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Swaziland King Mswati III, is now threatening pro-democracy activists with torture now that tensions in sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy continue to grow. What kind of torture? Sipakatane the beating of people’s feet with spikes was used against protesters but later condemned by trade unions in the country after a week in which 50 protesters were arrested and several foreigners treated roughly and deported.

Sipakatane, also known as bastinado, involves using metal or wooden spikes to beat someone’s bare feet repeatedly, leaving them bleeding and potentially unable to walk.

Barnabas Dlamini, the Swaziland prime minister, was quoted in state media yesterday as saying the government would consider using it to crush dissent.

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 ‘Each person should mind the politics of his own country and not come here to meddle in our affairs, especially if that country has a lot of its own problems,’ he told the Times of Swaziland newspaper.

King Mswati III of Swaziland has been criticised for leading a lavish lifestyle while most of his subjects endure poverty. He has 13 wives. Swaziland has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection, with more than a quarter of those infected aged between 15 and 49.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said several South Africans had been deported from Swaziland prior to this week’s pro-democracy marches. They included Cosatu’s deputy international secretary, Zanele Matebula, who had been in a hotel with other activists. ‘Police stormed in and demanded to know who the South Africans were among us,’ he told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper. ‘There was a lot of pushing, shoving and screaming.’

Matebula was bundled into a police van with four other South Africans. ‘We were arrested and questioned for four hours,’ he said. ‘Then we were told to get our bags from the hotel, and they put us in a van and sped us to the border.’