I have been harassed, arrested, receiving death threats

MBABANE—In his first time at the ILO’s conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Minister of Labour Patrick Magobetane Mamba was at pains trying to defend the country after STFU’s Jan Sithole had delivered a speech that painted Swaziland black for using culture to oppress advocates human rights.

The arrest of Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and Thulani Maseko, the national coordinator of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) is said to have angered the world, as Sithole accused the Swazi government of violating human rights.  

As a result, a special paragraph has been devoted to Swaziland in the report of the International Labour Orga-nisation. The special paragraph means that the situation with trade union rights in Swaziland is one of the serious cases to which the ILO should pay attention to.  
Sithole, the general secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) reportedly caused even the EU, world governments and global union representatives to paint a bad picture for Swaziland. They likened Swaziland to Zimbabwe.

Reports gathered from Geneva revealed that the EU representative concurred with Sithole that life was a chaotic experience in Swaziland, as trade union rights and basic human rights were suppressed by the State. The SFTU general secretary reported that he had, of late, been a victim of police harassment and arrests, and that he and his family have been receiving death threats. He said government had confused policies.

An internationally acclaimed news agency, AFROL reported that the ILO conference heard from Sithole that inspite of recent changes in the legislation, the Swazi regime remained ‘fiercely anti-union’, which had became obvious during the International Labour Conference last year, when the government representative openly threatened the union’s General Secretary.

The news agency further reported that the world was told that the State of Emergency introduced in 1973 still remained in force in Swaziland, as political parties were still banned and const-itutional freedom remained suspended.
Sithole is said to have complained that the constitution of the country was not followed and government did not respect court orders. Consequently, the integrity of the current Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini was put to question as the KaMkhweli-Macetjeni saga was revived.

It was reported that the prime minister stated that government had no intention of observing the Court of Appeal’s judgement on two matters concerning labour rights. The Prime Minister also allegedly issued instructions to all law enforcement institutions to disregard the court’s ruling that directed the return of 200 home owners to their places.

SFTU was backed by the International Confederations of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which submitted that trade unions, in particular SFTU faced fierce government attacks and Sithole has become a hate figure for the regime. Last time the ILO commissioned a task force to investigate allegations that a worker was killed by the government. In its findings, it was established that SFTU had misrepresented facts.

However, police, last year, bungled Sithole and others into a police van that took a long route to Manzini as it travelled on gravel road from Oshoek border gate. The car took the northern Hhohho route that can take about three hours to reach Manzini and avoided the route that could take them an hour or less. SFTU had gone to the border gate to participate in a border blockade of goods coming in and out of the country in a bid to force the government to democratise.