15 September 2018

99 percent of Swaziland’s teachers reject tinkhundla, vote for democracy; this marks the beginning of mass strikes



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
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Contact:
Kenneth Kunene
General Secretary
+27 72 594 3971

Or
Njabulo Dlamini
International Organiser
Mobile: +2687 603 9844

Facebook: Communist Party Of Swaziland – CPS
Twitter: @CPSwaziland

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