By Norm Dixon
Swaziland police have arrested trade union and opposition leaders in an attempt to intimidate the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) into calling off an indefinite general strike which began on February 3.
Police opened fire on picketers on February 12, injuring six people. The strike, which has paralysed the sugar and forest industries — Swaziland's main export industries — is the latest chapter in the long-running struggle for democracy in the tiny southern African kingdom.
The 83,000-strong SFTU and its political allies, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and the Swaziland Democratic Alliance (SDA), are demanding that political activity be legalised and constitutional rule reintroduced.
Swaziland, with a population of about 900,000 people, is located between South Africa and Mozambique and is the only southern African country that does not allow multiparty politics. In 1973, all political parties were banned and the constitution suspended.
A year ago a similar pro-democracy general strike paralysed Swaziland for eight days.
In an attempt to head off the strike, on January 30 the repressive regime of absolute monarch King Mswati III arrested the SFTU's four national officers: Jan Sithole, secretary general; Richard Nxumalo, president; Themba Mnisi, vice president; and Jabulani Nxumalo, assistant secretary general.
They are accused of contravening the draconian 1963 Public Order Act. On January 31, the government rushed through a law that provides for a life sentence for anybody found guilty of "sabotaging essential services".
On February 6, police seized seven more union and opposition leaders, accusing them of responsibility for several minor explosions in Swaziland's commercial centre of Manzini.
Among those arrested was SDA chairperson Simon Noge and a PUDEMO regional chairperson, David Mngomezulu. PUDEMO general secretary Bonginkhosi Dlamini was beaten up by police and soldiers.
The South African trade union organisation, COSATU, has pledged its solidarity with the Swazi workers. "COSATU shall not fold its arms when workers and human rights are being violated by dictators", COSATU spokesperson Noweti Mpati said.
In Johannesburg on February 7, COSATU members demonstrated outside the Swaziland high commission to demand the release of the four Swazi trade union leaders. South African Communist Party deputy secretary-general Jeremy Cronin addressed the crowd.
A memorandum presented to the Swazi authorities said that if the strikers' demands are not met, there would be a "further intensification of solidarity action with all other labour organisations in the world".
On February 10, the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordinating Council, which groups the trade union peak councils of the countries of the region, warned that a blockade would be imposed on Swaziland if the detained trade unionists were not released and charges against them dropped. Virtually all Swaziland's imports and exports pass through South Africa.
Hundreds of demonstrators turned out to protest the detention of the SFTU's leaders outside the Mankayane magistrates court on February 12, when the leaders arrived for a hearing. Police beat demonstrators with batons. Earlier in the day, police opened fire on picketers at the Ubombo Ranches sugar mill, wounding six.