STUDENTS DEFY SWAZI POLICE

The following message was sent to member of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) Facebook site on Monday (24 January 2011). It concerns harassment by the Swazi Police of activists in the student movement.

Brave Swazi Students defy Royal Swaziland Police

Comrades and friends of the Swaziland Revolution are informed that the students of Swaziland now live in fear of their lives as the Royal regime of Swaziland keeps harassing the students of Swaziland, especially those affiliated under the Swaziland National Union of Students [SNUS].

It all began on the day the youth of Swaziland, led by the Swaziland Youth Congress [SWAYOCO], were on their way to attend the World Festival for Youth and Students,held in South Africa. The bus in which they were travelling in had to be stopped a number of times by the Royal Police of Swaziland and subjected to arbitrary search whilst other vehicles were allowed to pass without any hassle. This happened on the 12th of December, 2010. When they reached the Ngwenya [Oshoek] border post the Royal Swaziland Police recorded their names on a separate sheet of paper, an act which is never done normally.



Problems continued when they came back from the festival. After some rigorous search on the students by the Royal Police two students were placed aside by the police. These are Comrade Thembela Ngcamphala and the Deputy Secretary General [DSG] of SNUS, Comrade Samkelo Ginindza. According to Ngcamphala ‘upon our arrival at Ngwenya (Oshoek) border post on the morning of Wednesday 22 December, 2010, the Swazi delegation was subjected to rigorous search by the Royal Swaziland Police for any material they felt was not allowed into Swaziland. I was in possession of the daily publications of the World Festival for Youth and Students. I also had the Festival and the World Declaration documents in my possession. I was taken aside together with Comrade Samkelo and we were led to a Royal police officer known as ‘Dube’ where they confiscated our documents on democracy and took our passport numbers and phone numbers’. They were both informed that police needed time to go over the documents and that they would be called later. On Tuesday 28 December 2010 the two Comrades received a call from Dube, the police officer, ordering them that they appear at the Police Regional Head Quarters in Mbabane on Thursday 30 December 2010.



Owing to the revolutionary spirit that these two comrades have, they, after consultation with leaders of SWAYOCO, decided to defy the Royal Police. This dealt an embarrassing blow to the Royal police since they had ordered these two Comrades to leave holidays and report to them. This prompted the same Dube to call the two Comrades on January 3, 2011, and threaten them with death for defying the police. ‘Dube posed some threats stating that they were going to deal with me, even if I can switch off my phone for good and that they had got all the gadgets to do that. He then ordered me to call them, but I continued to defy them. I am not answerable to the police’, stressed Comrade Thembela. The Royal police continue intimidating the two students up to this far.



It is not the first time that police have harassed progressive students of Swaziland. Pius Vilakati, a former President of the Student Movement in Swaziland, is currently in exile. He escaped Swaziland following similar threats by the Royal Swaziland Police, after he was said to have made ‘terrorist statements’ during the memorial service of Sipho Jele who himself had been murdered by the Royal police.

Comrade Thembela is one of the student leaders that were abducted together with Comrade Pius on the 10th of February, 2010. Comrade Thembela was later dumped about 60 kilometres East of Swaziland after undergoing some torture in the forests there that same day.



To this day the two Comrades receive threats from the Royal police and yet they remain defiant. SNUS calls for the continued support of the two Comrades from all democracy-loving people in Swaziland and around the world.

SWAZI YOUTH STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

More than 100 young people from Swaziland went to the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students to report on the struggle against the monarchy of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

And they said they fear possible arrest when they return to Swaziland, because they attended the festival, The Militant newspaper, New York, reports.

More than 200 delegates attended a workshop about that fight for democracy in Swaziland at the festival in Pretoria, South Africa,

Militant reports, Pius Vilakati, 28, a student who led several marches protesting government cuts in education earlier this year, described how the police told him to ‘stop these demonstrations and threatened me’.

Vilakati told the story of Sipho Jele, who had been arrested along with others at a May Day demonstration for wearing T-shirts with the acronym PUDEMO.

The Peoples United Democratic Movement, the main opposition group in Swaziland, is banned. Jele died in police custody.

Shortly after speaking at the funeral for Jele, Vilakati learned police planned to arrest him and he managed to escape to South Africa.

Students from South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Mozambique joined the discussion on how to support the fight for democratic rights in Swaziland. Many said they had not known of the repressive conditions in the kingdom.

POLICE TORTURE STUDENT LEADER

A prominent student leader in Swaziland was tortured by Swazi police and told if he was ever seen again at a political demonstration he would be shot in cold blood.

Pius Vilakati, of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), talked for the first time publicly about his ordeal. Police put a ‘Shoprite’ plastic shopping bag over his head and held it tight until he was close to suffocating.

Vilakati, who was president of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) Student Representative Council, spoke at a commemoration for the 20^th anniversary of Black Wednesday, a time when armed troops and police invaded the UNISWA campus and attacked defenceless students who were peacefully protesting.

Vilakati and other student leaders were abducted by police in February 2010 after holding a mass demonstration and taken to Manzini police headquarters where cops ‘hurled unspeakable insults at us for planning a demonstration against the government’.

Vilakati said the police were ordered by their superiors to ‘be as vicious as possible’.

Vilakati said, ‘A shiver went down my spine when I heard such words. I was later transported to Bhunya police station where things got worse. The police took a simple plastic (yes, plastic) bag. I still remember vividly that it was a SHOPRITE branded plastic. They covered my face with it many times, only giving me a few (but not more than two) seconds to breathe between intervals.

‘It was one of the most horrible days of my life. I don’t know whether this is the famous “tubing” style. As they were suffocating me they were telling me to desist from trying to make the country ungovernable. They would continuously tell me that Swaziland is the king’s country and not a people’s country as I used to say.’

Later Vilakati was transported back to Manzini where he met the ‘top brass’.

He said, ‘Amongst such dangerous men was a man who introduced himself to me as the assistant regional commander. After a very long talk about me and the students trying to “topple the government” he told me straight in the eye that if I could ever be spotted in any demonstration or political gathering they would not hesitate to shoot and kill me.’

Vilakati was not cowed by the threat and in May 2010 he spoke at the funeral of Sipho Jele, an activist in the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), who had died in police custody after being arrested for wearing a PUDEMO T-shirt.

Vilakati said, ‘I had to hide myself in the van which was carrying the coffin after the memorial service. Later in the night I simply had to escape from Swaziland. I had received messages that the police did not just want to arrest me but simply to kill me.

‘The PUDEMO leadership told me that they could not risk the death of another comrade in the hands of the police. I simply obliged on such a revolutionary call and escaped Swaziland.

‘I am currently well looked after by Swaziland's revolutionary party, PUDEMO, and I now have even more fire and the zeal to fight for democracy in Swaziland, in our lifetime.'

He told his audience, ‘I know that the UNISWA administration uses my name as an example to discourage you from defending your rights. I know that they claim I lost my education because of my inclinations. Well, they must be ashamed of themselves because I am continuing with my studies here [South Africa] and in a short while I will be in possession of my LLB [law] Degree. In fact it will be even better than the one I would have acquired at UNISWA. So, if the administration tells you that I have lost on my education please let them be aware of such information.’

The full text of Vilakati's speech, which includes an explanation of why he is a PUDEMO member and his call for students and progressives to show solidarity in the fight for democracy in Swaziland, was posted to members of the SNUS Facebook site yesterday (10 November 2010).

To read the full speech, click here.

20 YEARS ON: REPRESSION REMAINS

Not much has changed for students in Swaziland since the day 20 years ago this Sunday (14 November 2010) that armed troops and police invaded the University of Swaziland to brutally suppress a peaceful student demonstration.

In the present day, the main progressive student organisation in Swaziland, the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), states that there is political repression in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and student leaders are being targeted.

‘We still have an undemocratic government and a military state, [and] the oppression, exploitation and repression of the students and the population at large has reached new greater heights.’

In a statement SNUS said, ‘A number of students leaders have been forced out of the country's institution of higher learning, eg Wandile Dludlu (former president of the Swaziland national union of students and chairperson of Uniswa, Kwaluseni Campus,2005-2006), Bhekie Khumalo (former president of Swaziland College of Technology 2008-2009 and the Swaziland National Union of Students (2009-2010), while others has been forced out of the country, the latest victim being the former president of Uniswa (2009- 2010) and human right activist Pius Vilakati who was forced to leave his studies at the university with one paper left for him to finish his studies.

‘He was being sought by the military police for making a speech on behalf of the students in a funeral of a worker and human right activist [Sipho Jele] who died in police custody for wearing a T-shirt of one of banned political groups.’

SNUS said, ‘All this victimisation, harassment and physical assault of our leaders will not dampen our spirits in a quest for a better country but it will fuel our struggle for democracy and sound education system.’

On 14 November 1990, the Swazi government dispatched armed police and military units to the Uniswa campus to disperse peaceful boycotting students. It was a crackdown of unprecedented violence in the history of the university. In the ensuing melee several students were crippled for life, hundreds injured and one woman successfully sued the government for the loss of an eye.

The students were boycotting classes over a number of issues, including the poor quality of food provided in residence to extremely low allowances and lack of faculty lectures. Among their demands was that a student and lecturer who were members of the banned political organisation, PUDEMO, and who had been charged and acquitted of high treason, should be reinstated at the university.

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.