ESWATINI SAME AS IRAQ IN WORKERS’ RIGHTS VIOLATION

phephile@times.co.sz

MBABANE - A few weeks after meeting His Majesty King Mswati III, the ITUC has released a damning report about the state of workers’ rights in the country.

The latest International Trade Union Confederation has placed the country as one in which workers’ rights are not guaranteed.
In the ITUC Global Rights Index 2019, Eswatini has been pointed out as one of five countries which had seen their ratings worsen in the past year.
The ITUC Global Rights Index depicts the world’s worst countries for workers by rating countries on a scale from 1 to 5+ on the degree of respect for workers’ rights.

Violations are recorded each year from April to March.
The index shows that Eswatini, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Vietnam had all seen their ratings worsen in 2019 to Category 5 (no guarantee of rights) with a rise in attacks on workers’ rights in law and practice.

Eswatini was in Category 4 in the 2018 index, which meant that there were systematic violations of rights.
The report stated that police brutality reached unprecedented levels in Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe, as security forces fired live ammunition at protesting workers.

Incidents in report

Some few incidents which occurred in the country in the past year were mentioned in the report.
It was reported that in Eswatini, a peaceful demonstration, organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) to deliver a petition to the deputy prime minister’s office, was brutally repressed by armed forces on June 29, 2018.

The report stated that the police prevented workers from reaching the deputy prime minister’s office by using water cannons and tear gas canisters, and attacked demonstrators with batons.

It was alleged that four members of TUCOSWA were gravely injured and taken to the hospital, while Majembeni Thobela, a security guard who was marching on this day, received severe beatings and was left unconscious and covered in blood from head injuries.

The report claimed that the police did not even bother to rush him to hospital, and first aid was later applied to him by other marchers.
“Many demonstrators ran for safety, with pursuing police beating everyone in sight with batons. Some were cornered and severely assaulted by the police. A week after the events, two people were still in a critical state in hospital,” the report stated.

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