Swaziland blew a showcase international opportunity this week, when police trampled and beat to death a demonstrator in front of the world’s media.
This nasty denouement followed months of expensive preparations by King Mswati III for a gathering of world leaders and equally fervent plans by pro-democracy movements in Swaziland to capitalise on the event.
The protesters maintain that undemocratic Swaziland is an inappropriate venue for the Global 2003 Smart Partnership International Dialogue. This forum, under Commonwealth auspices, has been meeting since 1995 to discuss cooperation among small developing countries.
From their specially erected tent city alongside Swaziland’s hotel and casino complex, the organisers said they expected 15 heads of state and more than 600 delegates.
By Wednesday’s tragic opening, only four leaders had arrived.
The demonstrators, however, were true to their word. More than 5 000 people massed in Mbabane. Their supporters on the South African side of the border were putting a stranglehold on the kingdom.
Norman Mokoena, the protest organiser for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, said activities at Oshoek, the busiest border crossing between South Africa and Swaziland, were limited on Wednesday because of a heavy police and army presence.
”Despite the police and soldiers, we still marched at Oshoek and managed to slow down business to the extent that only one truck passed through every hour,” he said.
”We also effectively blocked border posts at Mananga in the east and Mahamba in the south.”
The South African authorities made it clear that, provided the demonstrators did not break the law, they would not stifle protests on their side of the border.
The Swaziland Transport Workers Union wanted to shut down the railway system, but was reminded that United Nations conventions prevent any blockade of transit traffic from a landlocked country to the sea.
In the Swazi capital, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators. In addition to the dead man, as yet unidentified, they wounded seven others. Some of the foreign journalists covering the disturbances were beaten and had their cameras confiscated.
Police reportedly fired live ammunition on demonstrators gathering at the Tembankhulu stadium in the eastern part of the kingdom, wounding at least one worker.
”This comes at a bad time, when the country could have pretended that everything was fine. But they are showing their true colours,” Africa Mgongo, the president of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, told Agence France-Presse.
The violent start to the conference put paid to Mswati’s hope expressed at the opening that it would bring Swazis together.
He promised that a ”national dialogue” would be held soon to discuss the grievances of the trade unions. The workers were not waiting for this event. Their placards cried: ”Away with bad governance” and ”We are fed up with feeding the king’s wives”. Mswati has no fewer than 10 wives.
The king’s profligacy in a cash-strapped country where one-third of the residents are HIV-positive is one of the burning issues in Swaziland. Demonstrators are also highlighting his penchant for ignoring Appeal Court rulings he does not like.