The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has
joined a growing chorus of condemnation of Swaziland for blocking a peaceful memorial service in the kingdom for Nelson Mandela on Friday (13 December 2013).
Bongani Masuku, COSATU
Secretary of International Affairs, said, ‘It is the most desperate act
of shame imaginable.’
Swaziland police blocked the Lutheran
Church in Manzini, Swaziland’s main business city, to stop a service to mourn
the death of Mandela. It had been organised by the Swaziland United DemocraticFront (SUDF), an organisation that is campaigning for democracy in Swaziland,
where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Masuku said in a statement, ‘When
the whole world recognises that whether you want freedom or not, it shall
eventually come, we have a denialist of note in Mswati. He still entertains the
illusion that he can stop the tide of freedom by closing out those who represents
the best in human values.’
Earlier, the People’s United
Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), a political party, which like all others is
banned in Swaziland, said, ‘Swaziland has proven yet again to be the
skunk of the world by breaking up a peaceful memorial service to honour
Mandela.’
It added, ‘The Swazi regime continues to show its
intolerance for anything resembling democracy by forcing a halt of a Mandela
memorial in Swaziland.’
Masuku of COSATU said, ‘In
the same way that the apartheid regime failed to stop Madiba for more than 30 years
of the long walk, they won't stop the people of Swaziland and the world in pushing forward with the cause. Mandela was labelled a
terrorist in apartheid RSA [South Africa] and PUDEMO have been declared
terrorists too, what a striking similarity, what a common future for all
freedom fighters.’
See also
MANDELA MEMORIAL FREEDOM
PLEDGE
SWAZI POLICE BREAK UP MANDELA
PRAYERS
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