in Manzini. On Wednesday in Mbabane nurses were tasered.
Both groups were protesting at the Swazi government’s decision to offer a zero
increase in their salary cost of living adjustment.
Swaziland police often fire
live weapons and rubber bullets during worker protests. In November 2017 they shot a woman in the head
with a rubber bullet at a Poly Pack textile factory at Ngwenya where workers were asking for a 20 percent pay rise.
Police in Swaziland, where political parties are
banned from contesting elections, often intervene on behalf of management in
labour disputes.
In February 2017, police
fired live gunshots and teargas at Juris in Nhlangano where workers had
been locked out during a dispute. There had been a long-running row at the
factory about management style and accusations of racism by one boss in
particular.
In September 2016, media in Swaziland reported women
strikers were ambushed by armed police and ‘brutally
attacked’ at the Plantation Forest Company, near Pigg’s Peak. Police had
previously used
rubber bullets and teargas against the strikers and had fired
live rounds to disperse a crowd.
In 2013, the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa (OSISA) reported that Swaziland was becoming a police and military
state.
It said things had become so bad in the kingdom that
police were unable to accept that peaceful political and social dissent was a
vital element of a healthy democratic process, and should not be viewed as a
crime.
These complaints were made by OSISA at an African Commission on Human and Peoples'
Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia on 10 April 2013.
OSISA said, ‘There are also reliable reports of a
general militarization of the country through the deployment of the Swazi army,
police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful protest action
by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic
elections.’
OSISA was commenting on the trend in Southern Africa
for police and security services to be increasingly violent and abusive of
human rights.
In 2015, Swaziland was named as one of the ten worst
countries for working people in the world, in a report from
the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
See also
Swaziland
Teacher Who Stopped Police Chief Shooting Into Unarmed Crowd Appears in Court
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/08/swaziland-teacher-who-stopped-police.html
Police in Swaziland Attack Nurses With Taser During Peaceful Protest Over Pay
Police in Swaziland Attack Nurses With Taser During Peaceful Protest Over Pay
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/08/police-in-swaziland-attack-nurses-with.html
More Police Guns Against Workers
More Police Guns Against Workers
Police
Fire Rubber Bullets on Strikers
Police
Fire Shots at Workers’ Protest
Kingdom
One Of Worst in World For Workers
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