Eswatini, officially theKingdom of Eswatini (Swazi:Umbuso weSwatini) and sometimes called kaNgwane or Swaziland, is a sovereign state mostly surrounded bySouth Africa. It and its ethnic people take their names fromMswati II, the 19th-century king under whose ruleSwazi territory was expanded and unified.
Nearly one-third of the rural population has a high expenditure onfood, thus having little capacity to cope with the combined effects ofproduction shortfalls and increased market prices, and can quickly fall further intofood insecurity. Swaziland has seen an increase of food insecurity in the country with many households unable to eat three meals a day. Acute malnutrition rates have increased by 2.5 per cent from the average of 3 to 5.5 percent [of the population]
Office of the Resident Coordinator of the UN Country Team in Swaziland in a UN report, quoted onAllAfrica,"Swaziland Drought - Truth Revealed", March 2, 2016.
My wife works at theuniversity. Last month they got paid late. And they don't know what will happen when it's pay day again. In thehealth sector, it's worse. Some people got only half theirsalaries. There is nomoney - only panic,
Sikelela Dlamini, the co-ordinator of the opposition Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF), quoted onBBC News,"Swaziland: A kingdom in crisis", July 21, 2011.
Africa's last remainingabsolutemonarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland, took power at the age of eighteen. Since then he has allowed his country to slide into extreme poverty, with 69 percent of the Swazi people living on less than $1 a day. Swaziland has the highestHIV/AIDS rate in the world: almost 40 percent. The nation operated without aconstitution for thirty years. Mswati agreed to implement a new one in 2006; however, it banspolitical parties, gives Mswati the right to reject any laws passed by thelegislature, and grants him immunity from all possible crimes.
David Wallechinsky,Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators (2006), p. 5
The Industrial Relations Act did not provide for the registration of labour federations. The Swaziland government has had this issue on its plate for several years. We understand that the Industrial Relations Act is now being looked at bygovernment as a Bill was tabled inparliament by the Ministry of Labour this week, but the amendments have to be passed fully to allow for labour unions to work collectively to improveworkers’ rights.
These are equally important because even if federations are registered, the question remains whether or not citizens and workers will be allowed to have peaceful public gatherings without interference by thepolice? Amendments to these two pieces oflegislation should allow for a process oftransparency andobjectivity in deciding how people can come together for public gathering. As the law is currently interpreted, any public gathering can be stopped, as has happened in the past. We are concerned because this interpretation negatively impacts the rights oflabor unions and members of the public to gather to hold May Day celebrations and other meetings to talk about conditions ofemployment and other issues which affect the economy broadly.
On amending the STA and Public Order Act
There is a need to give police better guidance so they can do proper law enforcement. No one can say Swaziland, just like any other country, has no right to have reasonable limits on behavior that can be threatening but right now the law is overly broad.
