![[Swaziland] Swazi labour march.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/2005564.jpg.webp?itok=sx94fOLV "Protests are being planned against the country's new constitution")
Demands for democratic reform in Swaziland are meeting with an angry response from government, which denies that the recently promulgated constitution is illegitimate.
"It is ludicrous that it is suggested that our constitution is illegitimate. [The constitution] is clearly the will of the people, after a full, transparent process which was endorsed by the lawmakers of the country and, I may add, the international community," Prime Minister Themba Dlamini said in his first official statement countering calls for democratic reform by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an umbrella organisation representing labour unions, human rights groups and banned political parties.
The NCA said the new constitution, compiled under the supervision of King Mswati III's brothers, Prince Mangaliso and Prince David, and palace-appointed commissions during a costly decade-long constitutional exercise, merely enshrined the political status quo of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch.
"The Constitution, which is the will of the people, will strive to serve the best interest of all its citizens, and not specific interest groups which have their own agendas and ambitions," Dlamini said in his statement in response to the NCA's claims earlier this month that the new constitution was "illegitimate".
"From the beginning to end, the process of making the Swaziland Constitution, and its purported adoption, was a government project, as opposed to being an all inclusive people-driven process," the NCA said. "This is due to lack of genuine and effective citizen participation during the process of its making, and the environment, which continues to be hostile to people and organisations with dissenting views. Yet it is generally accepted that in order for a constitution to be legitimate, credible and to enjoy popular support, it must be a product of consensus of all major stakeholders, and must not be controlled by those in government."
NCA member Thulani Maseko said the alliance is planning to march this week on Lozitha Palace, 20km southeast of the capital, Mbabane, to protest against the constitution being drawn up without widespread consultation.
Dissent in the kingdom, where two-thirds of the one million people live on US$2 or less a day, has been swiftly put down by the country's security forces. Local newspapers last month documented incidents of alleged police brutality during a march to the prime minister's office in Mbabane, by University of Swaziland students demanding that government honour its scholarship commitments.
"If it is remotely true that any of the citizens of Swaziland have been 'brutally attacked and charged at' by any law enforcement agency in Swaziland, formal charges should be laid by the alleged victims and the law will follow its course," Dlamini's statement read.
The prime minister said government would not comment on "unfounded allegations and innuendos", after NCA charges that bad governance has led to Swaziland's economic doldrums - the growth rate is expected to decline to 1.8 percent from last year's 2.1 percent, according to a central bank report to government earlier this month.
"If truth be told, the single greatest factor which would contribute to any form of economic decline in a country is an unstable and politicised workforce, which, to its own detriment, carries out industrial action not for economic purposes but to appease the political ambitions of their leaders and other external forces," the prime minister said.
Swaziland had a brief flirtation with a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, in which political parties contended for power, for five years after it was granted independence from Britain in 1968. In 1973 the reigning monarch, King Sobhuza II, overturned the constitution agreed with the former colonial power, instituted a state of emergency - still in force - banned opposition political parties and meetings, and assumed ultimate executive, judicial and legislative authority for the monarchy.
"I have no doubt that this government, when benchmarked with all other African nations, will be found to be governing in the upper quartile, and that the wellbeing of its people will also compare favourably," Dlamini said.
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"It is ludicrous that it is suggested that our constitution is illegitimate. [The constitution] is clearly the will of the people, after a full, transparent process which was endorsed by the lawmakers of the country and, I may add, the international community," Prime Minister Themba Dlamini said in his first official statement countering calls for democratic reform by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an umbrella organisation representing labour unions, human rights groups and banned political parties.
The NCA said the new constitution, compiled under the supervision of King Mswati III's brothers, Prince Mangaliso and Prince David, and palace-appointed commissions during a costly decade-long constitutional exercise, merely enshrined the political status quo of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch.
"The Constitution, which is the will of the people, will strive to serve the best interest of all its citizens, and not specific interest groups which have their own agendas and ambitions," Dlamini said in his statement in response to the NCA's claims earlier this month that the new constitution was "illegitimate".
"From the beginning to end, the process of making the Swaziland Constitution, and its purported adoption, was a government project, as opposed to being an all inclusive people-driven process," the NCA said. "This is due to lack of genuine and effective citizen participation during the process of its making, and the environment, which continues to be hostile to people and organisations with dissenting views. Yet it is generally accepted that in order for a constitution to be legitimate, credible and to enjoy popular support, it must be a product of consensus of all major stakeholders, and must not be controlled by those in government."
NCA member Thulani Maseko said the alliance is planning to march this week on Lozitha Palace, 20km southeast of the capital, Mbabane, to protest against the constitution being drawn up without widespread consultation.
Dissent in the kingdom, where two-thirds of the one million people live on US$2 or less a day, has been swiftly put down by the country's security forces. Local newspapers last month documented incidents of alleged police brutality during a march to the prime minister's office in Mbabane, by University of Swaziland students demanding that government honour its scholarship commitments.
"If it is remotely true that any of the citizens of Swaziland have been 'brutally attacked and charged at' by any law enforcement agency in Swaziland, formal charges should be laid by the alleged victims and the law will follow its course," Dlamini's statement read.
The prime minister said government would not comment on "unfounded allegations and innuendos", after NCA charges that bad governance has led to Swaziland's economic doldrums - the growth rate is expected to decline to 1.8 percent from last year's 2.1 percent, according to a central bank report to government earlier this month.
"If truth be told, the single greatest factor which would contribute to any form of economic decline in a country is an unstable and politicised workforce, which, to its own detriment, carries out industrial action not for economic purposes but to appease the political ambitions of their leaders and other external forces," the prime minister said.
Swaziland had a brief flirtation with a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, in which political parties contended for power, for five years after it was granted independence from Britain in 1968. In 1973 the reigning monarch, King Sobhuza II, overturned the constitution agreed with the former colonial power, instituted a state of emergency - still in force - banned opposition political parties and meetings, and assumed ultimate executive, judicial and legislative authority for the monarchy.
"I have no doubt that this government, when benchmarked with all other African nations, will be found to be governing in the upper quartile, and that the wellbeing of its people will also compare favourably," Dlamini said.
jh/go/he/jk
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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