Swaziland 
Workers confused by union political involvement

Misanet.com / IPS, 3 May - Political observers noted the phenomenon for the first time back in 1995, when the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) called the first of what would be a series of national workers stay-aways to press government for a string of reforms called the 27 Workers Demands. 

''I went throughout the Matsapha Industrial Site, interviewing workers who were marching down the main street or standing in front of their closed factories,'' Vusie Ginindza, editor of the Times of Swaziland's Sunday edition, recalls of the time when he was a news beat reporter. 

''Just about all the people I spoke with, about 80 to 90 percent, thought the strike was for higher wages. They didn't know anything about the political demands that were at the heart of it.''

Such findings have been used by the royal government of King Mswati in the palace's claim that the unions ill-serve the workers by standing at the forefront of democratic reform in the kingdom.

Further, in a bid to circumscribe union power, royal decrees limiting union activity are instituted from time to time, though they are usually modified or withdrawn following protests from the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) and foreign envoys of Western donor nations on whom Swaziland depends for aid assistance.

''Labour unions once had the palace so frightened that police would haul away anyone, who spoke out publicly with criticism of government, or who possessed anti-government literature,'' says Guy Mazibuko, a member of one of the eight unions affiliated with the 80,000-member Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU). 

''Now, the threat to royal government is seen as relatively small from these groups. The police allowed May Day speakers to say things just this side of sedition, and left them alone,'' he says. 

Mazibuko is a proponent for democracy, and personally dislikes royal rule because he believe it fosters corruption and government by secrecy. Yet, he is loyal to King Mswati. He wishes to see the king remain a constitutional monarch within a democratic system, which is the agenda of the SFTU and the Swaziland Democratic Alliance, an umbrella organisation consisting of progressive labour unions and banned political parties. 

By royal decree, opposition political parties have been outlawed since 1973. But other workers feel they are ill-served by a union leadership that opposes the palace. 

Dumisa works at the Cadbury Sweets factory in Matsapha, controlling the temperature of huge vats of pink fragrant bubble gum in its liquid state. ''Workers would get more out of government if the labadzala (the elders who advise King Mswati) did not have this dislike of (SFTU secretary general Jan) Sithole. He makes them hate labour unions, and that hostility gets us less than what we deserve.''

Sithole himself disagrees. The charismatic labour leader, known for his trademark Afro hairstyle, says, ''The issue of the political agenda of labour unions comes up all the time.'' 

''Government wants us to tend to workers business and stay out of politics. But it is impossible to separate the two. When bus fares rise because of an inept transportation policy, workers who commute suffer. When government corruption sinks public works projects, the workers are robbed of the benefits of the taxes they pay. When unemployment soars because of poor economic policy, of course the labour unions have to get involved,'' he says.

Sithole says that at the heart of the matter is Swaziland's unelected national leadership. The palace appoints the prime minister, his cabinet, and a number of parliamentarians to carry out palace-initiated politics. Although 55 of 65 MPs are elected by popular vote, parliament approves of legislation brought to it by cabinet, and does not initiate its own laws.

One woman who is not a union member but has benefited from union political activism is Gogo Khumalo, a fruit vendor at the large Mhlanya Market 20 kilometres east of Mbabane. ''The SFTU made it so street vendors can operate in towns. It used to be the town rangers would chase us away because we could not afford to purchase licenses.''

The workers federation took up the cause of the market women in 1996, and made their livelihood one of the 27 Workers Demands. Making May Day a national holiday was another demand. Government agreed to both of these because it was easier to do than more thorny issues, such as the status of the monarchy.

''The women vendors was a populist issue,'' says Albert Dube, a political science student at the University of Swaziland. 

He says, ''The SFTU did not represent the women, and they were not among the eight unions affiliated with the federation. They said, 'We must protect these mothers who struggle to support their families by selling bananas, because that is the way we were put through school.' It was to draw support from the masses for the day when opposition politics are unbanned, and the SFTU becomes a political party.''

For a period in the 1990s, when the SFTU shut down the country for up to a week at a time to press for democratic reforms, and international pressure was mounting on King Mswati to democratise his kingdom, it appeared that a Labour Party might indeed emerge. 

But through a deft seizing of the political agenda, in particular by instituting a constitutional commission, King Mswati took the initiative away from the opponents of royalty. The Swazi people themselves remain largely apathetic to politics. 

A traditional people, who are devoted to their king, Swazis are suspicious of change. The nation's intelligencia dismisses the palace constitutional effort, but a new government document further empowering royal rule and permanently banning political parties will likely be finished by year's end. 

''There is a realisation that the average worker will accept whatever the palace does out of loyalty to the king,” says Dube. ''The unions have to make a case that they are a loyal opposition, and not anti-king. But Sithole I don't think realises the harm he did when he appeared on TV shouting 'power to the people' slogan from South Africa's apartheid days. The workers know that King Mswati is not a Boer oppressor.''

A columnist in the Times of Swaziland recalls that during apartheid South African church leaders protesting the racist government were told to tend to church affairs and stay out of politics. Despite the confusion of some of their members, Swaziland's union leadership feels they also have to pursue a political agenda for the good of the workers.
. 

By James Hall, IPS

© IPS    You can contact us at mail@afrol.com