Swaziland@Newsletter 62
Published by Africa Contact (Denmark)

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Children. Men of the land. The struggle for democracy. Images of a
democratic movement.
_____________________________

Dear friends of Swaziland,

We are now so close to May Day. The International Workers' Day: a day
created on the execution of workers arrested after the Haymarket
strikes and the unrest of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois. A commemoration
and a will to move forward despite all the losses.

That is also your way. The longest strikes in many years. The deaths
and illness of members and leaders of the movement. But there is no
other way than to unite and go forward in sadness and in strength.

Wishing for all a May Day this year that will open the future for the
people. Driving away the power of the past and of a corrupted
monarchy. There is no other way towards a land of peace, of
development and equality.

Patrick Mac Manus
Editor
Africa Contact
Denmark

___________________

1. May Day to reveal state of solidarity in Swaziland. Terry Bell,
Business Report, 25 April 2008.

2. Who killed Pudemo leader? Donny Nxumalo. Mbabane, Swaziland, 24
April 2008.

3. South Africa: Mbeki's first state visit to Swaziland. Wilson
Johwa, Business Day (Johannesburg), 25 April 2008.

4. BBC: Swaziland political documentary.
Swazi Media Commentary 25 April 2008 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com

5. Albertina Nyatsi: "You don't have to suffer in silence; you
don't have to suffer at all". Mbabane (IRIN), 22 April 2008.

6. Human trafficking on the upswing. Durban, 23 April (IRIN).

7. Two children have been jailed in Swaziland for being vagrants.
www.swazimedia.blogspot.com, 20 April 2008.

8. Food crisis: Swaziland should make use full of land. Augustine
Moyo. The Swazi Observer, April 19, 2008.

9. Statement Issued by the Chairman of Swaziland Coalition of
Concerned Civic Organisations. 23 April, 2008.
______________________________


1. May Day to reveal state of solidarity in Swaziland. Terry Bell,
Business Report, 25 April 2008.

As May Day looms, the army of the working poor and the legions of the
unemployed are being force-marched to still greater hardship - nowhere
more so than in Africa's last feudal monarchy, Swaziland, which is
affected directly by rising inflation in South Africa.

This year's May Day celebrations in the tiny landlocked kingdom should
provide the first indication of whether the long-promised unity of the
fragmented labour movement has been achieved.

In recent years the country's two labour federations and the two large
independent unions of civil servants and teachers have staged separate
events. However, all support the demand for democratic reforms. Signs
of greater unity on the labour front should, therefore, provide a
significant boost to the pro-democracy movement.

Such a move would be welcomed by unions throughout the region,
especially Cosatu affiliates, which have staged protests, including
border blockades of Swaziland, in support of that country's
pro-democracy movement.

"We, of course, welcome any move to greater unity," says Cosatu
spokesperson Patrick Craven. Cosatu is aware that the new constitution
introduced two years ago by King Mswati 3 - and hailed by governments
in the region as a "step in the right direction" - provides a flimsy
democratic facade for what remains an absolute monarchy.

The king's right to appoint the prime minister and several ministers,
as well as to veto any decisions of parliament, makes a mockery of any
democratic process.

"Even if we had a legitimate, free and fair voting procedure, it would
still be meaningless," says Mario Masuku, the president of the
officially illegal Peoples' United Democratic Movement (Pudemo).

Pudemo is in talks with the labour movement and other pro-democracy
groups in an effort to establish a united front before the next
Swaziland elections, scheduled for October. To highlight what it terms
the "farcical nature" of the elections, Pudemo has announced a boycott.

Even the generally supportive US state department has noted that the
Swazi regime's human rights record is poor. This repressive nature and
the signs of growing unity among pro-democracy forces, together with
the electoral boycott, raise the spectre of turmoil along the lines of
that in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

This has been spelled out by Pudemo to various governments in the
Southern African Development Community (SADC). Because of SADC's
awareness of the situation and the regional organisation's demands for
democratic processes, there were no protests at President Thabo
Mbeki's official visit to the kingdom earlier this week.

In their public statements, neither Mswati nor Mbeki mentioned the
thorny issue of democracy; they talked instead of closer ties and
trade. But this did not overly concern the pro-democracy movement,
which tends to see this as an example of more "quiet diplomacy" at work.

"Given the SADC guidelines and against the background of Kenya and
Zimbabwe, we are sure the matter must have been raised with the king,"
says Masuku .

Not that the local opposition is looking to SADC for salvation. "The
struggle must be won by the Swazi people themselves," says Masuku. He
adds: "With the solidarity and support of others."

That support has been pledged by the regional and international trade
union movement. May Day should reveal whether Swaziland's
pro-democracy forces are starting to achieve the unity necessary to
take full advantage of such support.

_______________________________

2. Who killed Pudemo leader? Donny Nxumalo. Mbabane, Swaziland, 24
April 2008.

Officially, Swazi opposition leader Gabriel Mkhumane died at the hands
of criminals when he was shot dead in Nelspruit at the beginning of
this month. But fellow opposition supporters reject the official
explanation for his murder and believe that he was assassinated by
government operatives.

At the time of his murder Mkumane, the deputy president of the
People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), the country's main
opposition party, had been attending a meeting to discuss staging a
blockade of goods going to Swaziland.

The border blockage was to have been held on April 12, a day that
Pudemo and other pro-democracy organisations in Swaziland mark as the
day democracy died in Swaziland. On this day in 1973 King Sobhuza II
outlawed political parties.

In 2006 South African police fired at opposition supporters during the
annual blockade. Last year the Swazi government charged six opposition
supporters with sedition after they tried to block the border.

When news of Mkhumane's killing reached Swaziland, suspicions were
immediately directed at the government. Pudemo confirmed that Mkhumane
was a key player in the planned blockade, which was later abandoned
because of his death.

Pudemo president Mario Masuku said a number of elements about the
official version of Mkhumane's death are questionable.

Masuku said he and fellow Pudemo supporters were more than convinced
that Mkhumane's death was a government-sponsored hit.

"For one, the girl he was with reported the incident hours later --
and also came up with a questionable tale of rape. What is worrying is
that we have been told she is a member of the royal family in Lobamba.

"Another reason to be uneasy is that the Swaziland police visited
Gab's mother at Luve, asking where he was. She said he was not there
and then [they] told her she must expect him any time, adding that he
would come home wrapped in a black bag," Masuku said.

Mkhumane, who worked as a doctor at Themba Hospital in Nelspruit, was
in exile, having left Swaziland in the 1980s to live in Maputo, then
in Cuba, where he trained as a doctor before settling in South Africa.

Masuku said the state was watching Pudemo members very closely --
especially since Pudemo launched a campaign known as Ulibambe
Lingashoni ["Don't Let the Sun Set"], which he said is aimed at a
"total liberation" of Swaziland. According to Masuku, Pudemo will do
all it can to disrupt the national elections, planned for later this
year.

"That is why Swaziland is becoming a military state, where the army
would be deployed all over -- to seek and destroy Pudemo cadres. But
we are not backing down -- the liberation of the Swazi is at hand.
Link:http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/insight/insight__africa&articlei\
d=337702
___________________________________

3. South Africa: Mbeki's first state visit to Swaziland. Wilson
Johwa, Business Day (Johannesburg), 25 April 2008.


Normally ignored and hardly the focus of South African diplomacy,
Swaziland yesterday was the subject of President Thabo Mbeki's
attention when he held talks with King Mswati.

The day-long visit, at the invitation of the king, was intended to
strengthen political and economic ties. Among other areas, the two
leaders undertook to co-operate over joint water and tourism
development projects.

The trip symbolised Mbeki's intention to reclaim his role on the
continent following his battering over Zimbabwe. Coming three weeks
after the death of an exiled senior official in Swaziland's main
political movement, Mbeki's trip was overshadowed by political
overtones.

Gabriel Mkhumane, deputy president of the People's United Democratic
Movement (Pudemo), was shot dead in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, where he
was working as a doctor.

Political activity is highly restricted in Swaziland. Most opposition
politicians boycotted the previous elections, held in 2003. Even
though a new constitution was promulgated in 2005, there was no sign
of change.

Civic groups were also waging a campaign for a boycott of
parliamentary elections due later in the year.

Lucky Lukhele, Swaziland Solidarity Network spokesman, said Mbeki's
state visit, his first official visit to Swaziland, was a welcome
initiative.

"We don't expect a public statement but we know he is a democrat and
will not betray the people of Swaziland."

Buoyed by remittances from SA -- through Swaziland's membership of the
Southern African Customs Union -- Mswati has been constantly accused
of wasteful expenditure even as his country battles poverty and the
highest rate of HIV infection in the world. A "40-40" celebration was
planned later this year when his 40th birthday will be celebrated with
the national independence anniversary.

"The media focuses its attention on democratic practices in Zimbabwe,
and rightly so. But the situation in Swaziland is worse," said
Congress of South African Trade Unions spokesman Patrick Craven. Even
as it enforced a ban on political parties, Swaziland was hardly the
focus of regional and international attention.

The lack of pressure on Mswati to adopt democratic reforms is because
of an absence of interest by western powers, says political analyst
Steven Friedman. "Ironically, if your major concern is proving to the
world that Africa is not a basket case, then you end up having them
set the agenda," he said.

Mbeki was accompanied by Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe
Hendricks, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, Deputy Trade
and Industry Minister Elizabeth Thabethe and Deputy Agriculture and
Land Affairs Minister Dirk du Toit.

The visit was also to explore opportunities around the Soccer World Cup.

_____________________

4. BBC: Swaziland political documentary.
Swazi Media Commentary 25 April 2008 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com

Swaziland's political turmoil was featured in a documentary aired by
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the UK yesterday
(Thursday 24 April 2008).
It told a story of police committing murder, child sex abuse - and, of
course, HIV AIDS.

All this was seen through the eyes of one consultant from Northern
Ireland who is presently working in Swaziland as a civil rights
campaigner.
Star of the show is Stephen Donaghy, who works as a 'volunteer' for
the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) in
Manzini.

I haven't had a chance to see the documentary (but I hope a DVD is
winging its way to Swaziland and will soon be available in pirate
version all over the kingdom), but the Belfast Telegraph (a newspaper
in Northern Ireland) carried a long interview with Donaghy, in which
he gives one view of Swaziland that is not often seen, either in the
kingdom itself, or in the international media.

The Telegraph reported,

?His work is highly sensitive in a country ruled by King Mswati III,
who has "a special place in the hearts of the people and a lot of
power which he doesn't use properly".

?We had to speak on a South African phone as Stephen's telephone calls
are monitored, like his emails. "So we use heavy encryption."'

?He wanted change, and from day one in his job working for the
Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), he got
it?.

?A month in, Stephen was involved with the sort of case he would not
have encountered at home [in Northern Ireland]?.

"We work on three levels, the highest of which is advocacy of basic
human rights," he says.

"There was a criminal called Ntokozo Ngozo, who was accused of
shooting at police officers. The police then rang his cell phone and
said, 'We don't know where you are but when we find you, we'll kill
you.'

"He was naturally scared and rang a journalist on The Times of
Swaziland, thinking that if they ran the story, it would save him. But
while the presses were rolling, the police shot him. He'd stripped to
his waist and come out with his hands up when he heard them coming,
but they questioned him, left him to bleed for four hours and he was
dead on arrival in hospital."

'SCCCO paid for an independent pathologist who established that,
contrary to the official story, which claimed the man was armed and
had fired at the police, he had been shot at a distance of 35
centimetres. Also, the holes on his clothes didn't match the bullet
holes, so evidence had been tampered with.

'To top it all, there was never an official investigation. Stephen
says: "Another aspect of our work is civic education with various
groups. In 1973, the king took away all civil political rights, so
there was no free speech, no right of assembly. You could be locked up
without trial, just on the say-so of the executive."

'He adds that people in Swaziland think they'll be in the same
situation as Zimbabwe in a few years' time.'

According to the Telegraph, Donaghy, who featured in BBC Northern
Ireland's 'Distant Horizons' programme, had reached the age of 41, was
in a comfortable job as a management consultant with an equally
comfortable lifestyle when he decided he needed, as he puts it, 'to
find out that life doesn't stop at the border' [of Northern Ireland].
So he signed up for two years via Skill Share International.

Donaghy has the perfect background for the work with a law degree from
Newcastle on Tyne and a CV charting a career in management, primarily
in the public sector.

________________________________

5. Albertina Nyatsi: "You don't have to suffer in silence; you don't
have to suffer at all". Mbabane (IRIN), 22 April 2008.

"I grew up in the north. My father died when I was two years old and
I was raised by my mother. I have two brothers and five sisters.

"Two things I really like to do are teach and communicate with people
about HIV. This is a big job in Swaziland: the most conservative
survey showed that over a quarter of the adult population are HIV
positive, but most people won't get tested.

"They are like I was - living in denial, denying that AIDS is a
serious problem, and denying that they can get infected. It comes from
fear - you are afraid to know the truth about your condition. One
reason is that you fear your family will abandon you. My family did not.

"I have a wonderful relationship with my daughter. She is 17 and we
live together in a flat. She knows about my HIV, and maybe it has
brought us closer together.

"A lot of people who find they are HIV-positive keep it a secret, even
from their loved ones. They worry that their families will reject
them, but you must give your friends and loved ones credit. If you
believe in them, maybe they will believe in you. My daughter has put
up with a lot from people who say things about me because I am
HIV-positive, but she still loves me and we depend on each other.

"It is not easy being HIV-positive. My condition cost me my job as a
teacher, I believe. I was educated at St. Elizabeth Institute in
Lesotho, [then] I was posted by the Ministry of Education to Zinyane
Primary [in northern Swaziland] to teach grade-seven home economics.

"By then I was HIV positive. I'm not sure how I got infected, but most
likely it was through intercourse. At first the doctor told me I had
TB [tuberculosis], and he asked me to test for HIV because he said it
was an opportunistic disease that can be found in HIV-positive people.
I was very shocked when I got the result. I thought, 'I am not thin
like those AIDS people in the newspaper'.

"I told the head teacher - I felt I had to because I was sick and I
was away from the classroom for a time. Two weeks later, he told me to
go home and not come back. He said my contract would not be renewed;
he did not give a reason.

"I got another posting to Emcengeni Primary [also in the north] and it
was a different story altogether. I believe people should be honest,
and if you hide something you can become stressed, which is bad for
you medically. So I told them that I was HIV positive and the head
teacher and the other teachers have been very supportive.

"Nowadays, I speak to people about HIV and they can relate to me,
because before I got tested I denied the seriousness of HIV. I tell
the groups I speak with that 'I am like anyone', I am like them.

The organisation I helped form, Swazis for Positive Living, is about
this: you don't have to suffer in silence; you don't have to suffer at
all if you take care of yourself and have a positive attitude."

_________________________________________

6. Human trafficking on the upswing. Durban, 23 April (IRIN).

The victims of human trafficking in Southern Africa are often
invisible because many countries in the region have failed to
implement laws to combat it, Hans Petter Boe, Regional Representative
for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said in his
opening remarks at a conference in the South African port city of
Durban.

"The needs of victims of human trafficking are unique compared to
those of other victims of abuse. Because many countries in the region
have yet to legislate comprehensive anti-trafficking laws, many of
these victims fall through the cracks," Boe told a Regional workshop
to protect victims of human trafficking.

The conference was hosted by the IOM and the Migration Dialogue for
Southern Africa, which aims to facilitate regional dialogue and
cooperation on migration policy issues, and attended by civil society
and government representatives from the Southern African Development
Community.

Boe congratulated Mozambique for recently passing its first law geared
specifically to combat human trafficking. "A great advance, to be
emulated by other countries in the region," he said.

Lack of legislation has allowed traffickers to either escape
prosecution or only be convicted of such crimes as rape, abduction or
fraud, but beyond this
there are few national or regional mechanisms that afford the victims
of trafficking any protection.

Poor intelligence on the numbers of people trafficked and the
inherently clandestine nature of the activity mean the traffickers
usually ply their harmful trade without fear of repercussion.

According to the IOM, trafficked persons often find themselves in
situations where they are held against their will, their documents are
taken from them, and they are abused and kept captive by reason of the
debt they incurred while being taken across borders. It is made
virtually impossible for them ever to repay this debt.

Trafficked people are highly vulnerable: they have been brought into a
country illegally, so they are reluctant to seek help from the
authorities, fearing that they will be treated as illegal immigrants
or criminals.

"Victims of human trafficking are exposed to extreme forms of
dehumanisation and exploitation," Malusi Gigaba, the South African
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, a keynote speaker at the three-day
conference, told IRIN.

"They are transported through a well-oiled trafficking system, using
intricate and extensive networks to transport their 'human cargo'",
Gigaba said.

Although the incidence of human trafficking is believed to be growing,
accurate information on the extent of the trade remains elusive. The
invisibility of the trade makes it difficult for countries in the
region to allocate resources to anti-trafficking initiatives in the
face of a host of other social problems, such as health care and
poverty-related issues.

"All indications are that there are more and more people being
trafficked, in particular in our region," Gigaba said. Steadily
climbing migration flows and rising crime in southern Africa mean
"there is now greater need for cooperation and urgency in combating
[human trafficking] and providing protection to those that are most
vulnerable," he told the delegates.

"It is good that the victims are getting more attention - human
trafficking is a human rights issue; the women, the children, who are
victims of human trafficking, deserve better treatment," Gigaba said.

"We cannot afford any more talk-shops that yield no outcomes. The
action-steps are there; no one can claim to be clueless about what to
do," he said.
_____________________________

7. Two children have been jailed in Swaziland for being vagrants.
www.swazimedia.blogspot.com, 20 April 2008.

The boys, who were offered the chance to pay fines of E100 each (about
14 US Dollars), were too poor to pay so were taken off to prison for
30 days.

The Times of Swaziland reported (18 April 2008) that the boys, who
'lived' in the bush near a disused motel, were believed to be part of
a gang who had been 'terrorising' people with robbery.

The Times did not say how old the boys were (typically, in the Swazi
media even the most basic of information gets overlooked by reporters)
but it was stated that their case had been adjourned so that their
parents or guardians could turn up to court. This means that they were
clearly not adults.

When parents or guardians failed to appear, the boys were tried
nonetheless and convicted under the Vagrancy Act of 1963.

By coincidence on the same day Swazi Observer columnist Ackel Zwane
wrote that '100 percent' of the people in prison in Swaziland at
present were from the 20 percent poorest people in the kingdom.
Wealthy people never go to jail, he wrote.

'There is a hungry boy from kaKhoza who snatches a purse in town and
is rotting at Zakhele Remand Centre.

'He has been there for the past 18 months and is likely to stay even
longer before he is sentenced. There was only E10 in that purse. A
government official with accomplices stole E50million from the state
[from a job creation scheme] but they are roaming the streets and
bragging about how sweet money can be.'

Poverty is in the news in Swaziland at the moment. This is not because
70 per cent of the approximately one million population of Swaziland
earn less than one US Dollar (E7) a day and 600,000 of them rely on
international food aid to avoid starvation, but rather because King
Mswati III has jetted off to a 'poverty summit' in Mauritius. At the
summit he is expected to talk about Swaziland's poverty reduction
strategy.

This is not the first (and probably not the last) poverty summit he
has attended. Last August (2007) the king went to Malaysia for similar
talks. While there a foreign reporter asked him how many poor people
there were in Swaziland and the king replied that he did not know - he
would have to ask his minister.

Here's a fact - courtesy of Zwane - the richest 20 percent in
Swaziland own 60 percent of the national income. The poorest 20
percent own 4 percent.

Another fact - courtesy of Forbes magazine, New York - King Mswati III
is estimated to have a net worth of 200million US Dollars
(E1.4billion) and is the 15th richest monarch in the world and the
richest in sub-Saharan Africa.

Link http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2008/04/poor-children-in-swazi-jail.html
______________________

8. Food crisis: Swaziland should make use full of land. Augustine
Moyo. The Swazi Observer, April 19, 2008.

First it was the global credit crunch and now it is escalating food prices.

With recent global riots against the backdrop of high food prices
spurred by global fuel increases, Swaziland could make use of its 80
percent of fertile land to grow food crops to feed its population and
export surplus, economic experts have noted.
Stanlib Economist Paul Hansen said food costs have doubled by more
than 100 percent in four months.

He added that this was largely attributed to excess demand for food in
countries like China and India, which have populations of over a
billion citizens due to the change of lifestyles in their growing
middle class. This excess demand for food was tilting the demand
supply globally, he noted.

?Economic growth in Swaziland has been stagnant since 1997. Between
the years 1989 and 1998 growth averaged 4.2 percent and since 2000,
growth has been less than three percent,? the economist said.

?Eighty-nine percent of Swaziland?s imports are from South Africa and
food constitutes 38 percent of the consumer price index (CPI). In this
case, it makes sense for Swaziland to use its land to grow food,?
explained Hansen.

CPI is a measurement of prices for a range of consumer products. It is
calculated in urban areas and provides a fairly good look at how much
inflation has occurred in the country. Inflation in Swaziland
presently stands at 11.07 percent.

Since early last year, prices of wheat, maize, rice and other basic
foodstuffs have more than doubled or tripled.

This has largely been against the backdrop of climate change, which
has led to poor grain harvests in some of the world?s leading grain
producing countries in Europe and Australia.

This has, however, devastating effects particularly on developing
countries like Swaziland where food accounts for more than two thirds
of household spending. Economic experts say the poor spend about 60
percent of their earnings on food while the rich spend just five
percent.

Hansen added that the recent diversion of food crops such as maize - a
staple food to many people in southern Africa - to bio-fuels by
developed countries like the United States of America (USA) in
response to the price increases for a barrel of oil, has played a
major role in the increase of food prices.

?Bio-diesel production in the developed countries has quadrupled in
the last three years and this then poses a challenge for Swaziland and
southern Africa as a region. Countries with surpluses of grain and
rice are presently holding on to their reserves as they are looking at
feeding their own populations first. Therefore, countries that are
heavily reliant on food imports have been forced to pay hefty prices
for importing food.

?Countries like China were previously able to feed their populations
from their seven percent of arable land while Swaziland has 80 percent
of fertile soils suitable for agriculture and is not fully utilising
that land,? he said.

Analysts are of the belief that agriculture and tourism could be the
answer to the growth of the Swazi economy seeing that the
manufacturing sector, which makes up 34 percent of the economy, has
been adversely affected by cheap imports from China and India, which
are undercutting well established local manufacturers.

____________________________

9. Statement Issued by the Chairman of Swaziland Coalition of
Concerned Civic Organisations. 23 April, 2008.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, supports the
efforts of its colleagues in the Lwas Society of East Africa when it
hosted an emergency consultation on ?Africa Taking the Initiative on
the Zimbabwe Election Crisis? held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on 21st
April. The meeting brought together the finest African minds from
over 100 civic and legal organisations from all over the continent.

After lengthy discussions on the Zimbabwean situation it was concluded
that, in spite of what President Mbeki and Minister Sgaoyoyo Magongo
might find politically or personally expedient, it is most definitely
a crisis. In fact it is multiple crises of democracy, security, the
rule of law, constitutionalism, independence, freedom of speech,
safety of people, the role of the police and military and the death
free and fair elections. It calls Mugabe?s post election actions
simply and clearly a military lead de facto coup d?etat.

Three weeks delay in counting only the presidential vote is a crisis
of due process.
Calling for a recount before the result of the count is announced is a
crisis of free and fair election law.

Assaulting citizens and killing them on the basis of their vote is a
crisis that goes to the heart of democracy ? the secrecy of the vote.
Ordering a shipment of arms 2 days after the election in times of
peace when no external aggression is present is a crisis of internal
repression and of international law.

We concur with the East African Law Society when we say that the Mbeki
lead process has contributed to the greatest failure of all ? the will
of the majority of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe has been
systematically and structurally stolen.

We call on the AU to replace the SADC / Mbeki driven mediation process
with one of the calibre that was appointed to address the recent
problems in Kenya.

We also call on the AU and its Commission on Human and People?s Rights
to appoint special rapporteurs to investigate the horrific allegations
that are coming from many independent and respected sources of planned
and programmed human rights abuses.

We also call on SADC, AU and the world to turn their backs on the so
called Mugabe Government and not to recognise its legitimacy. We call
on a complete embargo on any form of weapons shipments to be imported
to the country and we support the moral courage of the African Trade
Unions in preventing the Chinese shipment from landing in Durban and
Maputo.

We finally call on our King Mswati III as he meets President Thabo
Mbeki to use their collective influence to ensure that the legitimate
will of the people of Zimbabwe to elect a government of their choice
is restored and respected and reflects the true results of the 29
March elections.

Statement Issued by the Chairman of Swaziland Coalition of Concerned
Civic Organisations. Right Reverend Bishop Meshack Mabuza, 23 April
2008.
_______________________________

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