Despite widespread speculation in the local press, the Swaziland government has not officially confirmed that King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has agreed to meet with pro-democracy groups which he has long shunned.

Initial reports said the meeting, which is being brokered by the Commonwealth, was to have taken place last week. Former Malawian president Bakili Muluzi, Special Commonwealth Envoy to Swaziland, proposed the meeting to government to forestall international economic sanctions against the country.

“There has been pressure from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in regard to amending the Suppression of Terrorism Act and other Laws,” Mario Masuku, president of the outlawed political party People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), told a Danish human rights group last week.

“There has been pressure from the European Union (EU), which is a big trading partner and gives substantial amounts of money to Swaziland and who are not happy about the human rights situation in the country,” he added.

Political parties are banned and PUDEMO, as the largest opposition group, has been declared a terrorist organisation under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. Masuku himself faces terrorism charges for uttering the name of PUDEMO at a Worker’s Day Rally. The US suspended Swaziland’s trade privileges at the beginning of 2015 because of the government’s unwillingness to revisit the terror law and other legislation used to suppress pro-democracy groups.

Masuku will not be among the 15 political progressives who will meet with Mswati if the proposed dialogue occurs. Other PUDEMO members will be among the delegation being assembled by the human rights NGO Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SACCCO).

Government is downplaying the international pressure on Mswati to meet with the political reformers, who seek a constitutional monarchy for the country. Government officials are asserting that any Swazi can meet the king. Traditional authorities have warned pro-democracy groups not to make demands of Mswati, but PUDEMO is pushing for a pre-condition that the meeting be followed by an action plan toward actual political reform.

“Government loves ‘dialogue’ because it can say it has listened to the people and claim Swaziland is a ‘democracy’ because people can express their views,” said a PUDEMO member who preferred anonymity because his party is officially illegal.

“Firstly, what people are allowed to say is very restricted in the presence of authorities and never under Mswati has ‘dialogue’ ever led to any change,” he added.

A resolution by the EU Parliament in August that Swaziland’s trade privileges should be reviewed in light of Swaziland’s lack of progress on democratisation and human rights signalled that the EU, like the Commonwealth, will be satisfied only with substantial political negotiations between the palace and pro-democracy groups that result in concrete change.

The Johannesburg-based political-activism group Civicus joined the chorus of human rights groups calling for greater freedoms in Swaziland last week when it issued an appeal to government to allow greater press freedom.

In conjunction with the Swazi group Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland (LHRS), Civicus expressed concerns about threats and restrictions placed on human rights defenders and government’s use of punitive colonial-era laws against pro-democracy demonstrators and Mswati’s critics.