RIGHTS: U.S. Labour Union Challenges Swaziland’s Trade Benefits

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Swaziland, Jul 25 2002 (IPS) - û The call this week by the America Federation of LabourûCongress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) to challenge Swaziland’s continuing trade benefits with the United States is the latest indication that King Mswati’s new constitution may not receive a warm reception in the world community.

‘’We will be looking closely at the outcome of the constitutional process,” cautioned David Reader, British Ambassador to Swaziland, last month. ôBasic human rights need be ensured.”

The British envoy’s predecessors gave monetary and moral support to the constitution drafting process, now about to enter its seventh year in what was supposed to be a two-year effort. But Reader’s cautioning ôshow me the money” attitude suggests a shift in attitude toward the government of the small southern African state that easily charms with its beautiful scenery, traditional life and lovely people.

In Africa today, donor funds and other assistance, and even bilateral trade, is being tied to democratic reform. From trade agreements with the developing world to participation in the new African Union, proof of democratisation is required.

For Swaziland, this dynamic is particularly apparent in its lucrative relationship with the United States.

‘’Government has chosen industrialisation to combat 45 percent unemployment, and trade benefits from the U.S. has drawn foreign investment in manufacturing and fairly define the kingdom’s expanding industrial base,” says a source with the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) agreement, Swazi-made goods enter American markets duty free, giving them a price advantage against other foreign imports. To enjoy this benefit, garment makers from Taiwan have set up shop at the Matsapha Industrial Estate and a new industrial park in the southern Shiselweni region built by government for their needs.

But two years ago, Swaziland’s benefits were suspended temporarily due to an anti-labour Industrial Relations Act. Government revised the act, and Swaziland’s status within GSP was immediately restored. But in the interim, the largest potential investor in decades had shifted its announced operations to Lesotho.

The American labour federation AFL-CIO promises a review of Swaziland’s human rights record. The federation is less concerned by this month’s Amnesty International report condemning Swazi police for torturing criminal suspects than by government’s refusal to respond to workers rights concerns raised since 1995 by the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO).

King Mswati promised that a new constitution will be delivered by his brother, Prince David Dlamini, in October.

Another envoy, U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland James McGee, also cautioned the palace this month about the final product. ôThe aspirations and basic rights of all Swazi citizens must be guaranteed,” he said.

McGee did not specify what these rights should be, or how they would be maintained in a government that will continue to ban political opposition parties. Another of the king’s brothers, Prince Mangaliso Dlamini, compiled a constitutional report that found Swazis in favour of retaining sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy as it is.

ôThe people have spoken, and the new constitution will be drafted on the basis of this report, as well as Swazi law and custom,” said King Mswati when he accepted the constitutional report nearly a year ago at a ceremony at Ludzidzini royal village.

ôWhile the maintenance of a people’s customs and traditions is often admirable, they should be modified or changed when they impeded the natural aspirations of the people for liberty and freedom,” said Ambassador McGee.

Vusie Ginindza, editor of the Times of Swaziland Sunday edition, said, ôMcGee hit the nail on the head. Custom and tradition can no longer be used to defend blatant abuse of human rights or to tip the scales of natural justice to the detriment of those it is supposed to protect. Many of us will testify that Swaziland has, in fact, suffered more in the name of customs and traditions than from any other single cause.”

Former prime minister Obed Dlamini shocked and alienated the nation’s royal leadership when he was elected president of the country’s oldest political party, the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC). The NNLC and other opposition groups were banned by royal decree in 1973. Dlamini is closely observing the constitution-drafting process to see if his organisation will one day be freely allowed to carry out political activities.

ôNo political freedoms will be permitted in the new constitution, but we reject the constitution as an out and out fraud,” Dlamini told IPS.

Mario Masuku, president of the largest, albeit illegal, political party, the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), watches events from his jail cell, and spoke to IPS from the defendant’s box at the High Court of Swaziland, where he has been on trial since February on a charge of sedition.

ôLook, the palace constitution is an attempt to fool the world into thinking all Swazis participated, and they agree with the outcome,” Masuku said. ôBut it was contrived to exclude any opinion that would compromise royal power. The question is, will the world be fooled?”

Some palace counsellors advise outsiders not to be too hasty is their pre-judgement of the upcoming constitution. They say that while political progressives associated with the Swaziland Democratic Alliance have boycotted the constitutional process, an umbrella organisation of banned political parties, labour unions and rights groups, a majority of Swazis are conservative royalists who cherish their king and are distrustful of change.

Eighty percent of Swazis farm and raise cattle on communal Swazi National Land under palace-appointed chiefs.

ôSwazis love their king, and they see him as a person who loves them

too,” says Prince Mguciso Dlamini, a member of the Swaziland National Council standing committee that advises King Mswati.

Nothing critics of the upcoming national constitution say will have any impact if an alternative vision is not presented. This month, the Swaziland Council of Churches held a workshop attended by government leaders and rights groups that ended in the formation of a committee that may draft an ôalternative constitution.”

The Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland, a group of progressive attorneys, is also drafting an alternative constitution.

These efforts followed King Mswati’s call for his subjects to engage in constructive dialogue about the issues. That dialogue is destined to heat up this year as Swazis confront the basics of how they wish to be governed. (IPS-AF-LB-HD-JH-MN-02)

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