Swaziland democracy protests continue despite ban and police violence

Pro-democracy protests continued across Swaziland (eSwatini) despite a ban on marching imposed by the kingdom’s absolute monarch.

Marches took place in at least 10 locations – mainly in rural areas.

Police fired teargas and live ammunition in an attempt to disperse protestors. There were many injuries, including to two journalists.

Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III as an absolute monarch. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and the King chooses the Prime Minister and government cabinet ministers as well as top judges and civil servants. Groups advocating for democracy are outlawed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Campaigners who marched on Friday (25 June 2021) and Saturday called for wholesale political reforms and want to elect their own prime minister.

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku on behalf of the King had declared marches to deliver petitions illegal and the National Commissioner of Police William Dlamini warned police would show ‘zero tolerance’ and ‘unleash the full might of the law’ against anyone defying the ban.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a prodemocracy group banned in the kingdom, reported, ‘The most violent protests occurred at Siphofaneni where police once again retreated immediately after infuriating the local population. In the aftermath of that clash the road passing though the town was completely closed as trucks were burnt. This was eerily similar to what occurred at Msunduza the previous day.’

Wonder Dlamini, a journalist for the eSwatini Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, was shot with a teargas cannister at close range at Lugongolweni.

Andile Langwenya, a reporter for the online publication Independent News, eSwatini, was hospitalised after being tear-gassed by police at Msunduza. Sifiso Sibandze, Independent News Editor, said, ‘Police should stop employing hooliganism tactics when doing their job.’

At Msunduza, the Observer reported, ‘Teargas canisters were also shot in all directions and to nearby residential places and in the absence of the Red Cross volunteers, journalists were forced to assist some children who were overwhelmed by the teargas by whisking them to safety.’

The Observer also reported, ‘The protests that broke out across the country seemingly fuelled an ongoing conversation about police brutality and political reforms in the country. Previous protest marches had been calm and the protesters spoke of their frustration over being led by an unelected prime minister among a litany of many grievances.

‘The issue of the elected PM had been foremost, with other grievances becoming only ancillary. The manner in which the protests quickly escalated into a national occurrence reflected long standing frustrations and rage by communities.’

 

See also

Swaziland absolute monarch bans pro-democracy marches as protests against him mount

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2021/06/swaziland-absolute-monarch-bans-pro.html

Anger as Swaziland PM gets special medical treatment for coronavirus

Swaziland (eSwatini) Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini who tested positive for coronavirus has been airlifted to neighbouring South Africa for treatment prompting anger from prodemocracy activists in the kingdom.

Dlamini announced he had tested positive on 16 November 2020 and the government downplayed the seriousness of his condition. A local newspaper later reported he had been put into the intensive care unit at Mbabane Government Hospital.

On Tuesday (1 December 2020) Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku released a statement saying Dlamini had been transferred to an unnamed hospital in South Africa ‘to guide and fast track his recovery’. No other details about his condition were given.

The announcement prompted the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SNN), a group campaigning for democracy in the kingdom ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, to call on South Africa not to accept Dlamini into the country.

In a statement SSN said, ‘The Swazi Prime Minister is part of a government that has collapsed the country’s health system, turning it into a death waiting room for ordinary Swazis who cannot afford to go to South Africa or overseas for medical attention. He too should go to a hospital in Swaziland so that he can fully understand what Swazis go through every time they go to hospital.’

Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis started in March heath care workers in Swaziland have been calling for protective equipment. They have threatened to take the government to court saying there is also an acute shortage of drugs in the kingdom.

 

See also

Swaziland ambulances grounded by lack of fuel as coronavirus death toll rises

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/07/swaziland-ambulances-grounded-by-lack.html

New report of Swaziland hospital crisis as Govt fails to pay suppliers, patients left unfed

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-report-of-swaziland-hospital-crisis.html

Families of girls killed at Swaziland Reed Dance get no financial compensation

The families of ten girls, mostly aged 11 to 16, who were killed in a road accident while being transported on the back of a truck ‘like cattle’ during the Reed Dance for King Mswati III in 2015 have received no financial compensation for their death.

The Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF) will not make pay-outs because the girls had no dependents.

The accident happened when the girls were going to Ludzidzini Royal Residence after cutting reed for the kingdom’s absolute monarch.

The news of the non-payment was broken by the Times of Swaziland. It reported the SMVAF guarantees no compensation for deceased people, other than funeral benefits, if they had no source of income or dependants at the time of their death.

The deaths caused outrage in August 2015. The exact number of deaths in the incident is disputed. The Swazi Government said 13 people, including children and adults, died but there was widespread disbelief in Swaziland that the death toll was so low. The Swaziland Solidarity Network, a prodemocracy group banned in Swaziland, citing the Swaziland Defence Force as a source, put the figure of deaths at 38. It later revised this figure to 65, citing medical officials as a source.

The official figures included an 11-year-old girl and seven girls aged 16 or under.

They died when they were loaded up onto the back of a truck. It was involved in a road collision on 28 August 2015. They were taking part in the annual Reed Dance or Umhlanga where they were expected to be among thousands of ‘virgins’ to dance in front of the King.

King Mswati came in for heavy criticism after the crash because journalists were prevented from reporting the event. King Mswati rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and media are heavily restricted in his kingdom.

Thousands of young girls from across Swaziland were forced to travel in trucks standing up  in the open back cheek-by-jowl. There was no space to sit down or even to turn around. Photographs show that at least sixty children were squashed onto the back of a single truck. Many of the trucks that transported the girls were usually used to move building materials.

Young girls travel this way every year to attend the Reed Dance where they are expected to dance topless in front of King Mswati. Media in Swaziland routinely describe the girls as ‘virgins’ or ‘maidens.’ The King was 46 years old at the time of the accident.

Media reports of the accident were inconsistent, but it was generally agreed that the children were thrown from the back of the truck when it was involved in a collision. Police reported that not all the girls died on the spot. International media reported that journalists in Swaziland were stopped from gathering information about the accident.

 

(Below) A photograph issued by Reuters in 2015. The caption reads ‘Maidens riding in the back of a dump truck arrive before the last day of the Reed Dance at the Ludzidzini royal palace in Swaziland.’

 

See also

‘Cover-up on Swazi Reed Dance deaths’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/08/cover-up-on-swazi-reed-dance-deaths.html

 

Dead girls are victims, not heroes

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/09/dead-girls-are-victims-not-heroes.html

 

Dead girls transported like cattle

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/09/dead-girls-transported-like-cattle.html

 

 

Swaziland union leader shot by police during strike put his hands up and pleaded: don’t shoot

The trade union leader who was shot in the back with a rubber bullet at close range by police in Swaziland /eSwatini during what was until then a peaceful strike has told how he put his hands up and pleaded at the officer not to shoot.

Dumisani Nkuna, Secretary General of the Manzini Branch of the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), was a marshal at a march in Manzini, the kingdom’s main commercial city, on Wednesday (2 October 2019).

About 8,000 people marched through the city as part of a public servants’ strike for an increase in cost-of-living salary payments.

Nkuna told the Times of eSwatini (formerly Times of Swaziland), the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, ‘I raised my hands and shouted; “Please do not shoot. I am a marshal”’.

From his hospital bed he told the newspaper he had been working with police to control the march which had begun to get unruly. He ran away with other demonstrators when police fired teargas. Armed police followed them.

He said after he raised his hands the police were very close to him. ‘He saw one of them aiming to shoot towards him, and he decided to take it to his heels,” the Times reported.

It quoted him saying, ‘It was then that they shot me in the back. I fell down the slight slope and crawled towards the main road near Mzimnene River where I was assisted to get into a car and was rushed to hospital.’

‘I thank God for making a quick decision to run again because if I had delayed for a few minutes, maybe the rubber bullets would have pierced through my stomach and I do not know what would have happened,’ he said.

He was taken to Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital where two pieces of the rubber bullets were removed. It had previously been reported by media in Swaziland that he was shot with a live bullet.

The Times also interviewed Fikile Nhlabatsi, who was not part of the protest and works for an insurance company, who said she was shot four times at close range. She was hit by two rubber bullets in the right hand and two of her fingers were fractured.

She was returning to her place of work when she saw people running and a police armoured vehicle. When she heard live gunshots she hid in a hedge.

She said she was ‘gripped by fear’ and lay face down and covered her face with her hands.

‘I heard two shots hitting the hedge right next to me and thereafter two rubber bullets hit my right hand,’ she said. When the firing died down she was taken to a local health centre and then to RFM where she was admitted.

Another victim of the police rubber bullets was Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) member Londiwe Mdlovu who was shot with a rubber bullet in her left arm.

She told the Times she was running away with two other marchers from the police when they fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them. They escaped and were walking to a KFC fast-food restaurant when a group of armed police officers alighted from a speeding armoured vehicle and fired rubber bullets at them. The officers then jumped back into the vehicle which drove off, she said.

They were treated by the Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society, who cleaned their wounds and bandaged them.

Later, in a statement posted on Facebook, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) condemned the ‘barbaric action that is continuously done by the “trigger happy” police, in shooting unarmed citizens of the country’.

It added,  ‘We promise that we shall take up this matter with the relevant bodies locally and internationally if need be, since it has become a chronic disease in the country.’ 

The Swaziland Solidarity Network, a group banned in Swaziland because of its prodemocracy activities, said in a statement posted on Facebook, ‘The brutalisation of these innocent workers is an example of the way all pro-democracy activists are treated in Swaziland by King Mswati whenever they organise peaceful activities to protest against his illegitimate regime.’

It added, ‘While we condemn the actions of the Swazi dictatorship, we also extend an accusing finger to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which even today continues to pretend as if Swaziland is another democratic state.’

See also

Swaziland police shoot union leader in back as peaceful workers’ protest turns into a ‘battlefield’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/10/police-shoot-union-leader-in-back-as.html

 

Swaziland police fire rubber bullets and teargas injuring 15 during national strike

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/09/swaziland-police-fire-rubber-bullets.html
 

Swaziland police fire teargas into classroom packed with children

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/09/swaziland-police-fire-teargas-into.html

Protest at Swaziland border calls for isolation of absolute monarch

 

Members of a dozen organisations picketed the South African side of the Swaziland border to call for the kingdom’s absolute monarch King Mswati III to be isolated.

They want democracy in Swaziland where political parties cannot contest elections and groups that campaign for freedom are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. The King chooses the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers as well as top judges and civil servants.

The picket on Friday (26 July 2019) was led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in KwaZulu-Natal. In a statement it called on all progressive forces to agitate for the economic and political isolation of the Mswati government. It said, ‘This campaign needs to be strengthened and intensified so that the exploited and oppressed people of Swaziland can be freed from the shackles of the Mswati regime.

‘Contrary to its false claims of peace and order in Swaziland, the regime is continuing to expose the people of Swaziland to serious sufferings and exploitation. The State is paralysed and the country is on the verge of collapse. 

‘The people are dying because of the failing health system, children and women are raped, workers are striking and protesting for wage increases, taxes have escalated exorbitantly; university students are targeted and the judiciary is centralised by the individuals. 

‘There is no quality healthcare programme, the education system remains untransformed, and the media freedom is non-existent.’

Among those participating in the picket at the Golela / Lavumisa Border were the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) and two groups banned in Swaziland: the People’s United Democratic Movement (TUCOSWA) and the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN).

Picture sourced from Facebook

See also

COSATU to help evicted Swaziland sugar cane farmers regain control of land from King

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/12/cosatu-to-help-evicted-swaziland-sugar.html