The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) reacted angrily to the Makhundu, which seeks to impose stiff penalties on “lawbreakers”, including those who criticise the King and even those who wear political t-shirts with statements that support the democracy movement or even the African National Congress (ANC). It also makes it a criminal offence to organise or attend any meeting without official sanction. The bill is obviously aimed at silencing the government’s critics and reviving a 1973 decree that imposed an outright ban on all political parties and suspended the constitution.
August Simelane of the Swaziland Youth Congress (Swayoco), pointed out that “the Internal Security Bill says that if I wear a t-shirt with a political slogan, I am a terrorist and I can go to jail for up to five years. This is terrorism all right; it is state terrorism”.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), formed by Swazi dissidents in exile in South Africa, claimed Makhundu proved “beyond doubt that Swaziland has become a military state”, pointing to the King’s death squads which are part of the regime’s attempts to quash dissent through assassination.
In a statement from its Braamfontein office in South Africa, the SSN claimed that “the regime is striving to bail itself out of the current political dilemma and not to respond to the popular demand for real change.” It also called on the African Union, the new
incarnation of the Organisation of African States (OAS), and the Common-wealth
to isolate Mswati’s dictatorship: “The African Union and its blueprint programme, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) shall remain a hollow effort unless they reflect a serious determination to part with the past of tolerance for despots and corrupt regimes in the name of ‘respect for sovereignty’. A serious and drastic step must be taken to set a new path for Africa’s forward march, rooted in zero tolerance for human rights abuse, despotism, tyranny, corruption and backwardness.”
Businessmen have warned that the measures could see Swaziland suspended from the US’s African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), which allows African manufacturers access to US markets. Many fear a repetition of the events of 1999, when the government introduced similar repressive legislation which led to Swaziland’s suspension from the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). One businessman told the UN’s IRIN that “tens of thousands of jobs are coming this year through AGOA, but these
investors will pull out if we lose AGOA. And for what? Because some senile prince is upset when a town boy wear an ANC t-shirt?”
The UK-based Swaziland Solidarity Campaign (SSC) called for Swaziland suspension from the Commonwealth and the freezing of the financial assets of the royal family and government ministers.
SSC's co-ordinator, Daniel Brett, said: "The Makhundu is a pre-emptive strike against those who plan to demonstrate against the government’s new constitution, to be unveiled later this year, which is expected to reaffirm the absolute power of the King. If the government goes ahead with the Makhundu, it will isolate itself and the Swazi people from the international community. In trying to outlaw his opponents by making them terrorists, King Mswati is effectively creating a terrorist state in which his subjects are too afraid to raise their voices."