Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) today stand in solidarity with the people of Swaziland, and call on the UK Government and international institutions to support their call for basic rights and a civic dialogue.
June 2025 marks four years since the 2021 massacre, when unarmed citizens took to the streets in peaceful protest to deliver petitions demanding democratic reform - and were met with live ammunition, tear gas and gunned down in their hundreds.
What followed was a campaign of brutal repression - silencing civil society and creating an environment of fear and surveillance. Trade unionists, journalists and human rights defenders have been forced into exile, or faced harassment, threats and intimation simply for exercising their most basic rights: freedom of expression, association and peaceful protest.
ACTSA and ITF support the call by Swazi civil society organisations – including TUCOSWA, the Swaziland Massacre Victims and Survivors Association (SWAVISA) and Multi-stakeholder Forum – for the following urgent actions:
- Establish independent mechanisms to investigate and deliver justice for the 2021 massacre – both for the victims slaughtered by government forces and those left with life-changing injuries.
- Launch an independent investigation into the assassination of Thulani Maseko, prominent human rights lawyer and co-chair of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum, who was murdered in January 2023.
- Ensure that that the UK Government raises the crisis in Eswatini including in the UN and the Commonwealth, and presses for action on the continued deterioration of human rights and democracy in Swaziland.
- Call on the new Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Shirley Botchwey, to initiate a formal review of Eswatini’s membership in light of its failure to meet the values set out in Commonwealth Charter, including democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Eswatini ranks among the 10 worst countries in the world for workers. Union leaders are regularly targeted, union meetings are banned, and freedom of the press is virtually non-existent.The state maintains total control over broadcast media, and any criticism of the monarchy is punishable by trial and heavy penalties, with journalists intimidated, monitored and censored.
As the late Thulani Maseko warned: “Swaziland is caught between hope and fear, trapped in a political system that ensures that the monarchy is supreme and that as a people Swazi’s cannot question the way the king governs the country.”
ITF President Paddy Crumlin said: “The ITF stands in unwavering solidarity with our comrades in Eswatini. The repression of working people, and the targeting of trade unionists like Sticks Nkambule, is an attack on democracy itself. The massacre of peaceful protesters in 2021, and the assassination of Thulani Maseko in 2023, are crimes that demand international justice and accountability.
No government that rules through fear, violence, and impunity should be given a free pass by the global community. It’s time for international institutions, including the Commonwealth, to stop looking the other way.”
ACTSA Director Tricia Sibbons said: “UK civil society and government must stand with Swazis as they seek the basic rights and freedoms that all humans deserve and have enshrined in international law. On the 4th anniversary of the 2021 massacre, we urge the UK and the Commonwealth to turn their attention to the spiralling human rights situation in Swaziland.”
Background:
Swaziland, or Eswatini, is Africa’s last absolute monarchy. The country has the world’s highest HIV prevalence, women experience systematic discrimination, and 63% of the population live below the poverty line. The monarch is seemingly unmoved by the poverty of the people and continues to build his vast wealth while crushing any dissenting voices. It is widely understood that any business in Swaziland must allocate shares to the monarch. The country has previously been ranked the least free country by the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, with women facing high rates of gender-based violence.
The country remains trapped in a long-running constitutional and political crisis dating back to 12 April 1973, when King Sobhuza II abrogated the 1968 independence constitution and assumed absolute control over the executive, legislature and judiciary. Executive power remains concentrated in the hands of the monarch, and Eswatini continues to be governed under an authoritarian system that denies democratic participation. Although regional leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe and Ketumile Masire pushed for democratic reform in the 1990s, the 2005 constitution entrenched royal supremacy behind a veneer of constitutionalism.
According to ITUC’s Global Rights Index 2025, Eswatini ranks among the 10 worst countries in the world for workers and the state of human rights and civil liberties continues to deteriorate. Authorities routinely ban union gatherings and union leaders are targeted by authorities. Sticks Nkambule, the General Secretary of the Swaziland Transport, Communication and Allied Workers Union (SWATCAWU), remains in exile following an attempt on his life in 2022.
In January 2023, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, chair of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum – a civic alliance for dialogue with the authorities - was assassinated at his home in front of his wife and children. His killing remains uninvestigated, despite international calls for an independent investigation, including by the UN expert commissioners on human rights.[1]
[1]The experts: Ms. Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Mr. Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; and Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.
