Times Of Swaziland: TUCOSWA ADAMANT MARCH IS ON

TUCOSWA ADAMANT MARCH IS ON
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 28/10/2021 09:02:00


MANZINI - TUCOSWA is adamant that the planned marches in some of the country’s
major towns will go ahead today.
This was revealed by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Acting
Secretary General, Mduduzi Gina after their meeting with the police and
officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development yesterday.
According to Gina, as leaders of the federation, they notified the relevant
stakeholders on time about their plan to march in the six cities and towns
today.
He said this was because according to their analysis of the amended Public Order
Act of 2017, which governed marches and protest actions, it said they should
notify the authorities about the intended gathering, not to seek permission to
march. Gina said this after he was asked if he recalled that the Minister of
Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane had, banned local governments
from issuing permits for protest marches in the kingdom.
Response
In response, the unionist said they had also received a response from the
ministry, which in summary, reminded them that petition deliveries were banned
and that local governments were not permitted to issue permits for protest
actions. Thereafter, he said the minister, just like local governments, did not
have the power to stop marches. He said the minister could rather negotiate for
altering routes for marches, as local governments used to do. “I should
emphasise that the law says, we should notify the authorities, not to seek
permission to march,” he added.
Section 6 (1) of the Public Order Act No. 12 of 2017, which is about notice of
gatherings, says; “The convener of a gathering shall as soon as possible, but
not later than four days before the date of the intended gathering, deliver by
hand to the local authority, a written notice of the gathering, signed by the
convener, in accordance with the provisions of this section and substantially in
the form set out in Schedule 1.”
Notice
On the other hand, in subsection 2 of the section, the Act says; “A convener,
who is unable to give notice within the limit contemplated in subsection 1,
shall give notice at the earliest opportunity, but not later than 48 hours
before the commencement of the gathering.” In that regard, Gina said the
minister did not have powers to change the law and as such, during the march,
they had planned to deliver a petition to his office where they would demand
that he withdraws his statement, where he prohibited local governments from
issuing permits for protest actions.
Once more, he said they were aware that the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas
Dlamini, had issued a statement where he said as government, they did not see a
reason for the planned marches. When responding to the PM’s statement, Gina
said the PM said so because the Minister of Housing and Urban Development,
Prince Simelane, did not take away any of his rights when he banned the issuance
of permits by local government. “Again, maybe when the nation does not access
internet, he somehow gets it,” Gina added.
Thereafter, he said in every civilised State or society, those in authority
allowed the people to criticise them. On another note, the unionist said they
had also received a letter from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) which
appealed to the federation that its planned petition deliveries march should be
postponed indefinitely. In response to the police, Gina said it was only the
court that could stop or postpone a planned march because its jurisdiction was
unlimited. However, he said even the court could not postpone it indefinitely.
Ahead
Thereafter, he said their march would go ahead as planned today in the six
cities and towns; Mbabane, Manzini and Pigg’s Peak. The other towns are
Nhlangano, Siteki and Hluthi. He said in Mbabane, they would deliver petitions
to the PM’s Office, Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology
(ICT) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, together with the police.
In the other towns, the unionist said they would deliver petitions to regional
administrators’ (RAs) offices, police and local government.
At the PM’s Office and offices of the RAs in the regions, he said they would
be demanding a genuine political dialogue, which would be free from any kind of
hostilities. He said they would also state the type of dialogue they wanted. On
the other hand, at the ministry of ICT, he said they would be reminding it that
the internet could not be shut down at the whim of an individual because the
country signed the African Charter for Human Rights. He said the African Charter
for Human Rights stipulated that people had a right to access internet and that
it should not be disturbed unnecessarily.  To the police, Gina said they would
be delivering a petition calling for an end to police brutality as it might make
the nation to consider law enforcers as their enemies.