Monday 27 September 2021:- In the past few weeks, primary and secondary students in Swaziland engaged in protest actions demanding better learning conditions, the release of political prisoners and democracy, among other demands.

At least 16 schools have engaged in protests since 15 September 2021 when Hosea High School students abandoned classes and protested, demanding the releases of the local political prisoners and for Mswati to step down.

The unrest in the schools comes after the political turmoil which intensified around May 2021, led by the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), calling for the end of police violence and for democracy.

A common demand amongst the protesting students is Democracy Now and along with the release of all political prisoners. Eve primary schools have engaged in protests in the past two weeks.

Swaziland is a small country in sub-Saharan Africa, ruled by Africa’s last absolute monarch, Mswati III, with a population of around 1,3 million. Close to 70 percent of the people live below the poverty line while the monarch is among the richest heads of states in Africa.

The authoritarian regime has been pushed to the corner by the recent students’ protests that it has even hinted on deploying its armed forces to all schools to intimidate the pupils and prevent protests. This would mark an addition to the schools in which police are already deployed.

Schools that have been involved in protests include Elulakeni High School, Hosea Primary and High School, Hlutse Central High School, Mvimbheko High School, Nkhanini High and Primary Schools, Madulini High School, Mavula High School, Qomintaba High School, Ngozi High School, Jericho High and Primary Schools, Ngololweni High School, Ngudzeni High School and Velebantfu High School.

These schools are from different geographic locations and had a long list of diverse demands.

The demands that were most common across the students include, but not limited to, free and quality high school education, quality internet connection for online learning, availability of nutritious food instead of the normal expired food, construction and installation of quality libraries and computer centres at schools, proper security system for the schools, an end to top-up fees in primary schools since education is supposed to be free, and democratisation of the country.

Poverty has gripped the small nation of about 1.3 million people, with close to 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Political unrests and calls for democracy in the kingdom have intensified this year but were met with brutal force from the regime particularly during June and July 2021. Over 70 people were massacred from the night of 29 June 2021 until early July, with hundreds more maimed and arrested.

To conceal the massacre, the regime shut down internet services as the military shot and killed people in the streets, torturing many. Since the end of June 2021, the Mswati autocracy has arrested about 700 people. Many remain in prison due to refusal and unaffordability of bail.

This led to the despot closing schools under false notions of the coronavirus pandemic. Schools were reopened 3 weeks ago and that is when the first round of class boycotts started.

Communist Party of Swaziland General Secretary, Thokozane Kenneth Kunene, says, “The students’ protests quickly spreading across the country are a sign that the tyrant has been rejected by the masses. This is only the beginning to an end of a long journey towards the liberation of the Swazi people from the shackles of the tinkhundla regime and it gives a clear picture that indeed victory is certain.”

In July 2021, the Mswati autocracy arrested two members of parliament for calling for democracy in Swaziland. They were charged with contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Another political prisoner who has endured tinkhundla brutality is Amos Mbedzi. A South African who stood up in solidarity with the oppressed people of Swaziland, Amos Mbedzi has been in jail since his arrest on 20 September 2008, convicted and sentenced to 85 years imprisonment four years later.

Amos Mbedzi remains in jail. The Mswati autocracy has refused to release him even though Mbedzi has fallen ill with a stroke, relies on a wheelchair to move around, and requires urgent medical attention and supervision.

The Communist Party of Swaziland calls for the strengthening of unity among the oppressed, premised on the fight for the total dismantling of the autocracy, for total democracy.

CPS Press Services

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Contacts:

Thokozane Kenneth Kunene

General Secretary

(+27)72 594 3971

 

Pius Vilakati

International Secretary

(+27)81 353 3383

 

Email: cpswa.org@gmail.com

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Twitter: @CPSwaziland