Swaziland counts cost of oppressive regime
| As SA’s economic woes ripple out, one of its smaller neighbours contends with an added challenge
THE slowdown in the South African economy, the biggest in the region, is being amplified in smaller neighbours such as Swaziland.
Complicating the landlocked country’s problems is its exclusion from the US’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, which gives preferential trade benefits to African countries.
Swaziland was kicked out of Agoa this year due to transgressions related, in particular, to workers’ rights.
Swazi government officials are adamant that the nation will meet its Agoa commitments and be allowed back in, but labour says it is nowhere near meeting the criteria to regain a place at the negotiating table with the US.
Without the benefits of the act, which Swaziland had enjoyed since 2001, the prospects for one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies make for grim reading.
Agoa comes up for renewal at the end of this month, when a new version of the act could be adopted by the US Congress.
The criteria for inclusion in Agoa involve respect for the rule of law, poverty reduction, combating corruption, respect for worker rights and human rights, child labour protection and market openness.
Last year, the US said it had engaged for years with Swaziland on concerns about worker rights, but Swaziland did not comply and failed to make continual progress to protect freedom of association and the right to organise.
It also used security forces and arbitrary arrests to stifle peaceful demonstrations, and did not recognise labour and employer federations.
“From where we sit it is clear we are nowhere near,” said Vincent Ncongwane, secretary-general of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland.
Under the act, Swaziland aver- aged trade of about $100-million (R1.3-billion) a year with the US, mostly in textiles.
Manufacturing is a mainstay of the Swazi economy and contributed 41.2% to its GDP in 2013, according to data compiled by Good Governance Africa.
Its GDP is expected to grow by 1.8% next year, compared to 1.9% this year.
Its growth is likely to decline to 1.6% in 2017 and is expected to stay at that level for three years thereafter.
The country’s exclusion from Agoa is already having a harmful effect.
For example, many women who were previously employed in the textile industry are said to be engaging in activities such as prostitution to make a living.
“There are no employment opportunities in rural areas,” Ncongwane said.
“There hasn’t been absorption within the industrial sector . . . because there’s not much business opening up.
“We’ve lost over 3 000 jobs, and that for us is quite hardhitting, given that one person takes care of about eight to 10 people, and also the chances of getting any other employment are very slim.”
Bonisiwe Ntando, CEO of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce, said there had been discussions with the government on how to resolve some of the issues that got the country excluded from the act.
“We were told we could still have an opportunity to reapply,” she said.
“The problems mainly are issues that have got to do with freedom of association, freedom of assembly, those kind of things.”
Ntando said an agreement had been concluded over the code of good practice that regulates how employees engage in industrial action.
“I think the government is now in the process of promul- gating it into a legal instrument. So there has been progress.
“It may not be seen as big progress where other people are sitting, but where we are sitting, we are seeing the progress.”
She added: “One of the major issues was an issue on the registration of the [trade union] federation, which has already been done now.”
But despite government overtures, Ncongwane said, there were still tensions in its relationship with labour.
“It is difficult to say we are getting anything much going. The only thing that has kept the government trying to do something is the fact that they have to report to the governing body of the ILO [International Labour Organisation] in November, to give confidence to the EU that they are trying to up their game as regards human rights and worker rights,” he said.
“We understand that there is an investor road map programme.
“We are in the dark as to how far that is going.”
The impact of a struggling global sugar market has not yet been felt by Swaziland’s sugar industry, but Ncongwane said about 4 000 jobs in that sector could be threatened.
Global sugar prices have been falling because of a supply glut.
“I have been made to understand that if we do lose the sugar market, we lose in excess of 4 000 jobs.
“That is going to hit hard on government revenue. [Workers in the sugar industry] are better paid,” he said, and job losses in that sector would have an impact on tax revenues.
Ncongwane said the federation was awaiting the government’s response to ILO recommendations with regard to a review of the country’s security measures.
Swazi activists are challenging the Suppression of Terror-
All we are demanding is to have a constitutional monarch
ism Act, which is said to undermine human rights, in the country’s constitutional court.
“The response of the regime to that will tell us where we are going,” he said.
There is also an initiative by the Commonwealth to get the government and dissenting organisations to talk about political change.
“All we are demanding is to have a constitutional monarch and to have political parties be able to represent their members in parliament.
“That is all we are demanding,” Ncongwane said. Comment on this: write to letters@businesstimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za