Lack of democratic reform in Eswatini likely to fuel greater unrest - activists

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Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a “ticking time bomb”, according to Hlobi Dlamini, a gender and women’s rights advocate from that country. Reflecting on the state of Eswatini in the wake of a June 2021 uprising in pursuit of democracy and human rights, Dlamini said it is only a matter of time before there is another explosion of unrest.  

“Even though the people may not be visibly on the streets, the anger, the hatred, the trauma, everything suggests that when the day comes for action, the amount of energy that has been now stored and censored is probably going to make more damage than before,” she said. 

Dlamini was speaking at a Daily Maverick webinar hosted by the Maverick Citizen editor, Mark Heywood, on Thursday. They were joined by Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer and co-chair of the Swaziland Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF), in discussing “When will democracy come to Swaziland?” 

The past three years have seen the situation in Eswatini move from bad to worse, said Dlamini. The country was already struggling with a collapsed economy, high levels of unemployment and rampant socioeconomic inequality when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Women were among the worst affected, associated as they are with industrial labour and small self-employment ventures in the country. 

“As we were trying to adjust to the Covid issue, then we as a country – I think, not surprisingly – reached a point where the political tensions that had been long existing finally overboiled. We saw thousands of Swazis taking to the streets to demand basic human rights, which are a challenge of non-service delivery by the current government,” said Dlamini. 

A Daily Maverick report from 18 July 2021 indicated that the violent protests were also rooted in a decree by King Mswati III – the last absolute monarch in Africa – banning citizens from sending petitions to parliamentarians to demand democratic reforms. 

The period of unrest was met with a violent backlash from the government, resulting in deaths, trauma and social displacement among citizens, said Dlamini. 

While a United Nations report found that about 46 people were killed during the unrest, Maseko claimed that data collected during the course of the crisis indicated more than 100 deaths.  

“With the lawyers with whom I’m working, at the time the crisis was at a height, we were about, over 700 people in jail, but the number kept going up… the minimum could be 1,000 people were arrested,” he said. 

Dlamini expressed that while efforts are still under way to fix the psychological, physical and economic disruption that emanated from the government’s response to people’s demands for democracy, morale had not been lost. 

“I think the attempt to grip people with fear has been successful, because the moment you say, ‘We’re going to the streets,’ there’s a significant amount of fear… but I don’t think the agenda has changed,” she said. 

Swaziland's King Mswati III. (Photo: Gallo Images / Lefty Shivambu)