SWAZILAND UDF CONGRESS MEETS

The Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) has assembled to hold an eagerly awaited congress. The congress was held, amongst other things, to ensure that a new leadership was in place to initiate a capacity-building project with Danish organisation Africa Contact.

The Stiffkitten blog reports that the delay in holding the congress was due mainly to internal disagreements and the recent formation of a united labour movement, and members of the executive now expressed hope that the newly founded labour movement would be the 'main vehicle of the SUDF'.

Other members of the democratic movement welcomed the merger as a step forward in the struggle for democracy in Swaziland. A representative of the Swazi Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice called it ‘a giant leap forward in as far as unifying the trade union fraternity in the country is concerned’, and further stated that ‘no earthly force can stand in the way of unity’.

To read more, click here.

SWAZI FREEDOM MOVEMENT HISTORY

Are PUDEMO and the NNLC ready to join hands?

A post on the Stiffkitten blog

For a long time the democratic movement in Swaziland has been split along party lines – between the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) and the People’s Democratic Movement (PUDEMO). And while political pluralism is indispensable in any democracy, in a dictatorship such as Swaziland political pluralism in the democratic opposition must, to a degree anyway, give way to unity regarding overall themes of democratisation and financial redistribution. The formation of the Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) in 2008 was an attempt to cast the differences of the political parties aside and form a coalition of all the democratic forces in Swaziland, especially since the differences between the NNLC and PUDEMO are relatively minor compared to the issues both parties have towards King Mswati III’s regime. Both the NNLC and PUDEMO are left wing, although the NNLC is more moderately so than PUDEMO which is strategically more revolutionary and militant. The NNLC withdrew from the SUDF, however, precisely because it believed that fringe segments of PUDEMO were too militant and “violent” and because it felt its queries to the SUDF leadership regarding this were not taken seriously although it was clear that there were internal disagreements as whether to leave the SUDF in the first place. “Within the SUDF, we agree on the political issues but disagree on the strategy”, as the NNLC's secretary general Thami Hlatshwayo stated to the author of this article. At a recent meeting, however, it was announced that the NNLC had rejoined the SUDF. Solving what Swaziland Democracy Campaign spokesperson Sikelela Dlamini has termed “the ongoing bickering within the ranks of the pro-democracy movement” in the August edition of The Nation magazine is therefore now to be “put to the test”.

To fully understand the dynamics of Swazi politics, it is important to look at the history of both parties and the relation of this history to various important events in the political history Swaziland.

To read the full article, click here.

WHERE NOW FOR THE SUDF?

Where does the Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) go from here?

That’s the subject of Peter Kenworthy’s recent ‘stiffkitten’ blog.

He looks at the history of the SUDF and some of the challenges it faces today (lack of clear political vision, issues of leadership, personal ambition and lack of communication, a lack of discipline and decent behaviour within the democratic movement).

But there are also reasons to be positive for the future, since the SUDF is one of the few organisations that seriously and consistently advocates democracy in the kingdom.

Kenworthy interviewed the following people between 30 August and 5 September 2010 for his article: Mario Masuku, PUDEMO president; Wandile Dludlu, SWAYOCO president; Jan Sithole, former SFTU secretary-general; Bheki Makhubu, The Nation editor; Morten Nielsen, Africa Contact; Mduduzi Gina, SFTU secretary-general; Vincent Ncongwane, SUDF and SFL secretary-general; and a Street Vendors conference on 1 September.

To read the full article click here.

NORWAY TO FIGHT FOR SWAZI FREEDOM

Norway has pledged to work for democracy in Swaziland and compares the fight for freedom in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, to its role in the fight against apartheid in neighboring South Africa.

There is a large number of human rights issues in Swaziland, including the harassing and jailing of pro-democracy activists. Pro-democracy activists say a monarchy is ill-equipped to combat the poverty and AIDS that trouble the kingdom of 1 million wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.

At a Norwegian-sponsored meeting held in South Africa yesterday (11 August 2010) and featuring diplomats and Swazi pro-democracy groups, Norwegian Ambassador Tor Christian Hildan said his government was not alone in noting ‘with growing concern the difficult situation regarding human rights, freedom of speech’ in Swaziland.

For further details of the meeting, click here.

HISTORY AND POLITICS IN SWAZILAND

This is taken from Peter Kenworthy’s Stiffkitten blogsite, 7 August 2010.

Swaziland, the last autocratic monarchy in Africa, is a country in an almost constant state of crisis. The repeated human rights violations and harassment of the Swazi democracy movement by the Swazi regime, the huge inequalities between a small Swazi elite and the poor majority, and an Aids prevalence rate of over 40% should make newspapers and governments around the world react. In recent months the house of the Swaziland United Democratic Front National Organising Secretary has been bombed, maybe by the Swazi police; the President of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions has has his house searched by no less than 12 police officers; the leader of the largest opposition party, PUDEMO, Mario Masuku has been charged with acts of terrorism for speaking his mind and is more or less constantly harassed by police; student leader Pius Vilakati has gone missing after having been attempted abducted by police; and human rights activist and PUDEMO member Sipho Jele died in police custody, probably at the hands of the police.

But these stories are rarely if ever covered by the foreign media or condemned by world leaders or governments and the historic background to Swaziland's present situation is more or less unknown.

This article will therefore give a brief historical overview of Swaziland and comment on the situation.

To read the full article click here.