AS IT HAPPENED | eSwatini unrest: Several people killed

eSwatini anti-monarchy riots have turned deadly after several people were killed and injured in overnight clashes with police.  Get the latest updates as the story unfolds. 

 

eSwatini pro-democracy activists say several people were killed and injured in overnight clashes with police, the latest bout of unrest in days of protests rocking Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Pro-democracy activists in Eswatini said on Wednesday several people were killed and injured in overnight clashes with police, the latest bout of unrest in days of protests rocking Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

Demonstrations flared on Monday in the tiny and usually stable landlocked kingdom previously known as Swaziland, with protesters taking to the streets in the two capitals Manzini and Mbabane to demand political reform.

The government has deployed soldiers to quell the angered crowds, which blocked traffic and looted shops, and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew – citing rising coronavirus cases.

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A tweet by Africa facts says soldiers are going house to house assaulting and arresting pro-democracy supporters. 

Swazi News is reporting that eSwatini Beverages where King Mswati owns shares has been burnt by protesters, as tension escalates Tension is escalating in this tiny Kingdom.

A report by SABC says the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) has called on the army and police of eSwatini not to commit acts of violence and intimidation against the people of that country.

Watch the interview below (Courtesy SABC) 

Social media users are tweeting that gunshots were heard the whole night, while the internet remained shut down.

BBC reports that a member of parliament behind the pro-democracy protests in Eswatini has called on regional bodies and the international community to help restore peace in the country.

“I really do not have faith either in the current government led by the acting prime minister and everybody because even the king has been silent for all these days though he sees people are dying and being hurt on the streets,” Mduduzi Similani was quoted as saying.

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Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has expressed its solidarity with the people of eSwatini, saying it condemns the “heavy-handedness of eSwatini police and military who are firing live ammunition against defenceless and unarmed civilians.

“…We urge restraint on the part of eSwatini security forces and appeal to eSwatini government to heed the people’s demand for a democratic country”.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition has called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to act on the conflict in eSwatini. In a statement, the coalition said SADC must “urgently intervene in bringing peace and stability to eSwatini.

“It is our view that the conflict in eSwatini stems from failure to hold tenets of democracy and this is evidenced by the fact that since 1973, eSwatini has been under an absolute monarch and political parties remain banned”.

Read a statement below by the acting prime minister of eSwatini, Themba Masuku, in which he addressed the nation, calling for calm.

With unfettered political power over his 1.3 million people and ruling by decree, the king is Africa’s only absolute monarch and one of the few remaining in the world.

Crowned in 1986 when he was just 18, the king has 15 wives and has come under fire for his lavish spending while most inhabitants live below the poverty line.

In 2019, the country was rocked by a series of strikes by civil servants who accused the monarch of draining public coffers at the expense of his subjects.

Eswatini is “at a crucial point in the long struggle to get rid of the autocratic monarchy”, the country’s communist party said in a statement.

“The people… have had enough. This is the tipping point.”

Neighbouring South Africa’s left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party meanwhile called on Eswatini to “intensify militant struggles” against the “despotic” and “dictatorial” royal family.

Wandile Dludlu, secretary general of the People’s United Democratic Movement, said King Mswati III “unleashed armed soldiers and police on unarmed civilians” on Monday.

More than 250 protesters have been injured with gun wounds, broken bones and shock, he said.

Masuku had earlier dismissed media reports claiming the king had fled as “false”.

ALSO READ |King Mswati III ‘hasn’t fled the country’, govt says

“We are working around the clock to ensure that the situation is normalised,” he said, adding that nothing could be achieved “in an environment of anarchy”.

The government last week banned protests, with national police commissioner William Dlamini warning that officers would be “zero-tolerant” of breaches of the ban.

The kingdom has traditionally stifled dissent and demonstrations, including by pro-democracy trade unions.

“Yesterday was the worst night ever, where a young man was shot point-blank by the army, and some are in hospital as we speak,” Lukhele charged.

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku described the unrest as “alarming and upsetting”.

“We have witnessed violence in several parts of the country perpetuated by an unruly crowd where people have been attacked, property destroyed,” he said in a statement.

“Security forces are on the ground to maintain law and order,” he added.

Witnesses in the two capitals Manzini and Mbabane reported seeing soldiers patrolling the streets where protesters have been burning tyres and stoning cars.

A Manzini resident told AFP she and colleagues were holed up in the restaurant where they worked and were unable to return home.

“Helicopters are extinguishing the fires lit on the roads,” she said, asking not be named.

People had been looting a furniture store and on Monday some shops were burned down, she said.

Shops were ransacked and torched overnight in Matsapha, an industrial hub on the western edge of Manzini, according to several sources.

“The military is on the streets,” Lucky Lukhele, spokesperson for the pro-democracy grouping Swaziland Solidarity Network, told AFP.

Manzini – Police clashed with demonstrators in Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, on Tuesday night despite a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a military deployment to quell a spate of pro-democracy protests.

Demonstrations are rare in Eswatini, a small landlocked state commonly known as Swaziland.

ALSO READ | ESwatini imposes curfew, as military quell pro-democracy riots

Political parties are legally banned, but recent weeks have seen violent anti-monarchy demonstrations in parts of the country, with the opposition reporting scores of people injured, many hospitalised.

“The confrontation is not going to end soon,” resident Gugu Dlamini told AFP from the administrative capital Manzini.

“Even after curfew you can still hear gunshots between youths and police in our neighbourhood,” she said.

The government imposed an 18:00 to 05:00 curfew earlier on Tuesday, citing rising coronavirus cases.

Internet access has also been cut, according to an AFP reporter.

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Compiled by Betha Madhomu 

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