Swaziland: Small country, big struggle -- global day of action for democracy

In Swaziland you can get locked up for wearing this T-shirt.

[The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC), formed by trade unions, political parties, civil society groups and churches, has called for a global day of action on September 7, 2010. It will include a mass protest and show of “defiance” in Swaziland. Delegates from the international labour movement will join the action in Swaziland and messages of support for the SDC are to be delivered to Swazi embassies worldwide. Click HERE to download the international call, or read the document below the article.]

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By Mike Marqusee

August 23, 2010 – MikeMarqusee.com – Swaziland is a small country with a big problem. The 1.3 million inhabitants of the land-locked southern African kingdom live under the thumb of one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, a venal and repressive regime whose plunder of the country is systematic and comprehensive.

Now presiding over the 37th year of the world’s longest running state of emergency, King Mswati III controls the parliament, appoints cabinet ministers, judges and senior civil servants, and makes and breaks the law at will. Political parties are banned, along with most demonstrations and meetings. Shouting the wrong slogan or wearing the wrong T-shirt can get you locked up as a “terrorist”. Trades unionists and human rights activists face surveillance, house searches, arbitrary detention and torture. Strikes are illegal. Gatherings of any kind are often broken up by police assaults. The media is subject to constant harassment and intimidation. During the latest wave of repression, in May 2010, democracy activist Sipho Jele, who had been arrested and interrogated, was allegedly “found” by police hanging from the rafters in a prison toilet.

In July, Mswati (who was educated at the expensive Sherborne school in Dorset, England) ruled out future political dialogue, insisting that state structures in Swaziland were a “closed book” and rejecting public consultation in favour of a carefully managed “Smart Partnership” exercise.

15th richest monarch

Swaziland’s autocracy is based on the “Tinkhundla” system through which royally sponsored traditional leaders dispense patronage and exercise control at local level. The system is celebrated by the government as an authentic product of traditional Swazi culture and those who question it are routinely denounced as “not Swazi enough”. But Swazis themselves reap no benefits from it.

While 70% of the population live on less than a dollar a day and 25% rely on food aid, the royal family make do on some $67,000 a day. According to US-based business magazine Forbes, Mswati’s personal net worth is an estimated $200 million, making him the 15th richest monarch in the world, not far behind Queen Elizabeth II, ranked 13, whose UK domain alone generates a GDP 365 times larger than Swaziland’s.

Six in ten Swazis are engaged in subsistence farming, mostly on communal land owned in trust by the king, whose family also directly own a major share of the remaining “privately owned” land. Forced labour is commonplace. Under Swazi Administration Order No. 6 of 1998, it is a duty of Swazis to obey orders from local chiefs to participate in compulsory works (which may include construction and agricultural labour or even weeding the gardens in Mswati’s palaces). There are severe penalties for those who refuse.

Mswati is also head of a multi-million pound conglomerate, set up in 1968 by royal charter, which owns a significant slice of nearly every major Swazi business and industry – sugar, mobile phones, mines, media, tourism. Theoretically, Mswati holds the conglomerate’s assets in trust for the nation, but the fund, like all royal assets, is shielded from public scrutiny.

HIV/AIDS

Compounding poverty and repression, Swaziland now suffers the world’s highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection – perhaps as much as 40% of the adult population and 42% of all expectant mothers. Swaziland has the highest annual rate of death from AIDS, about 10,000 a year or an annual cull of 1% of the population. Life expectancy has plummeted and is probably now as low as anywhere in the world. Fifteen per cent of households are headed by orphaned children.

The royal family’s response to this crisis would be laughable if it weren’t so lethally criminal. The government has issued a call for the circumcision of newborn males (and also for members of parliament), though there is no evidence that circumcision affects HIV spread. Mswati himself declared a ban on teenage girls wearing miniskirts. Recently a senior member of the royal family (and chair of the above-mentioned royal trust fund) Prince Logcogco claimed that the HIV problem was exaggerated and described himself as “a fearless human being” undeterred by the threat of AIDS. The comments were part of the prince’s response to a custody battle over a child born four years ago to a 13- or 14-year-old girl (the age of consent is 16).

Royal sex scandals are just about the only Swazi stories that make the international news. When I visited the country in mid-August, the justice minister had just been dismissed and arrested for having sex with the 12th of the king’s 14 wives. Swazi media were prohibited from reporting the story and copies of the South African daily City Press were barred at the border. A democracy activist was then arrested for making photocopies of the banned report, which, in any case, seemed to be common knowledge across the country. The king had picked out this wife at the age of 16 when she took part in the annual Reed Dance, a much-hyped “cultural” rite in which tens of thousands of “maidens”, many displaying bare breasts, dance for the members of the royal family and ogling tourists.

The government defends royal polygamy, like forced labour and the Tinkhundla system, on the grounds of “tradition”. When Mswati’s long-reigning father, Sobhuza II, proclaimed the state of emergency back in 1973, he did so on the grounds that open political competition was “alien to, and incompatible with … the Swazi way of life”. And “culture” remains the continuing plea of the Swazi elite (and the big appeal of the royally-controlled Swazi tourist industry). But the “culture” they claim to be defending is an artificial construction, a monopoly on power and wealth that stifles the creativity and independence of the Swazi people.

Collaboration with West

Over the course of 150 years, the Swazi monarchy has maintained its grip by collaborating with the prevalent regional powers, first with the Boer republics, then the British Empire and in the 1980s with apartheid South Africa. Besides assisting in the arrest and killing of African National Congress members who had fled to Swaziland, the king denounced sanctions against South Africa, the only Commonwealth leader besides British PM Margaret Thatcher to do so.

Swazi democracy activists are quick to highlight the disparity between the West’s strictures on the likes of Mugabe and their indifference when it comes to the Mswati regime. But unlike Mugabe and others on the West’s selective hit-list of human-rights abusers, Mswati is an enthusiast for neoliberalism and multinational corporations. Take, for example his partnership with Coca-Cola, whose concentrate plant, exporting to much of Africa, is located in Swaziland because of favourable tax arrangements and access to cheap raw sugar. Coke accounts for up to 40 per cent of Swaziland’s GDP, and an unknown but sizeable chunk of this goes directly into the king’s pocket. Mswati’s pilgrimage to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, has become an annual ritual.

On a visit to Britain in August 2010, Mswati attended the graduation of one of his sons from the military academy at Sandhurst. Not long after, the UK government announced it would deport well-known Swazi democracy activist Thobile Gwebu, who had been staging a weekly picket outside the Swazi High Commission in London, as a “failed asylum seeker”.

Earlier this year, the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) was formed by labour unions, political parties, civil society groups and churches. It has called for a global day of action on September 7, 2010, which will include a mass protest and show of “defiance” in Swaziland itself. Delegates from the international labour movement will join the action in Swaziland and messages of support for the SDC are to be delivered to Swazi embassies worldwide.

SDC activists I spoke to are hopeful that the event will alert a hitherto indifferent global media to the Swaziland story. They see the day of action as a key moment in the development of a more united, more focused democracy movement and believe that their message is spreading rapidly to new areas, inside and outside the country. Though they face an obstinate, ruthless ruling elite, they are now more “optimistic” about the future of their struggle than for many years. “The days of the absolute monarchy”, one told me, “are definitely numbered.”

For more information see:

[Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland. This article first appeared at Marqusee's web site, MikeMarqusee.com, and is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission. This article also appeared in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on August 29, 2010.] Swaziland Democracy Campaign global day of action, September 7, 2010

SIYAYA eSWAZILAND: Forward to the 7th September, 2010 Global day of action

The SDC–South Africa convened Civil society meeting held in Johannesburg this past week took the opportunity to welcome the growing momentum towards the 7th September Global Day of Action in Swaziland. After receiving the state of readiness report, it then identified specific action areas to be tightened in the final days of the build-up.

These identified specific action areas are;

· The 5th September, 2010 (this coming Sunday) is an international day of prayer in all churches and religious organisations for democracy in Swaziland. It is dedicated to the suffering people of Swaziland and their desire to be free.

· The SDC shall be organising trips to other countries in the SADC region to organise and mobilise support for the Swazi cause, which shall be arranged in conjunction with Swazi civil society organisations to intensify the international campaign for democracy in Swaziland. In the trips, we shall meet governments, civil society and other structures in each country.

· Press Conferences, both in South Africa and inside Swaziland shall be held this Wednesday to inform the world and people about the state of readiness

· SDC must write to all civil society organisations calling for their continuing commitment and effective participation by indicating their final delegations for the global day of action

· Wednesday shall be the day for final blitzing on the streets

· We have secured the support and services of the Southern African Human Rights Defenders Trust to work on the case of Thobile Gwebu who is facing difficulties in the UK.

Finally, we took the opportunity to salute the hard work and dedication of all organisations and people involved in preparing for the Global Day of Action inside Swaziland. We take note of their efforts to make every home, church, workplace, school, social and cultural centre, and every community a site of struggle. The next and final meeting of Civil society shall be held at the same venue, COSATU House, this coming Friday (3rd September, 2010), starting at 9am.

The history of Swaziland shall be written before and after the 7th September,2010.

Siyaya eSwaziland, 7th September!

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Zanele Matebula, COSATU Deputy International Secretary, 1 September 2010

COSATU joins the millions of people and workers all over the world who have responded to the call by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) to dedicate the whole of next week, particularly the 7th September to the cause of the suffering people of Swaziland.

This takes forward the declaration made by the people of Swaziland and South Africa during the historic launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) in February, this year, which said, “The eyes of ordinary Swazi people and the world, are focussed on this historic and watershed initiative, the Swaziland Democracy Campaign. The reason being that the crime of tinkhundla oppression in Swaziland has persisted for too long. Almost everywhere people are convinced that this initiative marks a decisive moment, the beginning of the end of tinkhundla system. In that regard, everyone further recognise that the people in whose name this decisive struggle is waged, will always be at the centre of the process that will result in the final defeat of oppression and the crime of royal supremacy in Swaziland.”

In this regard, we congratulate all our affiliates who, in the midst of varying pressures, particularly the Public sector strike, the Auto strikes and other struggles workers affiliated to COSATU are engaged in at this moment, still felt international working class obligations are an integral part of local working class struggles and need our continuing support. We call on all affiliates to finalise their delegations and ensure their active involvement in our efforts to intensify support to the people of Swaziland.

The final preparatory meeting for this major event is taking place this coming Friday (3 September,2010) at COSATU house, starting at 9am and we must ensure attendance to finalise details. There are basic rules for the attention of all who will be participating given the situation inside Swaziland and the steps taken to ensure all goes well.

SAMWU PRESS STATEMENT
04 September 2010

SAMWU the largest Local Government Union sends its support and solidarity to the Global day of action for democracy in Swaziland. SAMWU will be joining the millions of workers all over the world who have responded to the Swaziland Democracy campaigns (SDC) call, to dedicate the whole of next week, particularly the 7th September to the Swazi people. The Swazi people have been oppressed for far too long, under a tyrannical regime.

We will be sending a delegation of noteworthy Trade Unionists and Activists from as early as Monday, to participate in the Global day of action for democracy in Swaziland. SAMWU will be sending a delegation comprising of Trade Unionists from all nine Provinces of the country.

SAMWU Branch and Provincial offices closest to Swaziland will also develop Programmes to assistance those comrades in Swaziland who are so desperately fighting for change.

We call upon the Southern African Development Community to wake from its slumber and take action, to bring democracy to Swaziland and its people.

We are convinced that next week’s activities will undoubtedly mark the beginning of the end of the oppressive tinkhundla system in Swaziland.

Issued by;

Tahir Sema.
South African Municipal Workers' Union of COSATU.
National Media and Publicity Officer.
tahir.sema@samwu.org.za

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September 6, 2010 -- TUC condemns arrests of Swaziland and South African trade union democracy demonstrators

On the eve of a global day of action on democracy in Swaziland tomorrow (Tuesday), the Swazi Government has arrested trade union demonstrators from Swaziland and neighbouring South Africa.

The TUC has called on the Swazi Government to release them and allow peaceful demonstrations to take place.

The TUC and other demonstrators will be protesting outside the Swazi High Commission in London at 12noon tomorrow.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “The feudal dictatorship of the King of Swaziland has left his country racked with poverty, and with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the world.

“His Government should be concentrating on fighting poverty and disease, not the Swazi people.”

Those arrested include leaders of the Swaziland trade union movement such as the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) National Organiser Fundizwi Sifundza, Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Unions (SATU) General Secretary Frank Mncina, and representatives of the South African trade union movement, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) National Campaigns Coordinator George Mahlangu, COSATU Deputy International Secretary Sikelela Dlamini, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) Deputy President Christine Olivier, and the South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) International Secretary Steve Faulkner.
 
NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The protest will take place at 12noon outside the Swaziland High Commission, 20 Buckingham Gate, London SW1 E 6LB.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk <http://www.tuc.org.uk/>