Eswatini Debate
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Lord Lea of Crondall
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(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, democracy is one way, and all power to the people.
Lord Lea of Crondall (Non-Afl)
My Lords, I am very pleased to hear the Minister’s agreement to meeting the TUC and the international TUC because this is an excellent report. Does the Minister agree that, given our long history of close association with the people of what people of my generation used to call Swaziland—that is where we are talking about—this would be a good opportunity to encourage local participation in dialogue which could be the main road to a positive outcome?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, as it is the preference of the country, I will continue to refer to it as Eswatini. The engagement and the proposal that SADC has put forward are to ensure that all communities are represented. There is a tinkhundla system of government within Eswatini and we need to ensure that local representative voices are leveraged.