The civil society umbrella group Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said on Saturday it planned to picket in South Africa next week against human rights violations in its country.
SSN secretary-general Bongani Masuku told reporters in Johannesburg the demonstration would be held outside the Swaziland consulate in Braamfontein on April 12.
”Gross violation of human rights, strategic intimidation tactics perpetrated by the government on the judiciary and suppression of women in Swaziland have reached a stage where they are unbearable,” he said.
”We intend stressing our opposition to this form of apartheid during the protest.”
Last December, the country’s six Court of Appeal judges resigned and lawyers went on strike after the government announced it would ignore an Appeal Court decision, saying that King Mswati III had no constitutional power to override his Parliament.
Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon recently advised the Swazi monarchy to find lasting solutions to the judicial and political crises in the country or risk being kicked out of the 54-nation Commonwealth of Britain and its former territories.
Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, rules his one-million subjects by decree.
Masuku accused Mswati of disregarding his country’s rule of law and of being the architect of the judiciary crisis in the country. He said the SSN would present a memorandum to the consulate general demanding, among other things, the unbanning of political parties, removal of the 1973 king’s decree and oppressive laws. – Sapa