This document was circulated by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign in August 2010
ahead of the Global Day of Action (7 September 2010) designed to focus world attention
on human rights abuses in Swaziland, a kingdom in southern Africa ruled by King
Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa¶s last absolute monarch.

For more information on this and the work of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign
follow this link.
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/search/label/Swaziland%20Democracy%20Campaign



The Kingdom of Swaziland is a small land locked mountainous country that is located in
Southern Africa. It lies between Mozambique and the Republic of South Africa. It has a
total land mass of approximately 17,000 square kilometers and an altitude ranging from
400 to 1,800 meters.

Swaziland gained independence from British colonial rule on 6th September 1968. The
country inherited a multiparty system at independence, which was replaced by an
Absolute Monarchical System (The Tinkhundla System) in 1973 under which political
parties were outlawed, thereby leaving the country without any tradition of multiparty
elections.

The country has a population of about 1.1 million and a birth rate of 3.5% per annum.
About 70% and 30% of the people live in rural and urban areas respectively.

Agriculture is the backbone of Swaziland¶s economy with sugar, timber, citrus, textiles
and beef constituting the main agricultural exports. The country also exports coal,
concentrates, coca-cola, and zip fasteners. Its main trading partners are EU, USA, Far
East, SADC and COMESA.

Poverty is endemic in Swaziland and affects even the working population. For instance,
about 70% of working people earn below the poverty datum line of 2 USD a day. In
addition, more than 300,000 of the Swazi population depend on donor food aid.
Unemployment is estimated at 33% and it is likely to increase in the years ahead amid a
complete absence of any unemployment social security safety nets. Despite the global
campaign under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Swaziland has still
not enforced a universal free primary education system.

About 26% of the population is living with HIV. The hardest hit is the economically and
sexually active members of the population of ages between 15 and 49 years. Between
110,460 and 117,373 Swazi children have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS scourge and

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this number is projected to reach 120,000 by 2010. The ravages of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, which is estimated to be spreading at 3% per annum, have aggravated the
poverty situation in the country. Also, the recent global financial and economic crisis
have worsened unemployment and impacted poverty in Swaziland. Some of the local
industries like the coal mine and textile sector, which have been worst affected by this
crisis have either scaled down or completely shot down their operations, leaving behind
many workers, mostly breadwinners of families, without jobs and any source of income.
The Kingdom of Swaziland has ratified many labour friendly treaties, including the ILO
Core Labour and Priority Conventions. That notwithstanding, the country is also
notorious for violating and abusing the rights of workers and their trade unions. For
instance, many complaints concerning the violations of workers¶ and trade union rights
have been consistently leveled against the government of Swaziland in the last ten years.

In their collective wisdom and resolve to raise awareness and garner more public support
around the disturbing prevailing grotesque human and trade union rights abuses, the
serious democratic deficit and good governance challenges facing Swaziland, SFTU and
ITUC-Africa with support from ITUC undertook Solidarity Exchange visits to six
African countries namely Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya. They
have also been using different international forum and platforms to draw attention to their
cause and demands. The Swaziland Democratic Campaign (SDC) launched in February
with strong support and solidarity from affiliates in Southern Africa led by COSATU and
other progressive forces have been active in championing this cause.

In each of the targeted countries, meetings were held with trade unionists, representatives
of various pro-democracy civil society organisations, and the Ministers of Labour. Each
country visit was climaxed by a Press Conference that attracted journalists from both the
print and electronic media. The targeted audience were sensitized about the democratic
and good governance challenges facing The Kingdom of Swaziland and appeals were
made for them to support the struggle of the pro-democracy forces in Swaziland by way
of bringing pressure to bear on the King to effect democratic reforms and fully restore
multiparty Constitutional rule in that country with minimum delay. But so far, appeals
have little or no impact and this has led for calls to intensify the campaign and be more
defiant and loud.

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The Absolute Monarchical system of government of Swaziland is structurally unsound,

profoundly anti-democratic, economically unjust, and fundamentally corrupt. The
Monarchy is insensitive and non-responsive to the needs and plight of the people. Little
wonder why Swaziland has consistently been among the list of the top 20 of politically
oppressive countries in the world.

Swaziland had a multiparty system before it gained independence from British colonial
rule in 1968 and five years after independence. The 1968 Independence Constitution
allowed the King, Culture and Tradition to co-exist with political parties. During this
period the King was a Constitutional Monarchy and Head of State, while the leader of the

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ruling party was Head of Government, thereby making it possible for the King to reign
and Government to rule.

However, the Swazi political landscape took a dramatic turn in 1973 when the King
declared a public state of emergency, which banned all political parties, the rights of
workers to assemble unless authorized and permitted by the Commissioner of Police,
introduced a 60 day detention without trial and vested all powers of governance i.e.
legislative, judiciary and executive unto the King. Since 1973 to date the King reigns and
rules, appoints the Prime Minister, the entire cabinet, all envoys, 66% of the members of
the House of Senate, 20% of the members of the House of Assembly, the entire House of
Chiefs, all Commissioners, all Regional Administrators, all the Judges, all Public
Commissions (Judicial Service Commission, Electoral and Boundaries¶ Commission,
Human Rights Commission, Anti-corruption Commission, etc.) and all his advisers. The
King, not Parliament chooses the Prime Minister and entire cabinet. The Parliament has
no practical oversight role over the executive arm of government. Oversight bodies are
filled with loyalists and cronies thus rendering these vital institutions for ensuring checks
and balances useless, ineffective, inept and mere window dressing. The King is above the
Constitution which is supposed to uphold and he cannot be sued civilly and/or criminally.
The Constitution cannot be amended unless he consents. The King also controls all the
land, minerals and water resources.

The 2003 Constitutional review process initiated following immense internal and external
pressure, barred all civic groups including trade unions from submitting to that process.
This non-inclusive Constitutional making process gave birth to the current 2005
Constitution that is exactly a carbon copy of the 1973 Proclamation of Absolute
Monarchy given that it fell far short of the interests and aspirations of the citizenry as
well as the standards laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights. For instance, the 2005 Constitution bans
political parties from registration, excludes same from participating in the national
general election and all the Bill of Rights section is heavily impacted by claw back
clauses, giving the rights on the one hand and taking it away with the other.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights ruling concerning political
parties was ignored by the King. Besides the Constitution has no formal limits to the
powers of the King and also recognises unaccountable traditional authorities that
continue to hold true power and maintain influence over the people. The traditional
structures are a hotbed of patrimony, corruption and societal control by stipulating
guidelines of access to land, advising the King on all appointments, decisions, policies,
awards and even enrollment in tertiary educational institutions. These traditional
structures are profoundly patriarchal, anti-democratic and they shun accountability and
take dissent and discussion as personal insults that must be atoned for by the dissenter.

The Press Freedom is highly restricted and the Press is largely state-owned. It is
unprofessional, politically biased, tightly controlled and closely censured by the
Monarchy. The Press does occasionally criticize the government but never traditional
authorities nor the Royal Family. There are only two independent media in Swaziland of

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which one is owned by an expatriate, who has always been subjected to threats anytime
he attempts to portray critical views about the government and/or the Monarchy. He his
sometimes forced to choose between the privileges of right to reside and practice his
profession in Swaziland or to pack his journalistic bundle and leave the country.
Similarly, students¶ organizations are never accorded the right and space to register and
conduct their activities in full freedom, ditto university teachers who must not publish or
teach alternative views or lessons that does not favour the mood and interests of the
monarchy.

The role of civic groups in decision-making has been relegated to the backyard as they
are been treated as mere nonentities where national policy formulation and
implementation is concern. The entire social dialogue process is heavily manipulated and
does not include political discussions. Mass meetings that are organised by civic groups
are regularly banned, broken up or invaded by the police who often use excessive force
against peaceful citizens sometimes resulting in their murder, injuries, arbitrary arrest and
unlawful detention. The security force is politicized, brutal, murderous and seemingly
beyond the reach of the law. A new Suppression of Terrorism Act has been used to
further suppress legitimate dissent. Certain political parties have been proscribed and one
of their leaders has been in prison without charges since October 2008.

Recently the detention, torture and death of Comrade Sipho Jele, a trade union leader and
activist has drawn loud and wide condemnation by the global trade union community.
However, state repression, harassment, intimidation and arrest of trade unionists and
activists continue. And when they fail to get their targeted victims, they turn on their
families. In one case, an elderly woman was told at her home by the Police who came
looking for her son to prepare for his funeral. This represents amongst other cases the
desperation of and the intolerance of the state to popular dissent and opinion.

The demands of the Swaziland people amongst other things are to have a true
participatory democracy that will contribute to the betterment and wellbeing of the
people. And one condition they have recognized that will bring about this is to have a
genuine and transparent constituents-led constitutional reform that will give birth to a
people¶s constitution and the return to multiparty democracy. Under this arrangement
independent and true separation of power of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature will
be observed and practiced. The demand also include the need to fully respect and
implement ILO working standards to be done in full consultation and participation of the
trade unions, and, to ensure the true promotion and realisation of fairer distribution of
national wealth through pro-poor and people policies, programmes and public
expenditures.

To continue to press for the realization of these demands, workers and working families
all over the world will be staging an International Solidarity Day of Action for the
struggle and cause of our brothers and sisters in Swaziland on the 6th of September, 2010.
This action will coincide with the National (Day) anniversary celebration of Swaziland.
One challenge that has been recognize so far in this struggle is the seemingly silence of
the international main stream media on the Swaziland situation as compared, for example

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on the level of coverage on Zimbabwe. We should therefore in our various campaigns
work to ensure that local and international media in our environments are invited to
actively participate in this action.

NOTE: ITUC-Africa will be happy to get and share reports of this campaign. Pictures,
movies and other documentary materials will be welcomed and profoundly used.

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