Global Week of Action on Swaziland

Home > Where We Work > Africa > Global Week of Action on Swaziland   Print This Page | Email to a Friend September 6, 2012—Unions and pro-democracy organizations in southern Africa and around the world are marking this year’s Global Week of Action on Swaziland with meetings, protests and other actions in support of workers and worker rights. TUCOSWA First Deputy Secretary General Mduduzi Gina speaking at a May 1, 2012, rally in Manzini. Photo credit TUCOSWA. The action week coincides with the country’s independence day on September 6 and has, since 2009, become an annual rallying point around the lack of political freedom in the kingdom and the increasing attacks against civil society organizations, including trade unions. While political parties and political organizations continue to be banned under a 1973 royal proclamation, freedom of association is protected by law and has allowed trade unions to develop an independent role in workplace relations. Swaziland’s trade unions have long rallied workers, activists and other civil society organizations, raising awareness of economic and social issues affecting working people and families. But while freedom of association is legally codified, there has been an increasing unwillingness to tolerate any public action or union activity that implies dissent—particularly as wages and critical services such as education and health care are under threat. In 2012, annual union marches in April were stopped by pre-emptive arrests and aggressive police actions. That same month, the formation of a unified trade union federation, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) was stalled after it was de-registered by Swazi authorities. In July, peaceful union rallies by nurses, teachers and transport workers protesting economic mismanagement and increasing threats to wages and real incomes were met with tear gas, rubber bullets and arrests of union leaders. Also in July, Bazel Thwala, a legal adviser for the Swaziland Transport Association Workers Union (STAWU), was given a one-year prison sentence for his alleged role in a protest by bus operators in Manzini. In protesting Thwala’s arrest, International Transport Federation (ITF) General Secretary David Cockroft said: “This conviction comes against a background of aggression towards STAWU by the Swazi regime. The ITF has urged peaceful solutions to the current labor conflicts in Swaziland and called for the implementation of basic workers’ rights as enshrined in the core Conventions of the International Labor Organization.” And this week, Swazi unions report heavy-handed police actions to break up groups of protesting students in Mbabane. Joining the Swazi labor movement and other civil society organizations in the Global Week of Action on Swaziland are the International Trade Union Confederation and its Africa regional affiliate, which have protested on numerous occasions and have filed a complaint on the de-registration of TUCOSWA with the International Labor Organization’s Committee of Freedom of Association.