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TUCOSWA ADAMANT MARCH IS ON

28/10/2021 09:02:00 BY SIBUSISO ZWANE

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MANZINI - TUCOSWA is adamant that the planned marches in some of the country’s major towns will go ahead today.

This was revealed by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Acting Secretary General, Mduduzi Gina after their meeting with the police and officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development yesterday. According to Gina, as leaders of the federation, they notified the relevant stakeholders on time about their plan to march in the six cities and towns today.

He said this was because according to their analysis of the amended Public Order Act of 2017, which governed marches and protest actions, it said they should notify the authorities about the intended gathering, not to seek permission to march. Gina said this after he was asked if he recalled that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane had, banned local governments from issuing permits for protest marches in the kingdom.

Response

In response, the unionist said they had also received a response from the ministry, which in summary, reminded them that petition deliveries were banned and that local governments were not permitted to issue permits for protest actions. Thereafter, he said the minister, just like local governments, did not have the power to stop marches. He said the minister could rather negotiate for altering routes for marches, as local governments used to do. “I should emphasise that the law says, we should notify the authorities, not to seek permission to march,” he added.

Section 6 (1) of the Public Order Act No. 12 of 2017, which is about notice of gatherings, says; “The convener of a gathering shall as soon as possible, but not later than four days before the date of the intended gathering, deliver by hand to the local authority, a written notice of the gathering, signed by the convener, in accordance with the provisions of this section and substantially in the form set out in Schedule 1.”

Notice

On the other hand, in subsection 2 of the section, the Act says; “A convener, who is unable to give notice within the limit contemplated in subsection 1, shall give notice at the earliest opportunity, but not later than 48 hours before the commencement of the gathering.” In that regard, Gina said the minister did not have powers to change the law and as such, during the march, they had planned to deliver a petition to his office where they would demand that he withdraws his statement, where he prohibited local governments from issuing permits for protest actions.

Once more, he said they were aware that the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini, had issued a statement where he said as government, they did not see a reason for the planned marches. When responding to the PM’s statement, Gina said the PM said so because the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, did not take away any of his rights when he banned the issuance of permits by local government. “Again, maybe when the nation does not access internet, he somehow gets it,” Gina added.

Thereafter, he said in every civilised State or society, those in authority allowed the people to criticise them. On another note, the unionist said they had also received a letter from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) which appealed to the federation that its planned petition deliveries march should be postponed indefinitely. In response to the police, Gina said it was only the court that could stop or postpone a planned march because its jurisdiction was unlimited. However, he said even the court could not postpone it indefinitely.

Ahead

Thereafter, he said their march would go ahead as planned today in the six cities and towns; Mbabane, Manzini and Pigg’s Peak. The other towns are Nhlangano, Siteki and Hluthi. He said in Mbabane, they would deliver petitions to the PM’s Office, Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, together with the police. In the other towns, the unionist said they would deliver petitions to regional administrators’ (RAs) offices, police and local government.

At the PM’s Office and offices of the RAs in the regions, he said they would be demanding a genuine political dialogue, which would be free from any kind of hostilities. He said they would also state the type of dialogue they wanted. On the other hand, at the ministry of ICT, he said they would be reminding it that the internet could not be shut down at the whim of an individual because the country signed the African Charter for Human Rights. He said the African Charter for Human Rights stipulated that people had a right to access internet and that it should not be disturbed unnecessarily. To the police, Gina said they would be delivering a petition calling for an end to police brutality as it might make the nation to consider law enforcers as their enemies.