PUDEMO’s Mario Masuku urges Denmark to
pressurize Swazi regime
Kenworthy News Media, June 22, 2013
During an official visit to Denmark this week, President of the People’s
United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO)
in Swaziland, Mario Masuku, met with the speaker of the Danish parliament and
former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mogens
Lykketoft, and several other Danish MP’s, whom he urged to increase the
pressure on Swaziland’s undemocratic regime, Writes Kenworthy News Media.
Mogens Lykketoft referred to PUDEMO as the “leading democratic movement
in Swaziland” in a press release, where he also spoke of “possibilities of
stronger pressure coming from especially South Africa and the EU regarding
freedom of speech and organisation, and a process that would allow the poverty
stricken country a democratic constitution.”
“I was very pleased to be able to meet Mogens Lykketoft and the other
Danish MP’s, and have discussions with several political parties in Denmark,”
Masuku told me. “Swaziland is famous for all the wrong things. For having the
highest aids-prevalence in the world, for nearly 70% of the population having
to live on under 1$ a day, and for being the country in the world that spends
most on the military per capita, even though we have no external enemies.”
The support for absolute monarch King Mswati III’s repressive and
undemocratic regime is dwindling, said Mario Masuku, who pointed to the campaign
for boycotting elections led by PUDEMO as one of the ways to reveal the lack of
support for Swaziland’s absolute monarchy amongst the population.
“The national elections in Swaziland are not free and fair,” Mario
Masuku said. “We have therefore decided not to participate in them, but to
instead educate civic society and individuals on what democratic and
non-democratic elections are and on the fundamental rights of the population.”
The registering process for Swaziland’s general elections in September are
underway and there is immense pressure on those eligible to vote to register.
People have been offered bribes to register twice according to the Elections
and Boundaries Commission, cabinet ministers and the sole mobile phone company
in Swaziland, MTN, which has Swaziland’s absolute monarch as a major
shareholder, is giving presents to those who register, and many people who fail
to register are threatened with eviction by their local chief.
Nevertheless, only half of the electorate are expected to register and
even less to actually come out and vote on election day. Only half of the
population eligible to vote did so at the last election in 2008, and the
proportion of the population who vote in elections has been falling steadily
since independence.
Instead of the present undemocratic and corrupt Tinkundla election
system, where absolute monarch king Mswati III chooses the cabinet and Prime
Minister, as well as a large proportion of the Senate, and has full control
over Swaziland’s coffers and armed forces, PUDEMO are fighting for a truly
democratic society for Swaziland, says Mario Masuku.
“PUDEMO envisages a united country that has a transparent, accountable,
culturally vibrant and economically sustainable government, and a country where
all political parties work together with civil society for a prosperous and
free democratic Swaziland”, Masuku said.
“We believe that our liberation will be done by ourselves. But in order
to pressurize the present undemocratic regime into a democratising process,
PUDEMO and the democratic movement in Swaziland need the support of the
European Union,” he insisted.
“The EU has a role to play in insuring that all partnership agreements
between Swaziland and the EU are respected, such as the Cotonou agreement. And
we are also calling on the EU to observe the elections now, not in September,
because pressure is being put on people now, the rights of the people are being
violated now”.
Asked what he believed the time-frame is for the democratisation of
Swaziland, Masuku said he was cautiously optimistic. “I believe we will see the
breakthrough in our lifetime. I and PUDEMO have laid a brick in the building of
a multistory structure. Others will continue, we are all in there together.”
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