Dozens arrested ahead of Swazi protest

Up to 50 people were arrested on Monday in Swaziland, the day before a planned protest to call attention to human rights abuses in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, activists said.

The pro-democracy activists were arrested at the Tum’s George Hotel in the city of Manzini, according to South Africa’s Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), funded by financier George Soros.

“We demand their immediate and unconditional release by the Swazi regime, which is once again displaying is brutal opposition to any democratic opposition,” Cosatu said in a statement.

The activists included Swazi labour leaders as well as Cosatu officials who went to the tiny mountain kingdom to support the protest slated for Tuesday, it said.

“The authorities in Swaziland have become more and more repressive and intolerant in recent years and this is yet another example of the police acting with impunity and outside the rule of law,” OSISA executive director Sisonke Msimang said.

“It is time that the world understood what kind of regime runs Swaziland. It is a regime that has no respect for human rights, no respect for the rule of law and no respect for democracy,” Msimang added.

The arrests came ahead of protests planned in Swaziland and other countries, meant to highlight the absolute rule of King Mswati III, who governs by decree.

Political organisations have been outlawed since 1973 in the impoverished Southern African country, which is known for the lavish lifestyles of the 42-year-old king and his 13 wives.