Friday, November 27, 2015
NEWSPAPER CALLS SWAZI KING ‘DESPOT’
King Mswati III of Swaziland has been listed by a top UK media house as one of the ‘despots’ and ‘rogues’ gallery of dubious characters’ who will meet Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta that started Friday (27 November 2015).
The Daily Telegraph, one of the most conservative and traditionalist newspapers in the UK, reported that the Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini was expected to attend the meeting, but that the King might also arrive.
The newspaper reported, ‘Swaziland will be represented by its Prime Minister, Barnabas Dlamini, though the organisers have said the country’s controversial king, Mswati III, may also decide to attend.
‘King Mswati has 15 wives, each of whom, by tradition, had to become pregnant by him before he would marry them. Amnesty International has accused him of violating the human rights of women and girls by subjecting them to forced marriage, and his lavish lifestyle in a country where most people live on less than £1 per day has also attracted regular criticism.
‘He is reported to spend £37m (US$56m) per year keeping his 15 wives and at least 24 children in 13 separate palaces. Political parties are banned in Swaziland and Mswati remains an absolute monarch.’
King Mswati never gets a ‘good press’ outside of Swaziland, where media regularly report on the abuses of human rights that take place in Swaziland. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections, the King chooses the Government (Barnabas Dlamini, the present PM, was not even elected to the Swazi parliament) and opposition groups are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
SWAZI TERROR ACT STOPS FREE SPEECH
The Swaziland regime regularly uses the Suppression
of Terrorism Act (STA) to stop free speech in the kingdom, the Commonwealth has
been told ahead of its heads of government meeting.
The STA is ‘regularly used’ by the police to
interfere in trade union activities, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) said in a submission to the Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), ahead of the meeting in Malta on 27-29
November 2015.
It said King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, ‘must be held to account for its
serious breaches of the Commonwealth Charter’.
In its submission, ACTSA, which is the successor to
the Anti-Apartheid Movement, said, ‘A cornerstone of any State seeking to demonstrate its dedication to
human rights is the ability of its citizens to exercise freedom of
speech. In Swaziland, freedom of speech is denied.’
It added, ‘A key instrument used to curtail freedom of expression
in Swaziland is the STA. The STA has been widely criticised since its
enactment because of its vague definitions and broad
designation of ministerial power as well as
its inconsistencies with
Swaziland’s own constitution and Swaziland’s obligations
under international and regional
human rights law. This includes condemnation by the
International Bar
Association and Amnesty International.
ACTSA added, ‘The STA is regularly used
by the police to legitimise
interference with trade union activities. For instance during
the 2014 May Day
celebrations organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland
(TUCOSWA), Mario Masuko,
President of PUDEMO, and Maxwell Dlamini, Secretary
General of the Swaziland
Youth Congress, were arrested and charged under the STA
after delivering speeches
in which they questioned the socio-economic governance of
the country. The charges
brought against them meant that if they were found guilty,
they would have faced a
sentence of up to 15 years of hard labour.
‘Over
a year passed with both men in detention and with no verdict having
been passed. Finally, on 14 July 2015, the two men were released on bail, with conditions forbidding them from
addressing public rallies.
Whilst no longer incarcerated, the charges against both men
have not been dropped.
‘Additionally,
on 17 and 18 March 2014, charges of criminal contempt were brought
against human rights lawyer
Thulani Maseko and editor in chief of the Nation, Bheki Makhubu. Both men were charged following
publication of articles in the Nation that questioned the reasoning behind and
circumstances of a case before the High
Court of Swaziland. The
state action taken against them was subject to condemnation
by UN experts
in June 2014. The Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) reported
concerns that the detention
of both men was related to the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of
expression as recognised in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland.
‘The
OHCHR stated that it was of the view that the detention and trial of Maseko and Makhubu
for the exercise of their right to express an opinion on the court case was counter to
Swaziland’s international human rights obligations. The two men were subsequently
sentenced to two
years in prison without benefit or bail where the usual sentence is
30 days.
‘Following
much international condemnation and the dismissal of the judge who had imprisoned
them, Bheki Makhubu was finally released on 30 June 2015 having spent 447 days in prison,
the prosecution having
decided not to oppose his appeal against conviction. The
prosecution adopted a
similar approach in the case of Thulani Maseko who was also
released in July of this
year.
‘The
use of oppressive laws to limit freedom of speech is not limited simply to the
use of existing legislation; there are also instances of
unhelpful commentary by government officials that is indicative of the
repressive nature of the Swazi State. For
example, in August 2014,
Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, the Swazi prime minister, made
a speech in Parliament in
which he publically threatened Sipho Gumedze from
Lawyers for Human Rights
and Vincent Ncongwane, the General Secretary of
TUCOSWA, by suggesting that
members of their constituency “must strangle them.”
‘These
comments were made following their attendance at the US-Africa Leaders’
Summit in Washington DC.
‘These
actions are in contrast to the Charter that commits the Commonwealth to
‘peaceful open dialogue and
the free flow of information … through a free and
responsible media… to
enhance democratic traditions and strengthening the
democratic processes’.
‘The
Commonwealth Observer mission in 2013 heard
testimony that a number of
journalists critical of the government had lost their jobs,
faced legal action or jail,
with the consequence that the practice of self-censorship had
grown amongst reporters.
The media are
Swaziland is overwhelming controlled by the
state, and thus,
ultimately, by the king.
‘The
repeated arrests of the editor of one of the
very few independent
publications that has been critical of the state and its institutions
is clearly intended to
intimidate those who would seek to challenge the current regime.
‘The
recommendation made by the Commonwealth Observer mission urging the
Government of Swaziland to
encourage and facilitate private media has apparently
failed to inspire action.
Instead, efforts to intimidate and restrict the media in fulfilling
its legitimate role are
ongoing.
‘Beyond
this, the much-criticised STA is being used to
suppress political dialogue
and thus scupper democratic processes. We believe that
CMAG must not be a
bystander whilst there are ongoing, serious and persistent
violations of fundamental
Commonwealth values.’
See also
KING
ATTACKED OVER HUMAN RIGHTS
SWAZI
TERROR ACT TRIAL PUT ON HOLD
SCRAP
SWAZI TERROR ACT – AMNESTY
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
POLICE BLOCK WORKERS FROM COURT
Public sector workers in
Swaziland were blocked by police from entering the High Court to hear a case
relating to their claim for salary increases.
It came after the
government asked the High Court to ban a march by public sector unions to
protest that a salary review report had not been released.
The Swazi Government in
the small kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, told the court the march would be a breach of state security.
The High Court was due to
meet on Tuesday (24 November 2015), but the case could not go ahead because the
unions’ lawyers did not have time to prepare their case.
The Swaziland National Association
of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Muzi Mhlanga told local media they had not
been allowed access to the High Court.
‘We had come here to
listen to a case in which we are involved with the government. It is disturbing
to find that we are now denied access to the High Court, which is a public
place,’ the Swazi Observer quoted him
saying.
The protest was to be organised
by the Public Sector Associations (PSA). The PSA includes SNAT, the Swaziland
National Association of Civil Servants (SNACS), Swaziland Nurses Association
(SNA), and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel
(SNAGAP).
Members of the PSA had intended
to go to the offices of the Ministry of Public Service to demand release of a
salary review report.
Swazi Government lawyers said the PSA had not consulted the Mbabane
Municipal Council and the Hhohho regional police about the proposed march.
In Swaziland at least 14
days’ notice must be given for a march and police permission obtained.
In June 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).
A week after that report was issued, the
International Labour Organization (ILO)
told Swaziland it must stop interfering in the activities of trade unions;
ensure workers’ organizations are fully assured of their rights and ensure they
have the autonomy and independence they need to represent workers.
The ILO placed Swaziland in a ‘special paragraph’ in
its annual report to highlight the deficiencies in the kingdom’s commitment to
freedom of association.
See also
KINGDOM
IN TOP 10 WORST FOR WORKERS
ILO URGES SWAZI WORKERS’ REFORM
Monday, November 23, 2015
KING’S WORDS BLOCK FREE SPEECH
People in Swaziland have been ordered not to comment
on the controversial
sponsorship of a new soccer tournament because King Mswati III
has pronounced on the subject.
In a stark example of the lack of freedom of speech
in the tiny kingdom where King Mswati rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, the most senior monarchy loyalist TV Mtetwa has pronounced that
‘members of parliament, [cabinet] ministers and whoever’ must be silent on the
matter.
The controversy surrounds the E9 million (about
US$900,000) sponsorship of the Ingwenyama Cup tournament by the government
parastatal Sincephetelo
Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF).
SMVAF
exists to compensate victims of road accidents.
King
Mswati himself launched the tournament at an event at Lozitha, one of the 13
palaces he has in Swaziland.
A range of critics said the amount of sponsorship
was too much to spend in a kingdom that was presently battling with poverty and
a drought. Seven in ten of the King’s 1.3 million subjects live in abject
poverty with incomes of less than US$2 a day.
But, the Observer on Saturday, a
newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported on Saturday (21 November
2015) that Mtetwa, who is generally regarded as the ‘traditional prime minister’,
said people must stop discussing the topic, ‘because the lion has already roared on the matter’.
The
newspaper is part of the Swazi Observer group, which was called a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’
by the Media Institute of
Southern Africa in a report on press freedom in Swaziland.
The Observer on Saturday reported Mtetwa, ‘emphasised that it was wrong for
people to publicly talk about what the King has already pronounced and set in
motion’.
The newspaper added, ‘Mtetwa said since time immemorial it had been a
traditional norm that no one speaks after the King had spoken.’
The newspaper said, ‘He warned all critics to guard against being seen
to be going against pronouncements made by the King.’
The
newspaper added, ‘Also sought for comment, was traditionalist and National
Court President Ndumiso Dlamini who put it clear that he expected no one to
taint what the king had blessed.
‘He said
it was a known traditional or and cultural practice that once His Majesty had
spoken, no one is expected to say a word against his.’
Earlier, some members of parliament told Minister for Finance Martin
Gobizandla Dlamini that they were against the allocation of E9 million to the
soccer tournament. The money will be paid over three years.
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