COSATU condemns arrest of PUDEMO President

BY NEWSTEAM
22 MAY 2010

Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned the arrest of Mario Masuku, President of PUDEMO, the Swaziland pro-democracy movement.

This follows his arrest this morning by Swazi Royal police after attending a funeral, at which there was a battalion of hundreds of police, taking notes of what speakers were saying, and recording events on a digital video camera.

A Pudemo official says as mourners left, they were stopped at a police road block.

Mario Masuku was ordered to get into a police van which took him a police station.

Many of his comrades followed the police van and waited outside the station.

They were told that he had allegedly committed a crime under the Terrorism Act by shouting Viva PUDEMO! at the funeral.

However he was later released, after being told the police would serve him with papers ordering him to appear in court.

COSATU congratulated the comrades picketing at the police station.

The federation says it was their presence that persuaded the police to release their leader.

“This incident is further evidence of the suppression of democracy and human rights by the Swazi monarchist regime. The fact that shouting a slogan in support of a political party is an ‘offence’ says a great deal about the way this dictatorship refuses to tolerate normal political activity,” says COSATU’s Patrick Craven.

The People's United Democratic Movement began at the University of Swaziland in 1983.