ACTSA has written a letter, signed by several Swazi civil society partners, to Harriett Baldwin MP, Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office). The letter calls into question her recent responses to questions asked by James Duddridge MP regarding national elections and human rights in Swaziland.
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21 February 2019
Dear Minister Baldwin
We are writing to you to protest your recent comments, provided in written answers to questions asked by James Duddridge MP, regarding the national elections and human rights in Swaziland.[1]
National Elections
In one of your written answers, you say that the national elections in Swaziland on 21 September 2018 were ‘broadly free, fair and orderly’. We believe that the prohibition on political parties participating in elections, which you note in your written answer, means that the elections were neither free nor fair. Furthermore, we are very disappointed that you fail to acknowledge the fact that two political parties in the country are proscribed. In our view, this ban on peaceful political actors only reinforces the argument that the elections were illegitimate.
It is also crucial to understand that the tinkhundla system in Swaziland is fundamentally undemocratic. Under this system, ‘elections’ to the House of Assembly are more a process of selecting candidates that are supportive of chiefs, who in turn report to King Mswati III. On top of this, Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, directly appoints 10 members of the House of Assembly and two-thirds of the Senate.
The national elections were not ‘orderly’. The final round of the election (on 21 September 2018) was marred by violence and accusations of bribery and vote-rigging. It is also important to recognise that police fired stun grenades and physically assaulted trade unionists on 18 and 19 September (just two of many attacks faced by workers in Swaziland in 2018).
Finally, there is a serious lack of transparency when it comes to voter registration and voter turnout. The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has not published the full results of the elections. The full results of the previous national elections held in 2013 have never been published.
Human Rights
In another of your written answers, while you state that the human rights situation in Swaziland is ‘troubling’, you refer to recent ‘positive legislative changes’. We do not believe that this is a helpful way to describe changes to the law in relation to human rights in Swaziland.
The Government of Swaziland has made much of its amendments to the Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA) and the Public Order Act (POA). However, these amendments are deeply flawed from a human rights perspective. Under the STA amendment, the definition of terrorism remains very broad, and the process for proscribing organisations is largely unchanged. Under the POA amendment, organisers of public gatherings still face far-reaching restrictions, there are no mechanisms to hold law enforcement officials accountable for using excessive force against citizens, and it is illegal to criticize the King (or anything that is part of the country’s ‘cultural or traditional heritage’). Therefore these pieces of legislation continue to represent illegitimate restrictions on the freedoms of expression, association and assembly under relevant international human rights law. It is important to note that many other Swazi laws, such as the Sedition and Subversive Activities (Amendment) Act, are harmful to the realisation of human rights.
You specifically refer to the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act being signed into law in July 2018. While this is true, it is important to recognise that this piece of legislation was only passed after it had stalled in the Senate for over 10 years, despite the endemic nature of sexual and gender-based violence in Swaziland. In addition, the Government of Swaziland is still doing very little to tackle discriminatory attitudes against women, and government agencies, the police and the courts continue to lack resources to effectively and efficiently respond to cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
Those of us who are based in the UK would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues with you further. Those of us who are based in Swaziland would be happy to discuss these issues with the British High Commission in Pretoria and/or with the new British High Commissioner in Mbabane when (s)he is appointed and in post.
[1] We use ‘Swaziland’ rather than ‘Eswatini’, as the change in the country’s name to the latter was not decided through a democratic process, rather it was suddenly announced by King Mswati III in April 2018.