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Manzini - A general strike in Swaziland against the country's absolute monarchy appeared to fizzle out on Wednesday but unionists said they would continue their struggle against royal rule.
Unionists called the nationwide strike for Tuesday and Wednesday to protest a new constitution critics say will cement the royal powers of King Mswati III, an absolute monarch whose big-spending ways contrast sharply with his subjects' poverty.
But post offices which were closed on Tuesday reopened on Wednesday and most people appeared to show up for work.
"People who are going to work have been threatened by their employers," Jan Sithole, the secretary-general of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), told Reuters.
Most employers operate on a "no work, no pay" basis, meaning strike partricipants forego their wages and political observers say the union movement has not persuaded many Swazis that it is positioned to bring about real change in the country.
Witnesses said only about 100 activists marched in the commercial hub of Manzini under the watchful eyes of heavily-armed security forces.
"Our people didn't show up. This is a disappointment but the battle continues," SFTU activist Paul Nxumalo told Reuters.
Political parties are banned in the landlocked former British colony sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique.
The ban means opposition to the monarchy is often channelled through trade unions which have called similar strikes periodically over the past few years - with limited effect.
While 80 000 workers are affiliated with SFTU unions, increasingly few heed strike calls passed by a small number of union leaders.
Supporters of Mswati say many in Swaziland's deeply traditional society - comprised mostly of rural peasants with no union affiliation - favour an absolute monarchy.
Mswati, 36, has a dozen wives and fiancees, some chosen from the traditional annual "reed dance" of thousands of bare-breasted maidens, and his lavish spending on cars and luxury homes has come under growing domestic and international criticism.
DaimlerChrysler confirmed on Wednesday that Mswati was the sole owner in southern Africa of a Maybach 62, one of the world's most expensive cars with price tag of over $600 000.
Most of his roughly one million subjects live in poverty and must contend with food shortages and the world's highest per capita rate of HIV/Aids.
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