Having spent the past few weeks in Swaziland for my University dissertation and I could not have arrived in Africa’s last absolute Monarchy at a more interesting time.
As the newly elected Vice President for Society and Citizenship at the UK National Unino of Students my first thoughts were with Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland NUS (SNUS) and fellow trade unionists Musa Ngubeni who were arrested on Tuesday 12th May, along with other students and trade unionists, coincidentally on the same day that thousands of UK students were gathering in Gateshead for our annual democratic conference.
The reason for their arrest was for protesting against what has essentially been a country in a state of emergency for the past 30 years; where civil servants (who make up about 60% of the countries employed) are taking a salary cut to pay off the country’s debts. I mean the police tactics here are questionable at best, and NUS was nowhere near quick enough to condemn them if you ask me; and I look at the Swazi situation and wonder how the Royal Police get away with it.
Apparently, according to South African trade unions, it’s not the wisest thing to plan a national demonstration in a country where political parties are banned. Dlamini was supposedly caught with explosives in his bag (none were found or used in evidence), a young Swazi woman who I met at the trial, was beaten in custody, for simply showing up to the demonstration.
Public opinion seems split in Swaziland; SNUS has official policy in favour of a full republic and end to the Monarchy, while most trade unions favour a UK style system (King Mswati III practices polygamy, his father King Sobhuza had around 200 wives, I’m not sure if UK style weddings as we saw last Friday will go down well in Swaziland). But the bigger split comes when you refer to culture. Even my friend, educated at Waterford in the capital Mbabne (where Mandela’s children schooled), and who is now working for an Australian NGO, says that having a Monarchy is part of ‘who the Swazi people are’. While the urban elite may campaign for a republic; the majority of the population she said, still have high regard for the King. The fact that a third of Swazis attend the annual umhlanga reed dance, where custom expects the King to theka ‘take’ another wife, is evidence of this. Many acknowledge the fact he hasn’t theka-ed a wife for five years, and see this as a sign of progress.
Yet, another friend who I stayed with; who wouldn’t be the most ‘educated’ of Swazis, and is from a traditional rural home, distinguishes King Mswati as being different from his father and previous Monarchs. Public sector pay is being slashed, while the King took an entourage of 50 to the royal wedding, it seems he is simply not as popular as his father. 13 wives may have been more acceptable in the days before an HIV/AIDS rate in excess of 40%, but it seems increasingly that for the Swazis, the fact he may be ‘a traditional Swazi’ doesn’t cut it anymore.
So it’s not for me to pass judgement on Swazi tradition or custom. But only reflect that the mood over there is changing, and Maxwell and Musa’s court case is one sign of that.
Thinking his bail hearing would last a few hours, I went along. By the end of my trip I had spent 13 hours in a court room over three days, and it still isn’t over. Typically, I was stared at; being the sole mlungu (white person) in the room. I was invited by one of Maxwell’s friends, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi who is Chairperson of SNUS. He laughed when I told him the NUS UK President chairs our NEC meetings. ‘How can the President take a position on anything if they chair?’ I confess I didn’t really know how to respond!
The hearing on Thursday the 21st April was long, I expected something of an interrogation from police officers, and got it. Dlamini only wanted a few weeks of bail to sit his final year university exams, and four hours in a hot, stuffy room left the packed audience rather restless. At one point the judge told us ‘there are enough cells down there for you all’, when we laughed at one of the witnesses responses. I don’t think she was kidding.
The prosecution did their best when asking all three witnesses (all from the prosecution), whether they felt Dlamini posed a threat to society. One of the policemen crumbled when the defence argued that all accusations of him posing a threat rested on simple subjective viewpoints and not hard evidence. Thus, there actually appeared to be no evidence that even such explosives existed.
Regardless of the debate, the hearing was postponed to the following Tuesday, then after sitting for an hour on that Tuesday, it was postponed again to Friday the 29th, before being postponed to this Friday the 6th. Dlamini has already missed most of his exams.
So apparently the court met again last Friday, but alas the expected happened… it wasn’t even the fact that Maxwell and Musa were denied bail; the case was postponed yet again to Friday the 13th. Luckily the Swazis aren’t too superstitious about that kind of thing…
So what can we do?
Let’s spread the petitions calling for Maxwell’s release, but let’s not fool ourselves that it’s for the UK government, or any other government for that matter, to bring them democracy. If South Africa was as committed to Swazi democracy as they claim to be, then they could bring the country to its knees overnight, by blockading the border posts. But I fear they will probably never get around to doing it; Zuma and Mswati are old friends after all.
Maybe that’s something NUS can put pressure on SA to do; working with student organisations and the union movement in SA to put pressure on the Swazi government. But SA’s upcoming elections are a reminder to us that ‘democracy’ doesn’t solve problems overnight. I was almost mugged in Johannesburg last week; people tell you to almost expect it; which is more or less unheard of in Swaziland. Most of my South African friends (black and white) are refusing to vote, and if they are; it’s certainly not for the ANC.
Yet despite SA’s own problems, I suspect that the Swazi people simply just yearn for the chance to organise themselves, and to depend less on outside development workers and the increased number of ‘voluntourists’. (I’ve lost count of the times I was asked ‘are you a volunteer?’ when I was there).
There’s no money left in the small nation, but there’s also no chance for the Swazis to give voice to their struggle; it is difficult to imagine living in a country where political mobilisation is essentially banned.
That’s why the UK needs to reach out to civil society organisations in Swaziland, and if people want to donate them why not donate to charities like Positive Women who are doing great work on empowering the women of Swaziland. Siphiwe Hlophe who heads up the UK-based organisation from Manzini, is a celebrity in Swaziland, often challenging the most influential politicians, sometimes even the King on the often ludicrous things they say about HIV/AIDS. While I was there, one influential pastor who is a friend of the King’s said that people with HIV/AIDS should not ‘bathe in the same water’. How does this stuff get published?!
What else can we do but put our faith in the Swazi people to fight for their own system, that doesn’t ignore; but takes the best parts of their culture. Our freedoms, should urge us to help fight for the freedoms of others, but no amount of western influence can take the fight out of the hands of the people themselves.