Teachers
of Swaziland under the leadership of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers
(SNAT) overwhelmingly voted on Thursday 13 September 2018 to go on a strike
action against the Mswati regime. SNAT accordingly reported on Friday 14
September 2018 that 99 percent of the voters were in favour of a strike action
in demand of a 6.55 percent cost of living adjustment. SNAT leadership then
communicated to all teachers that they should put on their combat gear in readiness
for this mother of all strikes.
This
is a clear vote for freedom, against the tinkhundla regime. It is also a vote
for worker unity and radical activism towards achieving that freedom. Further,
it is a radical challenge against a dictator who wasted over E1 billion (US$67
million) of the country’s money to celebrate his lavish birthday in April this
year, while at the same time claiming that the government is too broke to even
afford vital drugs and equipment for public clinics and hospitals.
Swaziland’s
teachers have been engaged in protest actions against Mswati’s government in
the past four weeks. So decisive have been the teachers’ actions that on 24
August 2018 Mswati unleashed his police who shot the unarmed teachers as they
protested in the city of Manzini. It was on that day that one teacher, Maxwell
Musa Myeni, decided to put an end to this by physically stopping one of the
policemen. Without this action by the teacher, we can only imagine how many
teachers would have been mowed down. The teacher who stopped this police
criminality has since been arrested and slapped with trumped up charges while
the policeman who was commanding these attacks against the teachers has been
rewarded with a promotion in the royal police force.
This
latest decisive stance by the teachers to go on strike occurs during the most
sensitive period in the calendar of the Mswati regime. The regime is currently
running its tinkhundla elections which will create a puppet parliament for
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch to implement his decisions. The
elections are a whitewash to deceive the less critical people in the world that
there are parliamentary elections in Swaziland when the opposite is true; Swaziland
is ruled by a dictatorship.
Mswati
has banned all public activities during these fake elections period in a bid to
force the people to endorse his troublesome rule. The voices rejecting these tinkhundla
elections are loud and clear from many corners of our country, as the people tell
the absolute monarch: “No more with our endorsement; do it on your own with
your puppets!”
The
Communist Party of Swaziland will continue to be firmly on the side of the
workers throughout their struggles. We know too well that no gains have ever
been made by the working class without force. However, the best asset that
workers have, which no regime can ever destroy with even the most potent of
weapons, is worker unity. We therefore congratulate the teachers of Swaziland for
working day and night to preserve and strengthen their unity.
We
call upon all workers of Swaziland to unite in raising their demands and
towards the dismantling of the tinkhundla regime. Mswati and his family have
ruined the country. It is time that the workers took charge of their own future.
The road towards that future necessarily involves boycotting and disrupting the
tinkhundla elections!
We
also call upon students and parents to join hands with the teachers and join
the strike action.
Democracy
Yes! Tinkhundla elections No!
Issued by the Communist
Party of Swaziland
--
Contact:
Kenneth
Kunene
General
Secretary
+27
72 594 3971
Or
Njabulo
Dlamini
International
Organiser
Mobile: +2687
603 9844
Email: cpswa.org@gmail.com
Facebook:
Communist Party Of Swaziland – CPS
Twitter: @CPSwaziland
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