LUNGA MASUKU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Manzini | Thursday
SWAZILANDS’S police have threatened to use force when workers embark on a crippling nationwide strike to protest against a controversial industrial relations law.
The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) called for a work stoppage on September 28 after the government failed to meet a deadline to amend a month-old Industrial Relations Act that workers consider restrictive.
Contentious clauses in the Act allow absolute monarch King Mswati III’s advisers to appoint worker representatives to work alongside, or even against, elected trade unionists.
Concerns over the Act have prompted the United States to threaten to remove the country from the General System of Preferences, under which Swaziland exports sugar to US markets at reduced tariffs.
The British High Commission in Mbabane has warned that concerns over the Act could drive investors away.
“I would find it difficult to tell British companies to come here if they will face legislation which make industrial relations difficult,” British High Commissioner Neil Hook said.
As labour leaders called for workers across the country to support their action, police commissioner Edgar Hillary warned that he would not condone political activity.
“We do not have a problem with the trade union movement, but it looks like they are being used to further politics by secret agents,” Hillary said.
Political activity was banned in Swaziland, the last absolute monarchy in sub-Saharan Africa, in 1973.
Analysts predicted that the strike would be the most crippling in recent history.
Workers at state-run utilities plan to cut water and power supplies for part of the day. Bank workers said they would also support the action. – African Eye News Service