Kenworthy
News Media, 31 July 2015
Maxwell
Dlamini finally walked out of prison in July [2015], released on bail after
having spent fourteen months in squalid conditions in the prisons of
Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati III. His crime was to have sung a
pro-democracy song, writes Kenworthy News Media.
“Jail
being the lonely place that it is, there are moments when you feel down and
morally low”, says Maxwell. “But at all times I was motivated by the fact that
our course is just, and I refuse to abdicate my responsibility or allow the
state to break me”.
No
Christmas presents in jail
Maxwell Dlamini was born in 1989 in a small village in the south of Swaziland called Mantambe. His father works in a hospital and his mother is a farmer. He was top of his high school class, and was admitted to university as a commerce student in 2007.
Maxwell Dlamini was born in 1989 in a small village in the south of Swaziland called Mantambe. His father works in a hospital and his mother is a farmer. He was top of his high school class, and was admitted to university as a commerce student in 2007.
He is a
passionate supporter of the Mbabane Highlanders football team and his friends
say he is himself a gifted football player. He says that the birth of his
daughter on Christmas Eve last year was the most beautiful moment in his life.
Unfortunately,
he was not there to witness it. Because even though Maxwell might be seem like
an ordinary guy with ordinary dreams for himself, his girlfriend and their baby
girl, the society he happened to grow up in is by no means ordinary.
Because
having ordinary dreams in the absolute monarchy that is Swaziland, where over
two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day while the
royal family live opulence, means that you are seen as a threat to the regime
of King Mswati III.
Arrested
development
The Swazi regime has constantly harassed Maxwell, tortured, and kept him in prison simply for being an active and high-ranking member of the banned political party PUDEMO and for demanding democratic change and socio-economic justice in his country of birth.
The Swazi regime has constantly harassed Maxwell, tortured, and kept him in prison simply for being an active and high-ranking member of the banned political party PUDEMO and for demanding democratic change and socio-economic justice in his country of birth.
Maxwell
was first arrested in 2010 for his role in a student protest. In 2011, on the
eve of the largest pro-democracy rally in recent history in Swaziland that he
helped plan, he was arrested, tortured, and charged with possession of
explosives.
“I was
tied to a bench with my face looking upwards and they suffocated me with the
black plastic bag with a huge police officer on my stomach. They did that over
and over again till I collapsed. They told me that they will kill me for
causing trouble in the country”, Maxwell told me after his release.
He was
released on bail after spending a year in prison, and over three years later,
he was finally acquitted of the charges. He was detained again on Mayday 2014
together with PUDEMO President Mario Masuku. They were charged with having sung
a pro-democracy song and having shouted “viva PUDEMO” and released on bail over
a year later without the trial having started.
“I was
made to sleep on the floor with very few blankets. I was kept in solitary
confinement with only a bucket to relieve myself. There was no clean running
water and we were made to bath with cold water. Our friends and relatives were
made to wait for long hours before they could see us just for five minutes”,
Maxwell says of his latest prison ordeal.
Not a
desktop warrior
Maxwell was only a few courses away from finishing his undergraduate degree that had been disrupted by prison sentences, withdrawal of his scholarship on political grounds and harsh bail conditions when he was arrested last year.
Maxwell was only a few courses away from finishing his undergraduate degree that had been disrupted by prison sentences, withdrawal of his scholarship on political grounds and harsh bail conditions when he was arrested last year.
Nevertheless,
he insists that while he is disappointed that he has not been able to finish
his degree, he will not put any personal career opportunities above the
struggle for a free and democratic Swaziland.
“I am as keenly interested in finishing and obtaining my degree as I am in putting to its logical conclusion this struggle we are waging”, Maxwell says, while admitting that he might have to finish his degree abroad because the regime wishes to ostracise him.
“I am as keenly interested in finishing and obtaining my degree as I am in putting to its logical conclusion this struggle we are waging”, Maxwell says, while admitting that he might have to finish his degree abroad because the regime wishes to ostracise him.
“I hope
that I can inspire others to rise out of their fear and challenge this backward
and archaic system of royal supremacy, not through desktop and boardroom
activism, but through open defiance”.
Dialogue
with a dictator
Nevertheless, Maxwell insists that he and PUDEMO are willing to negotiate a settlement for the future of Swaziland with an absolute monarch and his government who have harassed, jailed, and tortured him and many of his fellow activists.
Nevertheless, Maxwell insists that he and PUDEMO are willing to negotiate a settlement for the future of Swaziland with an absolute monarch and his government who have harassed, jailed, and tortured him and many of his fellow activists.
He also
insists, however, that the world must demand that the king must hold honest and
constructive negotiations with Swaziland’s democratic movement that will bring
about a democratic Swaziland.
“I am
convinced that the future of Swaziland lies in a negotiated settlement that
will lead to the unbanning of PUDEMO. In the meantime I call on the world not
to loosen the noose around the regime’s neck until it wilts and subsequently
collapses”.
Facts:
Swaziland is an absolute monarchy where the king appoints the Prime Minister and the government and controls everything from the judiciary to land allocations and the national budget. Political parties are banned and political leaders such as Maxwell Dlamini are harassed, tortured, treated as terrorists and sometimes killed for advocating a peaceful transition to democracy.
The
Suppression of Terrorism Act, which Maxwell Dlamini and many other Swazi
activists have been charged under, has been referred to as “inherently
repressive” by Amnesty international.
Two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, many on handouts from the UN. Swaziland has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.
Two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, many on handouts from the UN. Swaziland has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.
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