The Swaziland Government has reportedly ordered all tertiary colleges and the university in the kingdom to be closed indefinitely, following demonstrations and class boycotts by students.
The recently-formed Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) has been organising students across the kingdom to protest against the government.
Students have specific demands about the level of scholarships they receive and a move by the government to cut back on scholarships.
They also have more general demands calling for democracy in Swaziland which is ruled by King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
In a press statement earlier this week SNUS made no secret of its wishes to see the government overthrown. This has put students on a collision course with other ‘progressive’ groups in the kingdom that want democratic reform but fall short of calling for government overthrow.
Today (2 February 2010), students marched for the second day in what eyewitnesses call ‘unprecedented’ numbers. They hoped to deliver a petition to Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister.
Every tertiary institution in Swaziland was represented at the march, but the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported that yesterday many students from Nazarene college did not join the march because of fear of victimisation by their school.
Regarding the press statement issued by Mr. Maxwell Dlamini-SNUS Organising Secretary- whereby he states that CANGO Director refused to pay for transport for students yet had made undertaking to do so and latter stated that "they will not support their (students) struggles because ‘we (students) want to overthrow the state’.
The CANGO Director as you will note on the paragraph that follows never made an undertaking to support this event. We would like to express our dismay at this unfortunate statement which is malicious and is meant to tarnish the image of CANGO.
The truth is that the CANGO Director met Mr. Bheki Khumalo just before the closure of offices on Friday the 29th January 2010. Mr Khumalo informed the Director that SNUS forwarded a request, which was received by the office on the 26th January 2010 and SNUS was appealing for response as the mass meeting for students was scheduled to be held on Saturday the 30th January 2010.
The Director informed Mr. Khumalo that that CANGO has no resources to support SNUS meeting, as all activities and budgets thereof for CANGO's financial year (March 31st 2010) were finalized. Mr. Khumalo promised to convey the message to the SNUS leadership and requested teh Director to communicate teh CANGO's position in writing.
We would like to be understood that we are an umbrella body for NGOs in Swaziland. We, like any other NGO, rely on external funding to pursue our work. Donors in this regard provide resources according to specific projects. It therefore follows that it is not possible to divert funds to activities not budgeted and agreed with our funders.
We call upon SNUS leadership to rebut this statement as it is devoid of any truth.
Here’s a curious news story from a small community in Arizona, USA, which casts a light on what some people overseas think of Swaziland.
It concerns a couple from Ahwatukeewho are leaving their home to set up an orphanage in Swaziland.
So far not so unusual. But the couple Kay and John West have absolutely no experience in running orphanages or working with children.
And the Wests have no real experience of Swaziland either: they spent three weeks in the kingdom in 2008.
Their local newspaper in Ahwatukee reports John saying, ‘Being there three weeks gives you a true perspective. We have so much here while there are people in Swaziland who have absolutely nothing, and yet they're grateful,’ he said.
So what’s going on? Here’s a clue – they say they have been told by ‘God’ they should do this.
I don’t know Kay and John West and maybe they’re a couple with good hearts, but they are not alone among people from developing countries who turn up in Swaziland with no relevant skills and think they can make a difference in the kingdom just by being there.
The impression the developed world gives is that Swaziland and its people are helpless and needy and all it takes to change this is an intervention from any ordinary Joe from America or wherever.
I wrote beforethat the news media play a crucial part in this. Newspapers in the developed countries rarely report what’s going on in Swaziland, instead they write about what local people in the area the newspapers serve are doing to help Swaziland and the kingdom is being portrayed as helpless and unable to take care of itself.
The impression given from these types of newspaper reports is that the ‘heroes’ of the story are whites of European descent lifting up the helpless Swazis - an image that is false.
The Wests have set up their own website to share ‘the love of the Lord with the people of Swaziland’.
Oh, and they’re asking for people to send them money to make it all happen.
The following is a press statement released on 31 January 2010 by the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS)
SNUS PRESS STATEMENT
For the first time in the history of this tiny, semi feudal, neo colonial, quasi capitalist kingdom, the students of Swaziland met under the umbrella organisation SWAZILAND NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS (SNUS) to discuss and deliberate issues affecting them. The meeting was held in Manzini. Students came from the all tertiary institutions of the country.
The issues that were discussed include the proposed draft scholarship policy which the undemocratic government of the king intend to make it law without engaging the students to make inputs as major stakeholders. Mswati’s government still fails to recognize the students as major stakeholders in the education sector, thus the continual sidelining of the students in the decision making process. The students therefore resolved to resist this draft scholarship policy as they were not involved in the decision making process.
Moreover the students are demanding an increase in their personal allowances. Their allowances have not increased since 1992 and they are currently receiving R462.00 per annum. (about 60 US dollars) This is an insult to the students of Swaziland if you look at the current economic situation of the country. The inflation rate has increased dramatically over the decade.
The student are also demanding that government should register their union and stop frustrating the registration process as this is a violation of human rights contained in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of Swaziland. We strongly believe that the students of Swaziland have a right to associate and to join or not to join any organisation.
The students then resolved to march to the appointed Prime Minister to deliver the petition with their grievances. They have resolved to render the government ungovernable and impossible for her to operate until their demands are met. They will not return to class until government meet their demands. They will flock the streets of the country from Monday (1 February 2010) up until everything is sorted.
The Students will be marching under the banner of SNUS in what is set to become a watershed moment in the history of student’s struggles. We however continue to appeal for financial support because the union is still handicapped financial especially because these struggles they are engaged in have been ‘disowned’ by some of the so called Non government organisations, particularly CANGO.
In the preparations for the student mass meeting held at Bosco skill centre on Saturday, attended by over 1000 students from all tertiary institutions (this massive turn out is despite the fact that SNUS’s stronghold, UNISWA, was closed). CANGO had promised to pay the buses that were used to ferry the students. When CANGO’s Director was approached on his pledged he said they would not support our struggles because ‘we want to overthrow the state’.
They said they won’t support people who are violent and fighting government. We were shocked at this level of political prostitution by CANGO particularly because in other ‘moderate’ sessions they would patronise us about how much support they would give to the students. To this end we find ourselves currently running helter skater trying to get money to pay for the buses and other costs we incurred organising the meeting and the subsequent marches.
Statement issued by SNUS Organising Secretary Maxwell Dlamini
