The following is a message placed on the Swaziland Solidarity Network forum today (16 April 2009) reporting on the march that took place in Manzini to demand that the Swazi Government meet its obligations under the kingdom’s constitution to make available free primary school education.
The protest action organized and led by the Council of Swaziland Churches has taken place in the city of Manzini today to protest against government's failure to implement free primary education as ordered by the High Court of Swaziland.
Protesters assembled at Freedom Square as early as 8 am coming from all four regions of the country. The march within the city eventually started at about 1030 am with protesters expressing their anger and other fundamental demands in addition to that of free primary education.
These were expressed in messages on placards, pamphlets, t-shirts, revolutionary songs, speeches, etc aimed at the oppressive regime in Swaziland. Such included the release of [People’s United Democratic Movement] PUDEMO President Mario Masuku; scrapping of the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008; the return to constitutional multiparty democracy.
The march continued until 1300hours. As expected, confrontations with the hostile security agents took place. The general assessment is that the protest action was a great success judging on the number of protesters who braved the hostility of the state’s security agents.
No comments:
Post a Comment