Swaziland – 27 July 2014

U.S. Backs Convicted Swazi Journalists
The US State Department has joined the growing chorus of outrage at the High Court conviction of an editor and a human rights lawyer in Swaziland for publishing articles critical of the kingdom’s judiciary.
In a statement the State Department said, ‘The United States is deeply concerned by the convictions of human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and magazine editor Bheki Makhubu for contempt of court in the Kingdom of Swaziland.’ allAfrica

Support for Convicted Journalists
Support grows throughout the world for the two journalists in Swaziland who were convicted of contempt of court and may face up to 10 years in jail.
Bheki Makhubu, editor of the Nation magazine and Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer who contributes to the small-circulation monthly journal, wrote and published articles critical of the Swazi judiciary and in particular the Swaziland Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. allAfrica

EU MARKET CAN SAVE 17 000 TEXTILE JOBS
MBABANE – Government and the textile companies are close to retaining the about 17 000 jobs threatened by the AGOA benefits loss. AGOA is the African Growth Opportunity Act.
This is highly possible more so because, the kingdom, alongside with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa initialled the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The initialling of the EPA marked a significant milestone in the long and protracted negotiations that have taken 12 years with the European Union (EU). The Times