Police raid magazine’s offices

Swazi police on Tuesday raided the offices of ‘The Nation’ magazine despite a court order granted by the country’s High Court last Friday for the magazine to be published, DPA reported. A spokesman for the publication was quoted as saying that police “apparently” wanted to confiscate copies of the latest edition, brought into Swaziland from the printers in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province on Monday. The government banned the magazine on 4 May together with ‘The Guardian’, a weekly newspaper. He said that police had been deployed at all outlets to confiscate the latest copies of the magazine. Meanwhile, 80 journalists from ‘The Swaziland Observer’ are suing the paper for more than US $200,000 collectively for unfair dismissal, news report added. The newspaper was closed down last year following allegations that it was no longer serving the “interests” of the country. Journalists were accused of meddling in the private affairs of the royal family. The newspaper, established in 1981 by Swaziland’s former ruler, the late King Sobhuza II, was re-opened in February, but most of the sacked journalists were not re-employed. The case of the 80 journalists, delayed for almost a year, resumes at the industrial court on Friday.