‘TORTURE’ POLICE INVESTIGATE SELVES

Police in Swaziland are to investigate themselves after reports that officers ambushed and tortured striking workers.

An unnamed senior officer was reported in the Swazi Observer newspaper saying, ‘We as the police have opened an inquiry of our own over the allegations made against our officers.’

It relates to reported attacks by police on workers at the Plantation Forest Company, near Pigg’s Peak. 

The newspaper said two investigations had been started, one of them independent of the police. The Observer reported on Tuesday (20 September 2016) that the senior office said, ‘everybody involved, be it the police officers or the workers themselves were all under investigation’.

Meanwhile, the Swaziland Agriculture and Plantations Workers Union (SAPWU) want to open individual assault cases against police officers, following the alleged assaults on Friday 9 September 2016.

General-Secretary Manqoba Dlamini said, ‘We intend opening various assault cases against the police. This is because the violation by police happened at various times during the strike, but the Friday’s assaults were severe and most shocking. That fateful Friday, police picked up five females and assaulted them in a secluded location and further accused them of arson attacks at the Plantation Forest Company sports field,’ he said. 

Dlamini said the names of the police officers involved in the alleged assault were known to them.

Dlamini also said SAPWU intended to alert the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the strike action by workers of the Plantation Forest Company. He said, ‘The poor working conditions suffered by workers coupled by the low wages topped off by attacks by police have to be told to the international community. Worth noting is that the assaults that happened on Friday started as a labour dispute that turned ugly,’ he said. 

See also

‘HORROR TALE OF SWAZI POLICE TORTURE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/09/horror-tale-of-swazi-police-torture.html

 

POLICE ‘BRUTALLY ASSUALT’ WORKERS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/09/police-brutally-assualt-workers.html

‘HORROR TALE OF SWAZI POLICE TORTURE’

More detailed accounts of Swaziland police ‘torture’ against women workers have been published in a local newspaper. 

The women were reportedly ambushed by armed police and ‘brutally attacked’ during a strike at the Plantation Forest Company, near Pigg’s Peak.

The Observer on Saturday newspaper (17 September 2016) reported what it called a ‘horror’ attack. It said a private security company called Siyavutsa assisted police.

The newspaper reported the attack happened at 4.45pm on Friday 9 September. A group of workers left the plantation premises and walked along a main road to their compound, Goedgegun, about 5 km away, ‘when all of a sudden a Siyavutsa vehicle swerved and came to an abrupt stop in front of the first group of about five workers and a swarm of armed police officers and dog handlers alighted.’

The newspaper added, ‘The different groups of about 15 workers allege that they all ran in different directions while the officers were in pursuit striking indiscriminately at anyone falling down. The women claim that the police officers alighted with rifles and batons while Siyavutsa dog handlers followed suit with the dogs. Shots were fired in the air while other officers bridged their service weapons. 

‘At the top of his voice a Siyavutsa security chief shouted at the workers as to why they were burning down the forest, however they wondered how they could have burned the forest because the fires had started from a different direction, far away from where they were going. 

‘Vice Secretary of the Workers Union Wendy Simelane said she was struck with a baton by an officer identified as Manqoba Vilakati on the shin before she was dragged and thrown into a police van that had arrived to beef up the contingent on the scene.’

The Observer on Saturday reported, ‘It was then they, together with a handful of others, were driven deep into one of the forests. On the way the vehicle swerved to its sides making its cargo bang on the sides with their heads. By then all their mobile telephones were confiscated. At the swamp inside the forest the beatings continued with their assailants stomping on their arms and legs, including Simelane’s fractured leg. 

‘“All this time we pleaded with them why we were being assaulted but to deaf ears. By then my lower part of the leg was dangling signalling that the shin was shattered. At the same time, we were forced to do press-ups but I could not because my leg could not hold any longer,”’ the newspaper reported Simelane saying.

The Observer reported that the police used wood stumps and branches from around the swamp to inflict more injury to the workers. They were then dragged and thrown into the police van, driven back to Mhlatane station where they found Siyavutsa guards waiting for their turn. 

Later, they were taken to Pigg’s Peak police station ‘for another bout of torturing’. The newspaper reported that Simelane was tortured by being suffocated with a plastic bag until she vomited. She was forced into signing a confession that she had started fires in the forest.

See also

POLICE ‘BRUTALLY ASSUALT’ WORKERS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/09/police-brutally-assualt-workers.html

POLICE ‘BRUTALLY ASSUALT’ WORKERS

Striking plantation workers in Swaziland were ‘brutally assaulted’ by police, a local newspaper has reported.

The displayed bruised and injured legs where they were physically battered by Royal Swaziland Police officers, the Swazi Observer said.

Of the injured workers at Swaziland Plantation, five were women and one a man.

The Observer reported on Thursday (15 September 2016), ‘Striking Plantation Workers Vice-Secretary Wendy Simelane said she suffered a double leg fracture and multiple tortures at the hands of three Royal Swaziland Police officers.’

It added Simelane was with four other workers.

‘They all claimed to have been assaulted by police who then warned them to keep silent, and not tell their story to anyone after taking them to the Pigg’s Peak Government Hospital for treatment.

‘The workers were taken to a secluded location and were allegedly assaulted for starting the fires at the plantation grounds.

‘They claimed to have been forced by police at the Pigg’s Peak Police Station to write statements claiming they started the fires.’

The Observer reported the workers were ‘assaulted’ and ‘tortured’ with water and plastics at the police station.

The attacks were said to have happened on Friday 9 September 2016.

Workers had been on strike for more than a month. They won a 13 percent pay rise on Tuesday (13 September 2016).

See also

POLICE FIRE SHOTS AT WORKERS’ STRIKE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/08/police-fire-shots-at-workers-strike.html

POLICE FIRE RUBBER BULLETS ON STRIKERS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/09/police-fire-rubber-bullets-on-strikers.html

POLICE FIRE RUBBER BULLETS ON STRIKERS

Riot police in Swaziland are under fire for using rubber bullets and teargas against striking workers.

A strike at Swaziland Plantation has entered its second month amid clashes between police and workers.

Swaziland Agriculture and Plantations Workers Union (SAPWU) Chairperson Sibusiso Masuku told the Swazi Observer newspaper the police had taken a violent stance against the workers. 

On Wednesday (14 September 2016) the newspaper reported him saying, ‘During the strike, we the striking workers, saw rubber bullets fired at us by the riot police as well as teargas. We have also been chased away from the Plantation entrance where we had originally started our strike. Police have been arresting us for instigating violence and to add insult to injury, we have had seen some of our fellow workers being injured during the protest, it has been a bad time for us.’

The newspaper reported there had been renewed clashes on Friday (9 September 2016) between police and unarmed workers.

Masuku told the Observer, ‘The riot police are just pawns used by the Plantation Forest Company administration to fight against us, we feel safer when they are not present as we do not understand their way of thinking.’

In June 2015, Swaziland was listed as one of the top ten worst countries in the world for workers’ rights. It was grouped alongside some of the worst human rights violators on the planet, including Belarus, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 

POLICE FIRE SHOTS AT WORKERS’ STRIKE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/08/police-fire-shots-at-workers-strike.html