Mswati, You Are On Your Own…

Sokari Ekine

14 April 2011

analysis

Hundreds of Swazis have been arrested after they took to the streets on 12 and 13 April, to demonstrate against the monarchy. Swaziland’s King Mswati has presided over a ‘system of governance’ that protest organisers say has left the country’s ‘people divided, poor and powerless’. Sokari Ekine reports on southern Africa’s first uprising and provides updates on the situation in Djibouti, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire and Libya.

I am at the point where I have the utmost respect for those who have or are considering engaging in some level of protest against their governments. I can only think of a few countries on the continent that don’t need to be overthrown or at the very least need a complete overhaul – possibly the same thing. Swaziland is the site of the first uprisings in southern Africa, so it will be interesting to see if there is any overspill into South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have had many uprisings over the past few years.

SWAZILAND: COMMONERS, UNITE! MSWATI, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!

Tuesday 12 April was the planned day of protests in Swaziland. The Facebook page of Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum has been an important source documenting and reporting on the Swazi uprisings. The forum reported as early as 4 April that the Swazi government was going to target trade unionists and student organisations in the lead up to the 12 April protests.

Richard Rooney notes that: ‘Labour unions and civic society organisations in Swaziland have placed themselves on alert after what is being described “as credible information” was received that they are about to be raided by Swazi state authorities in an attempt to disrupt the “uprising” scheduled for next Tuesday (12 April 2011).’

This was later confirmed to be true as reports began to emerge of the arrest and torture of one of the activists:

‘A Swazi activist said Thursday that he had been detained and beaten as police interrogated him about plans to organise protests next week against King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch. Nkolisi Ngcamphalana, national organiser for the youth wing of the banned opposition People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), told AFP that he was detained Tuesday night and held for 24 hours. He said police beat him, placed plastic bags over his head, and then interrogated him about calls for national protests on Tuesday. “They grilled me about the April 12 uprising, and they kicked and beat me,” he said shortly after his release. “Right now they are outside my house. They are intimidating my family,” he said. “They threatened me with death.”‘

On 11 April, Swazi Shado blog wrote: ‘Where is Maxwell?’, referring to Maxwell Dlamini ‘one of the main organisers’, who had gone missing. He had gone to South Africa to plan the demonstrations and was last seen at a police roadblock.

The government’s – or rather the King’s – response has been to try and intimidate people by publishing photos of the armed forces on the front page of the Swazi Observer which he partly owns.

Swazi April 12th blog provide some background to the Swazi uprising which is turning into the most organised and sustained protests outside of North Africa:

‘The only eternal and total enemy of our people is the system of governance which has rendered our people divided, poor and powerless. This system, administered by a family which labels itself “closer to god:” than all Swazis, is the Absolute Monarchy orTinkhundla. Playing One Swazi Against the Other….The monarchy plays ordinary Swazis against themselves by being perched at the summit of power. It keeps a large percentage of the population literate but untrained for quality jobs. This is the reserve of poor people from which the security personnel are hired.

‘In a country with no unemployment and no poverty, this system would fail because no sane Swazi would willingly offer himself to be used to guard the royal family’s privileged position against members his own class and family.’

@SwaziMedia posted regular updates on the April 12 uprisings: The army were deployed along with the police in the capital Manzani; the University of Swaziland was closed down and 40 students on their way to the protests were briefly detained; a group of some 200 were picked up and dumped in a forest 100 km from the city with no transport to return; many leading activists were arrested and the police reportedly used rubber bullets, water cannons and teargas to disperse protestors.

The protests continued on Wednesday with an estimate of hundreds of people arrested.

@SwaziMedia: ‘Pro-democracy activists estimate number of arrests so far in Swaziland to be in the hundreds.’

‘Swazi police hunt down and continue to brutalize democracy advocates’.

StiffKitten blogger Peter Kenworthy’s post on the Swazi protests further reinforce the understanding that the uprisings across the continent are self-identifying and self-organising, as, despite the arrest of the entire leadership including Mario Masuku of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement, the protests continued throughout 12 and into 13 April:

‘After the entire leadership of the Labour Coordinating Council was arrested, the labour unions simply continued with their protest as planned. When they entered the centre of Manzini city, ordinary people from all walks of life joined them to voice out their support for the uprising.

‘Swazi security forces are trying to shut down the uprising with water cannons, tear gas and random beatings and arrests, but have so far only managed to shut down Manzini’s shops and businesses. “Freedom Square [in Manzini, Swaziland] is under siege by the state security forces. In fact there is no business in the city today,” said Thamsanca Tsabedze from the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice.’

A really interesting development is a threat from COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) [Video], who marched on the Swazi border demanding the unbanning of political parties, the return of all opposition leaders in exile and media freedom. If their demands are not met they will blockade the border.

DJIBOUTI: WHY NO ONE CARES

Whilst the world was watching Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt and Libya, Djibouti had an election on 8 April. With no opposition, a state-controlled media and no civil society movement, it was easy enough for President Omar Guelleh to change the constitution allowing him to run for a third term – thereby continuing 35 year rule by the same family. But this little dictatorship is strategically central to the US Africa Command (2,000 US troops are based here) and the NATO countries. Unlike in Libya, Djibouti’s 1 million population can expect no support from the West in their small attempts to have a voice.

ALGERIA HAS AWOKEN

On the same day as the Swazi protests, large numbers of Algerian students [10,000 estimation] demonstrated in the capital Algiers [Video] and were violently dispersed by the police.

@thanku4theangertweets on the awakening of Algeria: ‘Algeria has awoken. Allah Akbar! #Algeria #Libya #Feb17 #ÙèÙèEgypt #Jan25″

@zeggar: The Algerian #students break the forbidden and defeat the authority #Algeria http://bit.ly/i8Wwlw

MOROCCO: IS THE FEBRUARY 20 MOVEMENT STILL ALIVE?

Morocco has been quiet since the few days of protests in early February. There does not seem to be any real challenge to the King’s rule and the split in the movement is over the degree of constitutional change. Mostafa Chtaini writing on MoroccoBoard believes Morocco is different from other North African countries in that the King is working towards increasing the democratic process and creating a constitutional monarchy.

EGYPT: THE ARMY AND THE PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER ONE

Egypt’s revolution is far from over as protests now focus on the Supreme Military Council (SMC) who have become increasingly repressive since taking over from the Mubarak regime. Leil-Zahra Mortada recently reported on the passing of a draft law criminalising demonstrations:

‘The Egyptian cabinet approved today a draft law criminalizing “some strikes, sit-ins, demonstrations and gatherings” as a spokesperson said. This coming at a time when the Emergency Law enforced by the Mubarak regime is still active, and brutal crackdown on liberties is more than frequent. ………The cabinet affirmed the necessity of an immediate end of all demonstrations and strikes happening nationwide after they allegedly responded to a huge amount of the demands they received. (!!!!!!!) The statement also mentioned that the government is working to respond to the demands and concerns over”policies of employment and incomes”

AllAfrica – All the Time