Swazi students have given the Swaziland Government an ultimatum – pay us our overdue allowances by Friday or we will bring the kingdom to a ‘standstill’.
This week Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, failed to get the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or the African Development Bank to inject cash into his bankrupt budget. Last week the government announced it would pay about E60 million (8.5 million US dollars) in severance pay to politicians when the present parliament ends in 2013. Damini alone will get E1.6 million, and his deputy Themba Masuku E1.4 million, when they leave office.
Meanwhile, the government has not paid tertiary students their allowances since August and many are going without food.
Now, Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), has warned, ‘If government does not pay all the outstanding allowances for tertiary students by Friday this week, (8 October 2010), she will surely face and see the wrath of the angry youth of Swaziland next week.’
He said that politicians had recently received large sums in back pay ‘at the expense of hungry students’.
‘All are this signs of an irresponsible government, a government made of selfish, greedy, myopic and self centred men who don’t care about the needs and wants of the people.’
He added, ‘We call upon the government of the illegally-appointed prime minister to release all the outstanding allowances by Friday.
‘If this is not the case, we will bring the whole country to standstill like we did in February this year. This is not a threat but a promise that we will surely keep and flood the streets of Mbabane if our key demands are not met.’
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