MASUKU HUMILIATED IN SWAZI JAIL

Mario Masuku, the president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), has told of how prison authorities set out to humiliate him and his visitors while he was on remand in jail on terrorism and sedition charges.

‘During visits, my relatives felt humiliated and intimidated as prison warders would look at and listen at our conversation from mouth to mouth for a whole fifteen minutes. I was supervised, averagely, by three officials.’

Writing in the Times Sunday, Masuku identifies the ‘torment, harassment and humiliation of my wife, Thembi’ at the hands of prison warders.

Masuku also highlights the grinding work that prison warders have to do. ‘For an example there are those in the lowest class who carry a bunch of keys, open and close the jail gates and doors with unending monotony. These are the sentries, the guards who are so helplessly voiceless and shamefully underpaid, who live in shared accommodation, some (as part of their duties) are locked in our cells overnight. They are not allowed to carry umbrellas (on rainy days), they patrol on hot or cold nights without shelter. And most importantly – they work on orders! They are taught and instructed to “take orders first, and complain later.”’

He goes on, ‘I was stripped naked and insulted by young boys in the name of a ‘search routine.’.

In prison, Masuku says, ‘I saw boys, juveniles, as young as nineteen housed together with older and more experienced individuals. I do not know what goes on inside the cells, but jails are the same anywhere and children should be separated from adults – irrespective of what they had done. Prisons are known to produce hard core criminals from innocent young people instead of correcting them.’

To read Masuku’s full article, click here.

Mario Masuku is president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) in Swaziland, a political formation banned in the kingdom ruled by King Mwsati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Masuku was on remand in jail from November 2008 to September 2009 on charges of terrorism and sedition. When he eventually appeared in court, the Swaziland High Court judge threw out the case after five hours of a trial expected to last several days. The judge called the prosecution case ‘hopeless.’

This article appeared in the Times Sunday (Swaziland) on 18 October 2009. It was the third in a series of articles by Masuku published by the Times Sunday, the only newspaper group in Swaziland’s free of direct government control.

SWAZI STATE ‘SPONSORS TERRORISM’

Mario Masuku, the president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement, has accused the Swaziland state of sponsoring terrorism.

Masuku, writing in the Times Sunday, says that ordinary Swazi people have to resort to extreme ways to combat the authoritarian state ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

‘The struggle that culminated to the brutal torture, beatings and arrests of comrades and innocent citizens has been a protracted one. It is a national democratic revolution that builds up from phase to phase and level to level and is characterized by the obtaining conditions.’

He goes on, ‘I fear and view with scorn a regime’s stance to a coercive self-censorship and in the case of the electronic media houses in the face of intimidation and state sponsored terrorism. I have learnt that the only thing a tolerant society cannot tolerate is intolerance. Independence of the media is the corner stone of a developing democracy, and anyone with a diverging view must not be uprooted or ostracized, but must be allowed to co-exist.’

Masuku also gives details of the circumstances of his arrest on trumped-up terrorism and sedition charges. He says he was ‘shoved into a dark, flea infested, dirty and smelly cell’.

Later, he spent the night ‘sleeping on the floor in a mosquito infested 3x3 metre cell with no window-pane-less.’

In maximum security prison he was ‘locked in day and night’

He goes on to recount a typical day in prison.

To read the full article, click here.

Mario Masuku is president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) in Swaziland, a political formation banned in the kingdom ruled by King Mwsati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Masuku was on remand in jail from November 2008 to September 2009 on charges of terrorism and sedition. When he eventually appeared in court, the Swaziland High Court judge threw out the case after five hours of a trial expected to last several days. The judge called the prosecution case ‘hopeless.’

This article appeared on 11 October 2009 in the Times Sunday, part of the only newspaper group in Swaziland free of direct government control.

‘POOR MUST RISE UP FOR THEMSELVES’

After his acquittal on terrorism and subversion charges, Mario Masuku, president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement, has been writing about his time on remand in prison and giving some of his thoughts on the state of Swaziland today.

The articles have been appearing n the Times Sunday, part of the only newspaper group in Swaziland free of direct government control.

In the first of his articles, called ‘The problem with this country’, Masuku calls for the oppressed and downtrodden majority of Swazis to themselves make freedom a reality.

He says, ‘There always, in life of the dominated poor, comes a time when they can bear no more, and proclaim that enough is enough.’

To read the full article, click here.

Mario Masuku is president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) in Swaziland, a political formation banned in the kingdom ruled by King Mwsati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.Masuku was on remand in jail from November 2008 to September 2009 on charges of terrorism and sedition. When he eventually appeared in court, the Swaziland High Court judge threw out the case after five hours of a trial expected to last several days. The judge called the prosecution case ‘hopeless.’

This article appeared in the Times Sunday on 4 October 2009.

SWAZILAND DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN

The following is a memorandum that is circulating from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) about a meeting of South African civil society organisations that took place yesterday (22 October 2009) to take forward work ‘on supporting the struggle for democracy in Swaziland’.

Towards the launch of a Swaziland Democracy Campaign

A number of progressive organisations; including a range of NGOs, faith based organisations, solidarity movements, social movements, political parties, Alliance formations, COSATU and its affiliated unions, PUDEMO activists and individual solidarity activists attended this meeting.

The aims of this meeting were to ensure:

That we are able to retain and sustain the momentum arising from the recent days of action organised by the Joint Swazi Action Committee (JSAC).

That we extend the South African solidarity work to a wider audience of civil society organisations interested in supporting the struggle for democracy and freedom in Swaziland.

That we are able to review and reflect on struggles to support democracy and freedom in Swaziland from South Africa as part of engaging in the development of a further, concrete programme of action that can support struggles inside Swaziland.

That we create space for a broad spectrum of voices to be heard in support of our initiatives in support of democracy in Swaziland.

That we discuss the future of the JSAC and the role of South African civil society in this initiative.

The meeting received the following reports:Holland and UK experiences of international solidarity activities based on the work of the anti-Apartheid movement and the Zimbabwe solidarity movement (Venitia Govender, Solidarity Activist).

A report from what was currently happening inside Swaziland and the challenges comrades are confronted with inside the country (Skhumbuzo Phakathi, PUDEMO Deputy President).

The work of the Joint Swazi Action Committee and the successful campaign actions since the beginning of the initiative on the 12 August 2009 in Benoni (George Mahlangu , COSATU Campaigns Coordinator).

Following these reports we engaged in an exceptionally rich discussion about the meaning and practice of solidarity work in general and specifically in relation to supporting the struggle for democracy in Swaziland.

This discussion was concluded with some very practical inputs from comrades present on possible actions to consolidate and advance our support for Swaziland democracy.

We have agreed to work towards a public launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign at the end of November 2009. This will be preceded by a joint Swazi-South Africa meeting to assess the momentum on both sides of the border and to share our respective plans of action towards developing a common programme.

The meeting clearly emphasised that this initiative is purely a campaign and is NOT intended to constitute an organisation.