Pro-democracy agitation is coming to the boil in the kingdom of Swaziland, with the large-scale theft of detonators from a coalmine and a looming general strike spearheaded by the trade union movement.
The police were tight-lipped about the theft of detonators at the Swiss-owned Maloma Colliery in south-west Swaziland last week, though sources said 150 explosive devices had been stolen. Mine manager Christo Snyman would not comment, saying the matter was ”extremely sensitive”.
The detonators were stolen from a secure area inside the mine’s armoury, and police have not ruled out the possibility of assistance by insiders.
Vusie Masuku, spokesperson for the Royal Swazi Police, would not disclose how many detonators were stolen, nor comment on whether the police believed the motive was political.
In July last year, a petrol bomb exploded at the police barracks in Mbabane. The government blamed the blast on the Swaziland Solidarity Network, an organisation of activists and banned political parties including the People’s United Democratic Organisation (Pudemo).
The stayaway, set for next Tuesday, was called by the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions in its New Year’s message to protest against ”a non-democratic Constitution that retains the powers of sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy”.
It will be at least the seventh stayaway since 2000. Last August unions led a three-day protest, coinciding with the Global Smart Partnership Inter-national Dialogue Summit hosted by Swaziland, calling for democratic reforms. A Pudemo field officer was arrested during the strike after police allegedly found explosives in the boot of his car. He was later acquitted.
Quentin Dlamini, secretary general of one of Swaziland’s biggest unions, the Swaziland National Association of Civil Servants, said the missing detonators have generated pressure in the week leading up to the strike.
”We don’t know who stole them, and we don’t know where they will be used,” he said. ”But with the current ugly mood, you can be sure they will be used against the state. People have vowed that if the state hits them, they will hit back. They have not ruled out violence.”
Bongani Masuku, secretary general of the Swaziland Solidarity Network, said Swazis were feeling unprecedented levels of dissatisfaction with the political system and poverty in the kingdom. Opposition parties have been banned in Swaziland since 1973.
”This is about survival — the people have to defend themselves against the violence of the state,” Masuku said. ”If the state is peaceful, the people will be peaceful. But that is not happening.”
Ignatius Dlamini, Pudemo secretary general, said Swazis had been hopeful two years ago when King Mswati III unveiled the draft of a new national Constitution for Swaziland, after a delay of seven years. ”But they were severely disappointed.”
Opposition groups rejected the new Constitution immediately. Though it provided for new civil liberties, opposition parties were still banned and executive power remained firmly in the monarchy’s hands.
Activists are also outraged by the extravagance of the king and his family. Mswati bought one of the world’s most expensive cars, a R1,86-million Maybach at the end of last year, while spending R3-million on a birthday party and building luxury palaces for his 11 wives. Two-thirds of Swazis live below the poverty line, while the country has the highest HIV prevalence in the world.
Dlamini predicted that 2005 would be a watershed year for Swaziland. ”The king needs to start listening to our demands. We can change peacefully or we will have to look at other means to force the king to change.”
However, Chris Maroleng, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, doubted ordinary Swazis were ripe for a general uprising. Although they wanted to see some change, they favoured a more inclusive Constitution that provided room for opposition movements, rather than a full-blown constitutional state.
Pudemo’s youth wing, however, might resort to violence, including sabotage, Maroleng said. ”Fringe elements in the opposition groups are desperate enough to take more drastic action.”
Though South Africa actively promotes democracy, the government’s ”silence has been deafening”, says Maroleng. ”South Africa has a linkage to Swaziland through high ranking officials such as [Deputy President Jacob] Zuma. Whether they are using backdoor channels to exercise influence we don’t know, but officially there has been no reaction.”
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa says South Africa’s approach has always been that countries must take responsibility for their own democratic change, and that policy includes Swaziland. ”We bring parties together to talk and sort out their differences, but countries have to find their own solutions to their political challenges — we do not interfere.”