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TUCOSWA CALLS FOR A NATIONAL PROTEST ACTION ON THE 28TH OCTOBER 2021

 TUCOSWA CALLS FOR A MASS PROTEST ON 28TH  OCTOBER 2021.



The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) has added to the troubles of the increasingly under pressure Swaziland /eSwatini state led by King Mswati lll by calling for a protest action on Thursday 28th October 2021

TUCOSWA's call comes on the hills of the country having experienced a seven day mass protest by public transport workers who brought the country to a stand still with their protests calling for ,amongst others the end to police brutality in the everyday operations of transport workers, for the release of MPs Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube and  for better working conditions in the public transport  industry. This protest led to the death of one transport worker who was shot by the police and who was buried in the past weekend of 24th October.

The TUCOSWA  protest action serve as a continuation of pressure on the King Mswati regime to embrace democratic change that has been going on for months, since early this year. Calls for a peaceful dialogue towards democratic change so far been met with ridicule and snide remarks by the king and his acolytes. However the calls continue to grow louder as the current Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Coordination (Troika) President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on the 25th October  that they as the SADC Troika are firm that there needs to be meaningful dialogue in the country in order to end the tensions. Ramaphosa further called on King Mswati to ensure that order and stability returns to eSwatini.

In preparation for the protest action on Thursday TUCOSWA held mass meeting at the SNAT Centre in Manzini on Sunday 24th October 2021.  In this meeting workers reemphasised that the two day protest should go ahead as planned despite the fact that the Minister of Urban Housing Prince Simelane had earlier issued a directive to all Town and City Councils not to issue protest permits into the foreseeable future.

Is section 40 of the IR Act 2000 (as amended), relevant in this protest action as per the norm?

According to the Secretary General Mduduzi Gina's presentation to an online platform called the Family Meeting this time around they have decided not to use the law for a number of reasons. The first reason is that the government has arbitrarily been violating workers rights to peaceful protest by refusing them permission to march then sending the armed forces to brutally disperse them. The case in point being the public sector trade unions in the past week where workers met all the requirements and were granted permission to march by the Mbabane City Council only for the National Commissioner of Police to arbitrarily stop the protest citing national security. following section 40 would therefore by futile if the government has shown that it is willing to break laws and brutalise workers and citizens in general  in their desperate bid order to stop protests.

This is a developing story and shall be constantly updated

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