Swaziland: Global Day of Action

I fem byer starter Swazilands demokratibevægelse i dag, mandag den 4. september protester over hele Swaziland. Fem byer er udpeget og der er mobiliseret blandt arbejderne, de studerende og andre i demokratibevægelsen, for at skabe det størst mulige pres på konge i Swaziland.

Swaziland regering har taget protestaktionerne til de lokale domstole for at få disse forbudt, og siger at man skal vente på domstolens afgørelse, får det er lovligt at gå på gaden.

I en lang række lande i Afrika, bl.a. Zimbabwe, Sydafrika. Kenya og Somalia, samt i USA, Australien. Canada og en række EU lande er der også planlagt protester i støtte og solidaritet med kravet om demokratiske reformer.

Også Afrika Kontakt har sent en hilsen i forbindelse med denne uges protester. Læs brevet her.

Nedenfor er et uddrag fra Times of Swaziland, der er en uafhængig avis i Swaziland:

MANZINI – Labour unions and civil groups have resolved to continue with the protest action billed for this week.

The protest action which is expected to last for the whole week, will be kick started in Mbabane at Coronation Park today.

This transpired yesterday afternoon, in a meeting which was held at the SNAT Centre, by the Labour Coordinating Council (LCC) of TUCOSWA.

TUCOSWA is the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland. It is worth mentioning that government, on Friday last week took the LCC to court in a bid to prevent TUCOSWA from embarking on the protest march.

Muzi Mhlanga Secretary General of Swaziland National Teachers Association said the protest march is one of the ways to make government address their issues they have raised in the previous protest actions.

"What I want to emphasise is that the mass protest march continues because government has since withdrawn the application for an interdict and restraining order it had filed at the Industrial Court on Friday," Mhlanga told the media.

Echoing Mhlanga’s words was Vincent Ncongwane, who said the protest action which would also be staged in the other towns, during the course of the week, will compel government to address their grievances.

The issues which Ncongwane said are still pending include the looming salary cuts which government wants to force on civil servants as well as the retrenchment of 7 000 civil servants so as to meet the International Monetary Fund (IMF) targets aimed at recovering the country’s economy.

Tomorrow it will be staged in Manzini while on Wednesday and Thursday, the protest marches will be decentralised to all the towns of the country.

On Friday, it will again be staged in Mbabane.

No immediate comment could be obtained from government as the Minister of Labour’s phone rang unanswered at the time of compiling this report.