Introduction
The
Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) held its first Central Committee meeting of
2019 from 1 to 3 March 2019 in the Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. The
Central Committee meets for the first time since the highly successful Party’s December
2018 Summer School, the benefits of which are already manifesting themselves in
the various facets of the struggle for freedom in Swaziland.
CPS General
Secretary, Comrade Kenneth Thokozani Kunene, presented the Political Report, reflecting
on the past year, 2018, especially the heroic struggles of the workers under
the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). During 2018, workers bravely
fought for their various demands and also made the further demand for the
democratisation of our country. The Report also commended the people of
Swaziland in their mass rejection of the sham tinkhundla elections. Tinkhundla
elections are nothing but a game for the monarch to form a toy parliament to
rubberstamp the monarch’s decisions. In 2013 Mswati refashioned the tinkhundla
system a “monarchical democracy; a meeting between the monarch and the ballot”,
thus a system which places the monarch at the centre of everything, for the
benefit of no one else but the monarch!
The
Political Report also noted the need to intensify, by all material means
necessary, the struggle against the Mswati autocracy. It unpacked the necessary
material for the revolution in line with the CPS’s Programme of Action
2016-2020. Thus, in every analysis the Party has the duty to pay due regard to
the stage of development of productive forces, along with production relations,
and carefully analyse the stage of imperialism especially as it affects the
struggles of the working class of the world.
To
engage in all the above, the Central Committee has the duty to build a Party
that is well-endowed with the necessary qualities for engaging in a fierce
battle to the death against the Mswati regime, while at the same time building
a Party that is capable and ready to run the country.
Workers’ struggles and latest
developments in Swaziland
The
Central Committee also noted, but was not surprised by, the Mswati regime’s continuing
suppression of workers’ rights. Mswati’s court first decided to postpone a
legal public workers’ strike action which had been scheduled for 25 September
2018, and in January 2019 quashed the strike action altogether after directives
from Mswati’s office. It is a fact well known by the population of Swaziland
that Mswati controls the judiciary. This reality has been in existence since 12
April 1973 when the late Sobhuza II abrogated the 1968 constitution, banned
political parties and political freedoms and thereafter bestowed all executive,
legislative and judicial powers upon the monarch. Thenceforth, the monarch
would rule by royal decree, using the army to enforce royal laws.
The
Central Committee called upon workers of Swaziland to strengthen their unity
even further and to also see through the whole court façade and realise that
the courts of Swaziland are there to serve the interests of the monarch and its
allies, not the general population. As such, only a defiance campaign that
involves the widest and vast majority of the people of Swaziland is the only
reliable tool which will ever bring hope to the people of Swaziland that they
will soon be free.
The
Mswati regime has been victimising workers for the better part of 2018. 2019
has not been any different. In the 2018 workers’ strike actions, the royal
police shot at workers with live bullets, injuring many, assaulted a lot more
and arrested others.
The
Central Committee also noted the arrest of two leaders of the Swaziland
National Association of Teachers, who are also leaders of the CPS, Comrade
Mcolisi Ngcamphalala and Comrade Njabulo Dlamini. They were arrested on 11
January 2019 while on their way to attend their union’s meeting, with the
police making it clear that they were going to “fix” them. They were later released
on bail. Their case continued on Tuesday 5 March 2019, at the Manzini Magistrate’s
Court, where a trial date was set; 21 May 2019. The CPS will continue to
support all workers who have been victimised by the regime.
Workers
under the Correctional Services department have already spoken out against the
mandatory docking of their salaries in order to finance Mswati’s 51st
birthday celebration coming up on 19 April this year. Mandatory cuts are also
expected in the police and army forces, as it happened last year when Mswati
celebrated his 50th birthday which impoverished the nation by over
E1 billion (over US$70 million). As usual, the regime, through the chiefs, will
once again force communities to donate to this unnecessary birthday
celebration.
The
Central Committee also committed its support to workers under Eswatini Electricity
Company who defied Mswati’s courts and engaged in a strike action from 28
February 2019, demanding justice in the payment system. While the company’s
executive management received their salary alignment in 2016, the rest of the
heavily exploited workers have been forced to wait and told to understand! Party
activists are called upon to continue giving practical solidarity to the
workers in this fight.
On Mswati’s message and 2019/2020
national budget
The CPS
Central Committee noted the lifeless speeches delivered by Mswati during the
opening of parliament and his finance minister’s budget. As usual, both
speeches reflected one reality: everything done by the government is to fulfil
Mswati’s dreams, not those of the people! So clear was this that as soon as
Mswati had delivered his speech, members of parliament organised gifts for him,
to thank him for his speech. To top it all, they looted public coffers to purchase
these gifts!
From
the outset, the minister of finance was clear in the budget speech delivered on
27 February 2019 that he was thankful only to his boss, Mswati, “for the
mandate and direction that he gave the Nation and his Government in his speech”
at the opening of parliament on 8 February 2019. He added that as Mswati’s
handpicked government they will continue to strive for his “Vision 2022” in
which Swaziland, in Mswati’s head, will be a first world country! To achieve
this people’s nightmare, the minister of finance called upon the whole nation to
sacrifice. He did not call for any sacrifice from the chief looters of the Swazi
economy, Mswati and his family.
From
the crux of the messages from Mswati and his finance minister, it then becomes
an exercise in futility to try and influence the budget towards this direction
or the other. Mswati is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. He has the power
to dissolve parliament as and when he wishes. The people of Swaziland expect
nothing to be done by the members of parliament in challenging the pro-monarch
budget and direction of government. It is therefore no surprise to the CPS that
a lot of money is splashed on the security forces, for the suppression of human
rights, and nothing is done to improve the education and health sectors, both
of which affect the greater population.
Cultural boycott campaign against the
Mswati autocracy
The
CPS 2018 Summer School had already engaged on the necessity of isolating and
exposing the absolute monarch internationally and proposed that the cultural
boycott against Swaziland be intensified. The Central Committee thus engaged
thoroughly on this, noting that a discussion with the Swaziland Solidarity
Network will be crucial in this process. This is one of the key issues that the
upcoming National Conference of the CPS will engage and resolve on.
Jacob Zuma’s vote of confidence for the
tinkhundla system an affront to the oppressed people of Swaziland
The
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Swaziland also reflected on the
counterrevolutionary manoeuvres of former South African and African National
Congress (ANC) president, Jacob Zuma, during his visit to his friend Mswati on
Saturday 2 February 2019. Jacob Zuma, during a church service in Mswati’s main
palace, Lozitha, publicly gave a full vote of confidence to the oppressive
tinkhundla system of Swaziland. Zuma delivered a speech and said Swaziland’s
tinkhundla system of governance would last for a long time because the
country’s authorities believe in prayer and divine guidance from God. In
other words, God, according to Zuma, still wishes that the people of Swaziland
be oppressed a little bit more, and that poverty deepens further. Zuma is well
aware that, due to tinkhundla governance, close to 70 percent of the people of Swaziland
today survive on less than US$2 a day, and that the situation has been
worsening over the years.
It
is a well-documented fact that Jacob Zuma has for the past thirteen years, at
least, been one of the handful useful fools, outside Swaziland, on Mswati’s
service, always ready to spread the absolute monarch’s propaganda. His public
ejaculations, in praise of Mswati and the brutal tinkhundla system have been
widely condemned by the oppressed people of Swaziland.
The world
must remember that this is not the first time Zuma has publicly praised
Mswati’s brutal rule. In April 2016 Zuma visited Swaziland apparently for talks
with Mswati on matters relating to the Southern African Customs Union. He was
also the guest of honour at Mswati’s 48th birthday bash in
Nhlangano, a small town south of Swaziland. Zuma made a speech during that celebration
praising Mswati’s “wisdom” for his ruling style and also suggested that the
democratically elected members of South Africa’s National Assembly must follow
the “wisdom” of the absolute monarch in order to solve problems in South Africa.
The
Central Committee noted that people like Zuma have been allowed to freely visit
Swaziland and praise the tinkhundla system for far too long without any serious
repercussions. The CPS therefore sees such people as nothing but counterrevolutionaries
masquerading as pro-African souls. If Zuma had any revolutionary morality left
in his head he would be ashamed of himself. The Central Committee therefore
condemned Zuma for his acts and called upon the democracy loving people of
Swaziland and South Africa to also condemn such unrepentant loose cannons.
CPS Central Committee condemns South
African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Swaziland and his ignorant acts
while in the country
The
president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, visited Swaziland apparently on a “working
visit” over the weekend. He held talks with Mswati, watched approvingly as
money belonging to the people of Swaziland was being wasted during Mswati’s buganu alcohol drinking festival, and
then proclaimed “Now is the time for economic development.” On the other hand, the
Mswati regime has been singing Ramaphosa’s praises for being the first ever
seating South African president to attend the buganu alcohol drinking festival, boasting about Ramaphosa’s sheer
approval of the monarchical dictatorship.
The Joint
Bilateral Commission on Cooperation (JBCC) apparently formed part of the
discussions between Ramaphosa and Mswati. This JBCC was first secretly entered
into between South Africa and Swaziland in 2004, but was exposed in 2011 when the
South African government under the leadership of Jacob Zuma had agreed to give
R2.4 billion (about US$170 million dollars) to Mswati as a loan to save
Swaziland from a disastrous economic situation which was a direct product of
the tinkhundla system.
While
in Swaziland, Ramaphosa took seriously the duty of flashing his most cherished
chameleonic colours and pretended that Swaziland is a normal peaceful and
democratic country. The current president of the ANC, Ramaphosa pretended to have
no idea that the ANC in its 54th National Conference reflected on
the state of the Swazi monarchy and made it clear that Mswati wields executive,
judicial and legislative power, that is, is an absolute monarch. The ANC further
stated in its resolutions that the people of Swaziland still suffer gross human
rights violations and called for the release of all political prisoners,
including South African national Comrade Amos Mbedzi who is serving 85 years in
Mswati’s jail for his selfless contribution to the struggle for freedom in Swaziland.
It
is therefore a tragedy that Ramaphosa has instead chosen to follow his
predecessor and prop up the absolute monarch, instead of siding with the people
of Swaziland! This effectively means that the South African government will
continue to save the absolute monarch, one self-inflicted economic disaster after
another, and thus worsen the situation of the people at least in so far as
fundamental rights are concerned.
While
this cosy cooperation between Ramaphosa and Mswati is depraved, it is
nauseating that Ramaphosa went a step further and attempted to rewrite history
books with regard to the role played by Swaziland during the struggle against
apartheid. He attempted to clean the image of the absolute monarch in this
regard. The fact is that the banning of political parties in Swaziland was
sponsored by the apartheid regime. This was an attempt by the apartheid regime
to crush the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in Swaziland. For
the most part the regime succeeded because Swaziland’s security forces intensified
their collaboration with the apartheid regime; arresting, torturing and giving
practical assistance to the abduction of ANC and SACP revolutionaries into the
apartheid guillotine.
In
1978, Sobhuza’s Prime Minister, Prince Maphevu, was clear that Swaziland was
against the imposing of sanctions against the apartheid regime and begged, on
behalf of the apartheid regime, the United States to ignore sanction calls by
the United Nations and leaders like OR Tambo and others, slandering them as he
did so.
As
he butchered history, Ramaphosa did not even mention the role of ordinary Swazi
nationals who bravely fought against the apartheid regime, with some even
participating in the armed struggle. He was only interested in clinching
business deals with Mswati, at the expense of the oppressed people of
Swaziland.
The
CPS Central Committee thus condemned Ramaphosa’s damaging acts, including the
visit, and called for the intensification of solidarity work in South Africa
and beyond. This solidarity work will contribute in placing the history of our
struggle in the correct perspective and galvanise the ordinary people of the
world, as opposed to the elites who constantly sell out, to offer solidarity to
the people of Swaziland and thus maximise defiance in the maximum number of
times.
April 12: CPS to commemorate the day
when Sobhuza banned political parties and crowned himself as a dictator
12
April 2019 will mark 46 years since Mswati’s father, the late Sobhuza II,
banned political parties and movements, and bestowed all executive, legislative
and judicial powers upon the monarch. This is an important day in the calendar
of the struggle for freedom in Swaziland. The CPS will do everything
practicable to ensure that this day is commemorated and that more people,
inside and outside Swaziland, rise up against the tinkhundla system.
CPS Central Committee pays tribute to
Hugo Chavez on the anniversary of his death and reiterates the Party’s support
for the people of Venezuela against imperialist aggression
The
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Swaziland joins the entire world in
paying tribute to Hugo Chávez, the late leader of the Bolivarian Revolution in
Venezuela. Hugo Chavez died in Caracas on 5 March 2013 at 16h25 (Venezuelan
time). Chavez remains one of the most inspiring working class revolutionaries
the world has ever seen. By following an economy based on solidarity, he was able
to uplift the economic situation of so many Venezuelans and also of people
beyond Venezuela. Notably, Venezuela has donated heating oil to hundreds of
thousands of poor people in the United States who have continuously been left
to freeze in the cold during the devastating winter months by the United States
capitalist regime. The awe-inspiring CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program, an
incredible act of solidarity by the people of Venezuela, was launched by Chavez
in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina which had left untold devastation on poor
people, especially after having been abandoned by the George Bush regime.
Chavez
died, but the revolutionary fires he helped to lit continue to burn, inspiring
billions of workers across the globe, including Swaziland, to forge ahead and
wage relentless struggles against the exploitation and oppression of one by
another.
The
Central Committee also extends its solidarity to the people of Venezuela who
are currently engaged in averting an imperialist aggression led by the United
States. The United States has been attempting to impose an unelected individual
as president of Venezuela when the people of Venezuela freely elected President
Nicolás Maduro during the country’s democratic elections in May 2018. It is important
to mention that the political system of Venezuela is a democratic and transparent
one; hence one who loses an election simply has to abide by the people’s
popular voice. It was in this spirit that President Maduro easily respected and
accepted the outcome when his party lost the National Assembly election in 2015.
The intentions
of the United Sates in Venezuela are about the control of Venezuela’s natural
resources, primarily oil, and placing its foot firmly in Latin American
politics in order to protect its economic interests.
Support for the upcoming Israeli
Apartheid Week 2019
The Central
Committee noted Israel’s intensification of the oppression of Palestinians.
There is urgent need to engage in, and intensify our, practical solidarity with
the people of Palestine, and particularly add more voices to the Palestinian
cause. The Communist Party of Swaziland will thus be part of all practical efforts
to ensure the increase and amplification of such voices inside Swaziland to
condemn Zionist Israel’s occupation of Palestine, beginning with the upcoming
Israeli Apartheid Week.
This
year the Israeli Apartheid Week will be held from 1 to 7 April 2019.
CPS Annual National Conference to be
held in April 2019
The
Communist Party of Swaziland will convene its Annual National Conference from
18 to 22 April 2019. The Conference will take stock of current events, trace,
using the materialist conception of history, their historical background, and
draw up a concise plan for the implementation of the Party’s Programme of
Action. The context of the way forward will be the intensification of the
national and international defiance campaign against the Mswati autocracy. The
focus of the conference shall be mainly on the practical ways to maximise defiance
in the maximum number of sites for the total overthrow of the Mswati autocracy.
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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