CPS Summer School summary of discussions - Our philosophy is Marxism

2019 CPS Summer School

Summary of discussions – Sunday 22 December 2019

Our philosophy is Marxism

Sunday 22 December 2019 marked the third day of the 2019 School of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS). The CPS Summer School discussed the question of society and its relations. This was done under the heading “Our philosophy is Marxism”. The School thus unpacked the concept of philosophy and Marxist philosophy as well as gender and class struggle.

Using Marxist philosophy, the most advanced revolutionary theory, the School also unpacked the question of “gender and class struggle”.

The School thus briefly defined philosophy as a world outlook, a study of human behaviour, how things happen and the study of society including its development.

The Marxist philosophy and political economy

The philosophy of Marxism is materialism. Materialism has proved to be the only philosophy that is consistent, true to all the teachings of natural science and hostile to superstition, cant and so forth. As Lenin put it in 1913, in his Three Sources and Three Component parts of Marxism, classical political economy, before Marx, evolved in England, the most developed of the capitalist countries. Economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, by their investigations of the economic system, laid the foundations of the labour theory of value. Marx continued their work. He proved and consistently developed this theory. He showed that the value of every commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour time spent on its production.

Marx thoroughly analysed political economy as well as its development. His principal work is Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, published in 1867. He made a stufy of political economy and recognised that the economic system is the foundation on which the political superstructure is erected. Marx thus devoted his most attention to the study of this economic system.

Dialectics

The School understands dialectics basically as a science of continuous development. It is the understanding that everything is in a constant state of motion and change, that is, development. It is a science of interconnections and interpenetrations. The study of dialectics helps us understand that, as Engels said, nothing is stable except instability, nothing is immovable except movement, and that the only thing that never changes is change itself. Thus, we must study and understand society in its historical basis as it develops through the various modes of production. It is for this reason that the tinkhundla regime and its bourgeois friends hate communists. They know very well that the tinkhundla system and capitalism will not be here forever; the winds of change will at some point qualitatively strengthen and sweep them away from the face of the earth.

The laws of dialectics are often summarised into three, in the main: 1) the law of transformation of quantity into quality, and vice versa, 2) the law of the unity and struggle of opposites, and 3) the law of the negation of the negation.

There is a difference between dialectics as defined by Hegel and as defined in the Marxist philosophy. While Hegel’s dialectics amounted to idealism, Marx’s dialectics are materialist, or, put differently, are based on materialism.

Surplus value

In a capitalist society, human labour power becomes a commodity; as something to be bought, with the price being determined by the owners of means of production and appropriators of the products of labour power. Workers sell their labour power to the owners of the means of production who utilise it to maximise their profits. As Lenin shows, workers use one part of their labour day to cover the expense of maintaining themselves and their families (wages), while the other part of the day the workers toil without remuneration, creating surplus value for the capitalists, the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class. Thus, the capitalists appropriate the fruits of workers’ labour power and appropriate the surplus value, a product of the working class. That is the secret of capitalist exploitation.

CPS cadres must thus thoroughly study the class struggle that is ongoing in society as well as its historical development.  For instance, under feudalist society, the ruler was a landlord and under the landlord there were people that did not own the land. Feudalism has similarities to slavery, though at an advanced stage. The highest point of feudalism is when the whole country is ruled by a monarchy. In Swaziland, for instance, Mswati operates as a feudal lord, an absolute monarchy, and he rules the country in collaboration with capitalist imperialism.

Gender and class struggle

When a child is born, society defines the sex of the child only in two ways; male or female. Society then uses that distinction to determine the roles of the two sexes.  This is what we refer to as gender roles. Society does not accept any other sexual orientation and gender identity, and neither does it accept that the different sexes can be equal in the production of the means of subsistence as well as their enjoyment of the products thereof.

Swaziland is a deeply patriarchal society – system where males dominate society and thus males are seen as superior beings to women and any other sex. We must remember that patriarchy, as a system, has existed even before capitalism. Capitalism reinforced and deepened patriarchy and thereafter justified it with its laws, cultures and religious beliefs. In such society, men are regarded as heads of families while women are home keepers as well as housewives.

By “gender” the mistake sometimes is made that we refer only to women. The School clarified this aspect. Our understanding is that “gender” should refer to all kinds of sexual orientation, including LGBTQI+, as well as the roles imposed by society upon the different sexes. The objective of the gender struggle, therefore, is the emancipation of all sexes from patriarchal oppression along with the economic system which produces and reinforces it, capitalism.

Due to the mistake mentioned above, in numerous gender discussions in society, men are often ignored. It is because of patriarchal society that men do not complain, for instance, when they are oppressed and bullied by women – even when this is committed by other men. Society perceives men as strong and almost invincible, and thus comes stereotypical beliefs such as indvodza ayikhali (a man never cries), etc.

However, despite the above, capitalist economy is dominated by males – but the owning class of males. Males are paid more than women for the same job of equal value. Thus, the direction of society follows the direction of males and the rest of the groups are suppressed under the rule of men.

We must remember, however, that despite this fact, the primary thing remains class rule. Women are oppressed as a class, together with all other working class men (though these working class men often step on women and consider them inferior). But women suffer more because they are also oppressed as women. This is why when we talk about gender, the discussion often gravitates around women and women struggles. House chores, for instance, often done by women, constitute a part of unpaid labour without which the man cannot go to work. The man is paid a salary for his work at his place of employment, but the woman is unpaid for her labour. Thus, the exploitation of women deepens. Women are also not paid for pregnancy and giving birth to the future working class which will be presented for exploitation by the bourgeoisie.

The school must conscientiously engage on the question of women’s unpaid labour. Additionally, the School must discuss the question whether women must not be paid for pregnancy and birth-giving.

Understanding the CPS and its role in the struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism

2019 CPS Summer School

Day 2 summary – Saturday 21 December 2019

Understanding the CPS and its role in the struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) holds its 2019 Summer School under the theme “Democracy Now” (20 – 29 December 2019). The School began on a high note, remembering on one of its most committed cadres, the late Comrade Njabulo “Njefire” Dlamini, who died in May this year. Delegates enjoined themselves to intensify the struggle in his memory and for the future of all humanity.

On the school’s first plenary session, 21 December 2019, we captured the CPS theme, “Democracy Now”, as well as the aims and objectives of the school. We further unpacked the basis of our struggle and the structures and programmes of the CPS.

Purpose of the School

The CPS Summer School aims to impart political consciousness into delegates and empower them to consciously lead the revolution. We follow the tried and tested theory that was crafted by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, now popularly known as Marxism-Leninism.

The School unpacked the role of revolutionaries in the armed struggle. The armed struggle falls on no one else except revolutionaries. Our society is an abnormal one due to tinkhundla rule. Only a revolution will ever solve the problems engulfing Swaziland.

We should know our objectives. Revolutionaries need to understand the struggle comes with sacrifice and a clearly defined vision. They must also know the nature of the society we live in and comprehend the sacrifices to be made in order to uplift society into a revolutionary mass. The situation in the country proves that the objectives are working to our advantage. Swaziland’s population has been on a negative growth for some time. People are dying due to the system’s worsening healthcare system. Therefore, every action by the regime must be interrogated.

The country is struggling over wages, scholarships, a collapsed healthcare system and other key sectors. Swaziland has political thugs without revolutionary direction, therefore the CPS should pick up arms and intensify the revolution so as to achieve “DEMOCRACY NOW!”

The world is looking to the CPS for direction on the Swaziland question and the workers of the world are ready to support the oppressed people of Swaziland by all means necessary.

The basis of our struggle

The CPS Summer School unpacked the meaning of the CPS slogan, “Freedom, Democracy and Socialism.” The School clarified the contents of our freedom and democracy, as well as the meaning of socialism. The slogan thus summarises the basis of our struggle.

The School envisages that there will be a time in future where there will be no hunger, poverty, homelessness, inequality, standing army, prisons and a police force. To understand this point, a thorough analysis of the history of our society was unpacked. To answer these above questions, we need to trace the history of our struggle, how it has developed and how it has linked to different regions, countries, continent, and the universe. We must prove with scientific evidence, the possibility of equality in the struggle. We need to study how humans produce their means of existence because society has been broken by inequalities caused and reinforced by capitalism. We also need to study the historical development production as well as productive forces and production relations.

Our study of history, however, does not follow the traditional “emakhandzambili – bemdzabu – emafikamuva” narrative of the tinkhundla system. Instead, we use the materialist conception of history and dialectics, also known as Marxism-Leninism, as a scientific guide to action.

Production, and its study thereof, including its historical development, constitutes an important aspect if we are to concretely study society. Human beings are the product of their own production. Those who do not study the development of productive forces as well as production relations will continuously fail to understand the essence of the struggle of the people of Swaziland. It is largely for this reason that many of the organisations in engaged in the democratisation struggle in Swaziland constantly make the wrong call that thy want to have a dialogue with the oppressive monarchy.

Socialism is more democratic than capitalism. Capitalism is a society where the minority decides for the majority. The owners of the means of production, the bourgeoisie exploit the majority, the workers, and expropriate the largest chunk of the fruits of production while the workers only offer their labour power in return for little payment which is enough for them to return to work the next day. Socialism, on the other hand, is a society where, for the first time since the breakup of society into classes, the majority democratically decide for society as a whole. History continues to prove that a country led a Communist Party has a better quality of life than its previous bourgeois or any other type of class society that has existed in the past.

CPS structures and programmes

Constitutionally, the Communist Party of Swaziland has 8 structures. Since the Party is still on a building phase, it still organises largely in commissions.

The CPS has:

1.    Central Committee. Its powers include directing the work of the CPS, determining all questions of policy, and issuing binding instructions and directives to all levels of the CPS, subject to the National Congress of the Party.

2.    The commissions of the CPS are: Workers’ Commission; Women Commission; Peasants Commission; Youth and Students Commission. The CPS has to work with the masses to in order to strengthen its commissions. Commissions are led and guided by the CC.

Programmes

·         Strategic program

·         Transitional program

·         Program of action

Pillars of the Programme of Action: BUILDING and STRENGTHENING OUR FORCES (Building and strengthening the CPS, the broad pro-democracy movement and working class formations, such as trade unions, youth, women and peasant organisations)

B. WEAKENING AND DEPLETING THE POWER OF MSWATI REGIME (weakening and depleting the power of the Mswati regime politically, economically and psychologically)

C. WINNING OVER SUPPORT AND ALLIES FOR THE REVOLUTION (Building solidarity with the struggle in Swaziland within the Swazi population and in other countries and the international arena).

Democracy Now!

Communist Party of Swaziland calls for solidarity with public sector workers of Swaziland

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) stands with public sector workers of Swaziland in their strike action. The workers demand a 7.85 per cent cost of living adjustment. The violent reaction by the regime’s police last week, 25 September 2019, and today, 2 October 2019, is a sign that the Mswati regime is getting more desperate and will do anything to cling to power.

The workers’ protests are a total rejection of the tinkhundla government, which is the employer in this case. The protest over wages is at one and the same time a protest against tinkhundla exploitation. In Swaziland, state resources are not used for what they should be for; social development and economic stimulation. Instead, the money goes to fund the luxurious lifestyle of the monarchy and wasted in corruption. The tinkhundla autocracy has collapsed the economy in this way. Money for education and health are redirected to Mswati, his family and friends.

The Mswati regime wants to treat workers as part of its royal regiment. The regime wants workers to do nothing but bend over twice in implementing tinkhundla rule and ideology. The royal regiment system is a form of slavery practiced by the monarchy, supported by imperialist forces, SADC and African leaders along with other reactionary forces.

The police violence against workers is thus intended to defend tinkhundla dictatorship and its exploitation. Exploitation of human by human must come to an end. In the Swaziland situation, this begins by bringing an end to the Mswati autocracy.

Workers shot by Mswati's police during Manzini protest action
today, 2 October 2019.

The Communist Party of Swaziland calls upon the masses of our country to support the protests by joining the workers’ pickets and protests. International progressive forces, including our friends, must reject Mswati and his suppression of workers and their rights. The Communist Party of Swaziland also calls for solidarity messages and demonstrations.

Swaziland needs Democracy Now!

Communist Party of Swaziland: Statement on the attack of Swazi truck drivers on South African roads

Rioters in South Africa. Pic from Standard Media

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) condemns xenophobic attacks and threats directed at Swazi truck drivers on South African roads particularly in the Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga provinces. These attacks have an innate link with the xenophobic violence directed generally against foreign nationals across South Africa and have nothing to do with resolving the real problem afflicting the working class in Africa, generally, and South Africa, particularly.

With the same intensity, the CPS also condemns xenophobic attacks against all foreign nationals.

The problem of xenophobic attacks, by no means an inherently and exclusively South African problem, must be studied from its roots, lest solutions become a mere façade and cover-up over a festering wound. Such attacks contribute to the decay of the unity of the working class while at the same time ensuring maximum profits for capital.

The ultimate aim of capitalism is nothing but the maximisation of profit at whatever cost. This is the reason why trucking companies in South Africa, in their drive to force down production costs and maximise profits, always aim to hire labour power at its lowest cost possible. Foreign nationals, particularly those who hail from war-torn countries and those from countries which have political and economic crises, including Swaziland, are the most vulnerable in this instance.

The heavy reliance on undocumented, and in many instances unqualified, foreign nationals fits into the aims of companies to cut costs, maximise profits, while at the same time dividing workers. Such workers are often unable to join unions and meaningfully contribute in the collective defence of workers’ rights, thus dividing workers across nationalities and races. Additionally, due to destitution and desperation, undocumented workers are often the likeliest to accept the lowest pay while working unreasonably long hours doing extra work. They also lose benefits which would have been due to them in the case of documentation. In cases where the company is liable for negligence, they are left alone to face the legal consequences. It is important to also bring to the fore the fact that even in instances where foreign nationals are in South Africa legally and have all the relevant documentation, some companies have the tendency to disregard this documentation and hire them without filling in their relevant legal details. These workers accordingly fall directly into the category of undocumented workers.

Ultimately, dissatisfaction within the citizens boils over and leads to such condemnable xenophobic attacks; attacks against the victims of capitalism. The result of all this is division of workers and maximum profits for the companies.

However, blaming undocumented foreigners for xenophobic attacks takes away the reality that the attackers are not merely attacking undocumented foreign nationals, but foreign nationals in the last resort. The worst victims are those of African origin, with the claim that they (foreign nationals) are stealing South Africans’ jobs.

To address the problem with specific regard to the attacks on Swazi truck drivers, the people of Swaziland must ask themselves why Swazi workers have had to throw themselves into such super exploitative conditions when Swaziland is marketed by the ruling regime as a “peaceful” country where everyone is happy? The fact of the matter is that the tinkhundla regime has destroyed the economy of Swaziland. It is plainly due to the tinkhundla regime that many Swazis have abandoned the country in search for better educational, health and economic opportunities, particularly in South Africa. It is the regime which has ensured a “first world” glamorous lifestyle for the royal family while close to 70 percent of the population remain poverty stricken.

Thus, unless the tinkhundla system is overthrown and a truly democratic Swaziland formed, one where freedom is used to develop the people in a democratic manner, more Swazis will continue to face risks of attacks in South Africa and other parts of the globe wherever they find themselves. All efforts must thus be towards uniting against the tinkhundla regime which continues to oppress and impoverish the people.

The CPS notes and welcomes the good work that has been done by unions under the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and other progressive forces in condemning the violence and the threats, but also for raising consciousness of workers on this issue. The work that has been done by Cosatu to mobilise for the unionisation of workers, including foreign nationals, is commendable towards uniting workers. It is when workers are united against capitalism along with national chauvinism, that they will be able to defeat divisive attitudes, tendencies and beliefs like xenophobia.

Combat revenge xenophobic attacks

 While the CPS condemns the xenophobic violence taking place in South Africa, the Party does not condone any revenge attacks against South African truck drivers who cross over onto Swaziland roads. The CPS thus equally condemns any chauvinistic approach to the matter, as well as anti-South African worker sentiments, including plans to attack South African truck drivers and other South African nationals working in Swaziland. National chauvinism, including narrow nationalism, is as wrong as the xenophobic attacks which the CPS condemns.

The CPS thus calls for the widest possible unity within the workers of the world, in general, and African workers, in particular, against the root cause of xenophobia, capitalism, especially in its imperialist form. The people of Swaziland have also to unite in the fight for the democratisation of the country, for the free development of the people of Swaziland.

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland

Communist Party of Swaziland on International Women’s Day 2019: A call for maximum mass defiance in the maximum number of sites against the inherently patriarchal tinkhundla regime

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) joins the entire working class of the world to observe International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day remains as important today as it was when it was first organised in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America, officially marked a public holiday in the Soviet Union soon after the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution and recognised by the United Nations in 1975.

All these events followed a solution by the First International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Sturtgart in 1907. The Conference resolved to declare 8 March the International Day of Working Women, and to mark it every year as the day of international solidarity among the female proletariat in their struggle for equal economic and political rights.

The CPS pays tribute to the many women revolutionaries who have waged the struggle for freedom in Swaziland. So many of these women, largely unknown and unacknowledged, have resolutely rejected the tinkhundla system and made huge sacrifices in the struggle for freedom for all.

Swaziland’s tinkhundla regime continues to be a hotbed of patriarchy. Inherently patriarchal, the regime continues to oppress women, violating its own constitution, while at one and the same time deceiving the world of its seriousness to uplift women. As such, in this context, working class and rural women are the worst victims of tinkhundla rule.

Tinkhundla’s unapologetic patriarchal approach manifested itself markedly during the sham tinkhundla elections in 2018. While the CPS has made clear calls for the rejection of tinkhundla elections, the Mswati regime’s suppression of women every time these elections take place cannot escape condemnation.

In a clear attempt to disempower as many women as possible during the 2018 tinkhundla elections, women candidates were made to kneel when presenting their election manifestos while their male counterparts could easily make theirs while standing. The rhetoric that the regime was serious about the rights of women was easily discredited by these acts of suppression.

Every tinkhundla elections period results in the killing of women and children for ritual purposes. Some people in Swaziland still hold on to the regime’s misguided belief that women’s private parts bring about success, whether in business or any endeavour such as elections. In this fierce competition for positions in the money train known as parliament, women and children become the most immediate victims. It has become clear to many people of Swaziland that if the tinkhundla system is allowed to prevail a day longer then the ritual murder of women and children will not stop.

The violence that women continue to endure must be condemned. Studies continue to show that, in Swaziland, one in three girls experience sexual violence before they reach the age of 18. The regime normalised early and forced marriage, including marital rape. This culture of violence against women manifested itself when Mswati’s parliament took about ten years to pass the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, partly because the regime was against clauses in the Bill which banned incest, unlawful stalking, abduction and flashing.

Patriarchy must be tackled head-on wherever and whenever it manifests itself, not least in the respective institutions of the tinkhundla system and places of employment. As the people of Swaziland wage their struggle for freedom, it is also important that they fight this scourge within their own ranks. The struggle for freedom from tinkhundla rule is also a struggle against patriarchy in general. All formations within the progressive camp must deepen the struggle for the eradication of all backward tendencies, including patent and latent acts of women suppression within these formations. Male chauvinism must find no sympathy within the progressive movement!

The CPS calls upon all working class and rural women to unite and wage a relentless struggle against the tinkhundla regime, for freedom, democracy and socialism. The current tinkhundla system is incapable of offering a concrete route towards the total emancipation of women. These struggles must lead to the maximum mass defiance of the regime in the maximum number of sites.

Only with the end of the oppression and exploitation of one by one another will there be true freedom for all, women included. Under the current concrete conditions of Swaziland, the first phase must necessarily involve the struggle to overthrow the absolute monarch and building a people’s democratic republic through which the foundations of socialism will be built.

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

Communist Party of Swaziland's Central Committee Statement: A year of intensification of mass defiance against the Mswati regime and the role of international solidarity in the fight for freedom in Swaziland

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 51^st 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 50^th 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 48^th 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 54^th 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

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Twitter: @CPSwaziland