Swaziland democracy activists are today (5 June 2009) demonstrating against King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and demanding the release of political prisoners in the kingdom.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) is holding a demonstration today (Friday 5 June 2009) to demand the release of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) President Mario Masuku, his lawyer Thulani Maseko and all political prisoners in Swaziland’s jails.
SSN in a statement says the picket at the Swaziland Consulate at Jorrissen Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa, is a protest ‘in response to the deepening crisis of political rule for King Mswati. His reaction to internal and international pressure has evoked a violent confrontational posture, detaining anyone he deems belligerent to his autocratic rule and branding them terrorists.
‘Mswati has ordered the arrest of many senior activists and effectively decreed the shutting down of dissenting media institutions.’
Representatives of the SSN also joined in and addressed a march in protest against the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation www.sabc.co.za yesterday that called on the broadcaster to ‘stop promoting’ King Mswati and ‘focus on essential issues of HIV/AIDS, food and poverty’.
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