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afrol.com / AENS, 22 November - Swaziland's Industrial Court on Wednesday upheld a controversial five-week old government ban on labour union meetings or rallies in the small kingdom. Industrial Court Judge Kenneth Nkambule said on Wednesday that government fears that the meetings would be hijacked by banned or radical political organisations for anti-government protests had proved correct. Judge Nkambule criticised Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini, however, for resorting to a blanket banning order without first attempting to meet affected unions and disgruntled civil servants. He therefore formally ordered Dlamini to convene urgent consultative meetings with the umbrella Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), the Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA) and other affected unions to resolve differences resulting from the ban. Nkambule upheld the ban in the interim, however, saying Dlamini was within his legal rights to curtail events or activities that gave voice to party political views. Party politics was banned by royal decree, in the King's Proclamation Act of April 1973, when Swaziland was established as an absolute monarchy. Dlamini banned union meetings last month following indications that Swaziland's unions had agreed to provide a public platform for the kingdom's banned political parties and pro-democracy activists. An estimated 2,000 unionists, political protestors and students defied the ban by crossing the border into South Africa's neighbouring province of Mpumalanga, where they drafted the Nelspruit Declaration demanding fundamental political reform. The Declaration, which calls for King Mswati III to repeal the 1973 ban on party politics and demands urgent labour law reforms, sparked widespread anti-monarchist protests and a corresponding police clampdown. Dlamini successfully applied for an urgent Industrial Court interdict against a series of threatened labour strikes two weeks ago, but was forced on Wednesday to publicly defend his ban on meetings when SFTU, SNAT and SNA lodged a joint suit contending the ban was illegal. The unions argued Dlamini was a royal appointee and could therefore not invoke the 1963 Public Order Act he used to ban union meetings. The act stipulates that only an administrative officer or policeman could prevent public gatherings if they feared a breach of public peace. The unions therefore urged Nkambule to interdict both Dlamini and Swaziland police commissioner, Edgar Hillary, from interfering in future labour union meetings or rallies. Nkambule rejected the application, noting that Ngwane National Liberation Congress (NNLC) leader Obed Dlamini and People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) president Mario Masuku both addressed a SNA rally about political matters on October 20. Both organisations were, he said, banned political parties who broke existing Swazi law by publicly discussing party politics. Government and the unions are meanwhile gearing up for their next confrontation, when SFTU and its 21 affiliates and South Africa's largest trade federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) blockade the kingdom's international border entry points for three days starting November 29.
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