Swaziland schoolteacher beats mothers for their children’s misbehaviour

When pupils at a school in Swaziland / eSwatini failed to show up to receive a caning a teacher beat their mothers instead.

It happened at the small rural community of Mavalela, near Big Bend.

A community meeting was told that the school’s administration forced the women to take punishment on behalf of their children.

The Times of Swaziland reported one woman said a senior teacher threatened to expel her children from the school if she did not allow herself to be beaten.

She said, ‘The pupils had finished writing their exams and then decided not to report for school. The school’s administration saw this as a violation of the school rules and she ruled that the pupils would be punished when they return to collect their academic reports.’

The Times added for those pupils who had not come to school on that day, the teacher forced parents to take the punishment of their behalf. Several women were beaten on the hand.

The newspaper reported the women did not report the assault to the police because they did not think they would be taken seriously.

One woman told the Times she did not feel embarrassed by the incident at the time as there were other women who were also beaten.

Corporal punishment in schools was banned in 2015 but it continues to be routinely used across the kingdom.

The Mavalela case is not the only one reported in Swaziland of adults being beaten by schoolteachers.

In 2011 it was reported the school principal at Elangeni High School regularly gave out public floggings to adults who dated girls from his school.

The men were forced to attend in front of the entire school, lie down on a bench and receive a whipping. The girls were also flogged. The principal told the Weekend Observer newspaper at the time that if in the usual course of events his pupils were subjected to corporal punishment, why shouldn’t the adults? He said he had flogged many men over a period of time.

The ages of the pupils involved were not disclosed, but in Swaziland it is common for people to still be attending school in their late teens and twenties.

See also

Swaziland teacher arrested after boy, 10, beaten for defiance, needed medical treatment

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/swaziland-teacher-arrested-after-boy-10.html

Children fear beatings, miss school

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/children-fear-beatings-miss-school.html

Teachers beat boys on naked buttocks

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/teachers-beat-boys-on-naked-buttocks.html

Swaziland Industrial Court paves way for public servants to strike legally

The Industrial Court in Swaziland has ruled that public service workers must make a new application before they can legally strike.

Unions have been in dispute with government over cost of living salary rises. A planned strike in January 2019 was halted because the Government of absolute monarch King Mswati III said it was political and threatened the national interest.

In Swaziland political parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups advocating for democracy are outlawed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. 

Four public service unions calling themselves the Public Sector Associations (PSA) had joined forces to strike. They were the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA) and the Swaziland Government Accountants Personnel (SNAGAP).

Unions and government are in dispute over cost of living adjustments (COLA) for the year 2017-2018. The Government says it cannot afford to pay and offered a zero percent increase. The result was a deadlock and the matter could not be resolved at the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC).

Ahead of the intended strike the unions issued a press statement that criticised the government for increasing the budget for state security: the Army, Police and Correctional Services. And for increasing recruitment for these services, while decreasing recruitment in other areas such as education, health and public services.

They also called upon every concerned Swazi ‘from all walks of life’ to support the strike. They also extended their claim for COLA to include the year 2018-2019.

The Attorney-General for the Swazi Government argued this statement was outside the scope of the pay dispute and made the strike a political one. It was against the national interest to allow the strike to go ahead.

The Industrial Court ruled, ‘There is no doubt in our minds that a threat to shut down clinics, health centres, hospitals and transport will have or is likely to have the effect of endangering the lives of part of the population at the very least.’

The court said members of the Swaziland Nurses Association were not allowed by law to strike because they were engaged in an essential service.

The Court ruled, ‘With regard to the facts of this matter the main issue of the strike is the COLA dispute which is a legitimate demand of the PSA’s. The [Ministry of Labour and Social Security] themselves have admitted that the dispute exists only because they are unable to pay same due to the fiscal challenges the Government faces.’

It added, ‘We cannot say that the proposed strike is one of a purely political nature.’

It also said that the unions claim for COLA in 2018-2019 had not been included in the original dispute that had been to arbitration and could not be considered. 

The Court decided, ‘The strike action cannot be allowed to continue in its present form even if the matter now included in the statement is excised and the employees who are part of essential services are excluded. In our view, the Respondents [the unions] would require to issue fresh notices in order to achieve the legal requirements for protected strike.’

See also

Swaziland public service unions call national strike to march on government

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/06/swaziland-public-service-unions-call.html

Industrial Court stops Swaziland public servants strike at last minute

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/industrial-court-stops-swaziland-public.html
 

Swaziland public servants prepare for pay strike amid fears of renewed police violence against them

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/01/swaziland-public-servants-prepare-for.html

Victims of human trafficking in Swaziland on hunger strike as protest against police detention

Three victims of human trafficking in Swaziland / eSwatini who are being kept against their will at a police station in Mbabane have started a hunger strike demanding they be released.

Earlier, they had been under the protection of the kingdom’s human trafficking secretariat but a senior officer threatened to shoot them.

The news comes after Swaziland was found not to meet minimum international standards in the elimination of human trafficking.

The three middle-aged men from Bangladeshi had been working in Swaziland for three years and were employed at a business run by a fellow national, the Sunday Observer newspaper reported.

They were discovered on 26 June 2019 when police raided the business. They were then sent to a half-way house. The Observer reported, ‘What has frustrated the three is the conditions they have endured for the duration of their stay at the halfway house and alleged threats by a senior official of the secretariat who is said to have threatened to shoot the Bangladeshi.’

It added, ‘According to a source, they were shocked and feared for their lives when they were threatened last Saturday [27 July 2019] by the officer, in the presence of a police officer who is supposed to protect them.’

It added, ‘They were subsequently moved to the care of the police, where they have said that they have had enough of the bad living conditions such as sleeping on the floor, without any necessities and proper meals.’ Their phones have also been taken away.

The newspaper added the men started a hunger strike on Tuesday, ‘as they stated that they should be released or let to die from hunger’ rather than be kept under the government’s watch.

The Government of Swaziland was found not to fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of people trafficking, according to the latest annual report from the United States State Department.

The report covered the year 2018. ‘Poor performance by leadership personnel at the anti-trafficking secretariat remained the principal obstacle to progress on trafficking during much of the reporting period,’ the report stated.

The government shelved a long-pending draft bill to amend the 2009 People Trafficking and People Smuggling (Prohibition) Act, as it determined it would have created expensive new bureaucratic structures.

The report stated, ‘As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Eswatini, and traffickers exploit victims from Eswatini abroad. Swati trafficking victims come primarily from poor communities with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.’

Another report, the Global Slavery Index 2018, estimated there were 12,000 people in Swaziland in modern slavery. The report stated modern slavery, ‘refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception and / or abuse of power’.

See also

Swaziland falls short on eliminating human trafficking, but is making efforts, says new report

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2019/07/swaziland-falls-short-on-eliminating.html

Swaziland Deputy Prime Minister tells poor people stop having children

The Deputy Prime Minister of Swaziland / eSwatini Themba Masuku has said poor people should stop having children because the kingdom cannot afford to support them.

The DPM’s office is responsible for child welfare among other issues.

Masuku told the Swaziland News, an online newspaper, that the Swazi government could not fulfil its obligations to the poor.

He told the newspaper, ‘The major problem we face as a country is that eMaswati [Swazi people] are having more and more children. Why do you have more children if you do not have the resources to look after those children? You can marry 10 wives but make sure all those wives are well looked after. Once we are able to manage the population, we could be a rich state. The government does not have a policy that talks about orphans.’

The Deputy Prime Minister, who was not elected but appointed to his post by King Mswati III the absolute monarch of Swaziland, said thousands of children in Swaziland were in need of food aid and other basic necessities of life and government had no financial muscle to meet their everyday needs.

The Swaziland News quoted him saying, ‘We have thousands of needy children today. The sad thing is that the parents of these children are not all dead. Some are still alive and poor, but they keep on producing more children every day. My advice to all eMaswati is that they must have a reasonable number of children. You can have one or two children. As long as you can love and maintain those children.’

According to figures in the CIA Factbook there are about 374,000 children aged 14 or under in Swaziland. In a report in August 2018 the World Food Program said 45 percent of children in Swaziland were orphaned or vulnerable. Chronic malnutrition was a main concern and stunting affected 26 percent of children under the age of five. 

Seven in ten of the estimated 1.3 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day. The global charity Oxfam named Swaziland as the most unequal country in the world in a report that detailed the differences in countries between the top most earners and those at the bottom.

See also

Fraud at Swazi Deputy PM’s office

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/03/fraud-at-swazi-deputy-pms-office.html

Workers in Swaziland locked into their factory and ‘forced to work into the night’

A member of parliament in Swaziland / eSwatini has called for an investigation after workers were locked into their factory by their bosses and forced to work into the night.

It happened at Africa Chicks, a Poultry and Egg producing company at Ngwenya in the Hhohho region.

The workers, many women, were made to stay at work because a delivery of eggs from neighbouring South Africa had not arrived by the time they were due to finish at 5 p.m.  The truck eventually arrived at 9 p.m. and they worked ‘under duress’ sorting eggs until 11.30 p.m.

The Swazi Observer reported, ‘It is alleged that superiors indirectly hinted that if anyone left against the order to remain within the premises  would face the music.’

It added, ‘After 5 p.m. the premises’ gates were locked, meaning no one could either enter or leave the premises unless authorised to do so.’

The Observer said the 20 workers stayed at work ‘out of fear’. As a result many of the women were unable to collect their children from a day care centre.

No one at the factory was available for comment. Motshane Member of Parliament Robert Magongo said the matter was reported to him and he went to engage the authorities at the farm.

Magongo said should he find that the allegations were true he would take the matter up because he could not allow Emaswati to suffer at the hands of their employer.

Swaziland, which is ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, has one of the worst records in the world for workers’ rights, according to a report from the International Trade Union Confederation. Reviewing the year 2018, ITUC said ‘police brutality reached unprecedented levels’ and ‘security forces fired live ammunition at protesting workers’.

In September 2018 police fired live bullets, rubber bullets and teargas at workers and demonstrators who had been legally protesting during a three-day strike. The streets of Manzini, the kingdom’s main commercial city, were turned into a ‘battlefield’, according to local media. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, said the bus rank in Swaziland’s major commercial city was ‘turned into a warzone as stun grenades, teargas, teasers and rubber bullets became the order of the day’.

The Times of Swaziland , the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, called it an ‘open battlefield’.

Armed police had been deployed across Swaziland. Videos and photographs of brutal police attacks were uploaded on social media. The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) in a statement said the videos showed ‘unlawful police actions’.

It added, ‘Several workers were wounded after police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd in Manzini. These police officers then unleashed a wave of assaults against striking workers in an effort to quell the protests.’ 

Human rights are severely curtailed in Swaziland where political parties are banned from taking part in elections and opponents of the King are charged under a number of laws, including the Suppression of Terrorism Act. 

 

See also

Swaziland police fire gunshots during textiles dispute, third attack on workers in a week

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/swaziland-police-fire-gunshots-during.html

UK solidarity with Swazi workers

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/uk-solidarity-with-swazi-workers.html

Man dies after ‘heavy assault’ by Swaziland police

A man in Swaziland / eSwatini has died in hospital nearly two months after allegedly being heavily assaulted by police. It is the latest report among many of police assault in the kingdom.

Sebenele ‘Bebe’ Mbuyisa, aged 29, from Mhlatane, had reportedly been beaten by two officers.

The Times of Swaziland reported Mbuyisa’s family said police had accused him of trying to steal copper. His cousin Lucky Malinga told the newspaper, ‘They heavily assaulted him with kicks, fists and the barrel of a rifle all over his body until he was unconscious.’

The Times added the police then put Mbuyisa’s body in a van and dumped him at an open field about 30 kilometres away.

Hours later a passer-by found him and other police took him to hospital.

There are many cases of police assault in Swaziland. In January 2019 Mbabane magistrate Sindisile Zwane spoke out about the increasing number of suspects who appeared in court with bruises claiming they have been assaulted by police.

She said police should be able to question people without beating them up.

She made her comments during a trial of Jules Tsabedze who was charged with obstructing two police officers. 

This was not the first time a magistrate in Swaziland had made a public rebuke of police. In March 2018 Principal Magistrate at Manzini David Khumalo told police they must not beat suspects after a man appeared in court with injuries all over his body. 

The Swazi Observer reported at the time, ‘The Principal Magistrate warned that accused persons are citizens of the country and they have rights too. He said they have a right to assist police with investigations but they cannot be forced to do that by being assaulted.’

Blessing Bakhe Maseko, aged 22, of Madonsa, informed the court through his attorney that he was heavily assaulted with a sjambok [whip] while inside police cells.

There have been many allegations of police assault in recent times. In November 2018 it was reported a man from Mangwaneni was left close to death after being allegedly assaulted by two officers at a police station. He suffered severe internal bleeding, heart seizures, the swelling of his kidneys and nerve damage on both his arms and legs.

In September 2018 four women were reportedly beaten with sjamboks and pipes and scalded with boiling water at Siteki police station. Two of them needed hospital treatment for burns and blisters. They were accused of stealing from shops.

In March 2017 a man accused of multiple murders told Manzini Magistrates’ Court he was tortured by police for 11 days to force him to confess. He said he was suffocated with a tube and assaulted all over his body, resulting in many serious injuries. The alleged attack was said to have taken place at Lobamba Police Station.

In January 2017 local media reported police forced a 13-year-old boy to remove his trousers and flogged him at Ngwenya police station with a sjambok, to make him confess to stealing a mobile phone. 

See also

‘Horror tale of Swazi police torture’

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

Police ‘brutally assault’ workers

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

More police torture in Swaziland

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/more-police-torture-in-swaziland.html