DUMISANE LUBISI, LUNGA MASUKU and KHANYISILE MAEPA, Mbabane | Thursday
THE blockade of Swaziland’s international borders by pro-democracy and union activists this week has failed to disrupt the small kingdom’s economy or cross-border traffic.
The protestors, from Swaziland, South African and Mozambique, have threatened to block all commercial traffic into landlocked Swaziland for three days unless absolute monarch King Mswati III agrees to multi-party political reforms and the repeal of an unpopular 1973 royal decree banning political parties.
Roughly 30 cargo trucks were turned away from the kingdom’s busiest border checkpoint at Oshoek by a group of almost 200 chanting protestors, but planned demonstrations at seven other border posts fizzled out following organisational hitches and a heavy police clampdown inside the kingdom.
Busloads of Swaziland Federation of Trade Union (SFTU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) members and university students were halted kilometres from border checkpoints in both the north and south by Swazi police roadblocks.
Additional army and police reserves deployed at border checkpoints prevented all protests on the Swazi side of the border, but leading union leaders who sneaked out of the country earlier in the week led a picket on South African territory at Oshoek.
Federation of Swaziland Employers (FSE) executive director Musa Hlophe said no labour or retail disruptions were reported in either the capital Mbabane or industrial centre of Manzini.
“Some retailers didn’t get deliveries from South Africa, but everyone stocked up on supplies last week and planned for the worst anyway. None of the threatened work stoppages or other trade disruptions occurred,” said Hlophe.
“We still expect to suffer losses, however, from the negative international fallout caused by the blockade and government’s refusal to negotiate.”
Hlophe urged both the pro-democracy movement and Swazi government to “develop the art of constructive negotiations” or face the possibility of severely damaging Swaziland’s already ailing economy.
The three-day blockade forms part of an escalating campaign for democratic reform in the nation one million people. SFTU and a network of underground political parties defied a blanket ban on public meetings earlier this month to stage a two-day work stayaway, sporadic anti-monarchist street protests and a bevy of High Court challenges against the government. – African Eye News Service