A rift has opened between the major opposition party in
Swaziland and the most vocal of the prodemocracy movement’s organisations.
PUDEMO – the People’s United Democratic Movement – has
suspended the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) and thrown it out of its
offices.
The move comes after long-running arguments about the
direction of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, where King Mswati III
rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The SSN runs a Google forum in which many people in the
past few months have been posting items critical of PUDEMO’s leadership. Often,
the language in posts directed at some leaders of PUDEMO has been abusive.
Today (9 May 2012), in a statement, PUDEMO announced the
indefinite suspension of the SSN, which it formed in 1997. It also reported
that the office in Johannesburg, South Africa, where SSN is based, will be
closed within seven days.
Its statement it said, SSN had ‘a systematic,
well-orchestrated and deliberate plan to undermine, maliciously attack and
insult PUDEMO as an organisation, its leadership, its structures and its most
disciplined cadres, including the president.’
PUDEMO went on, ‘SSN Google forum has been used by
certain elements to attack the integrity of the movement and its leadership
with SSN leadership shockingly silent. We have held meetings, time and again,
to engage soberly and avoid the point which SSN Google forum has pushed us to.
‘It is for that reason that we wish to state
categorically that PUDEMO will not allow itself to be abused or be treated less
than other organisations, to which most SSN comrades belong in South Africa or
wherever.
‘We are also alarmed at the attacks on our genuine
allies, particularly certain members of the tripartite alliance in South Africa
by the recklessness of these elements, as well as on genuine forces for
democracy in Swaziland, particularly TUCOSWA [Trade Union Congress of Swaziland]
and SNUS [Swaziland national Union of Students] recently.’
The PUDEMO statement was posted on the SSN Google forum
today.
Initial reactions from people posting to the SSN were of
disbelief, but also a resolution to continue with criticism of PUDMO’s
leadership.
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