Protest threats in Swaziland over monarch’s decree

Swaziland’s trade union movement warned on Monday that the tiny African kingdom faced a series of mass protests similar to that last year when several people were injured in clashes with the police and army, news agency DPA has reported. A spokesperson for the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) said a mass meeting organised by the SFTU and political parties would be held this weekend to finalise mass worker protests. Tension has been building in the country for the past week, since King Mswati III’s issued a decree giving him more powers, the report said. Spokesmen for the SFTU and political parties were quoted saying the protests would also be connected to a raging chieftancy dispute in the Macetjeni and KaMkhweli areas. Two traditional chiefs, Mvuso Dlamini and Mliba Fakudze were removed last year to make way for the king’s elder brother, Prince Maguga, according to the report. The two chiefs on Monday refused to meet the king and his advisory body, the Swazi National Council Standing Committee, to explain why they went into exile in South Africa for over nine months. “We will not entertain such harassment because it’s them who expelled us with our followers last year. We did not leave on our own, they forced us to leave,” Fakudze told DPA. According to reports from within the royal family circle, a clash was looming between the king, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini and his legal advisor, Phesheya Dlamini, for formulating the controversial decree purported to extend the powers of the king, the report said. The decree, issued on 22 June, removed powers from the courts from hearing certain traditional and civil matters pending before Mswati and his advisory body. It also gave the government the power to ban newspapers and books at will.