SOCIAL FORUM BANNED - MORE

The Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), one of the banned political parties in Swaziland, has issued this media release regarding the banning of the Southern Africa Social Forum meeting announced by Swaziland’s unelected Acting Prime Minister Bheki Dlamini yesterday (13 October 2008).

Civil Organizations comprising Labor Unions, those under the Co-coordinating Assembly for Non-Governmental Organizations, the Church and numerous other organizations from Southern Africa and beyond have been banned from holding a meeting on issues affecting them in Swaziland this week. The meeting was scheduled to be held from the 16^th to the 18^th of October 2008. It is worth mentioning that this Forum was planned a long time ago and various consultations had been held with the Swazi Government to this end.

As has been the case in the past, the tinkhundla regime has always shifted the responsibility of such matters of the freedom of assembly to the royal police force. PUDEMO is aware that meetings were held with the police earlier in the year where the regime granted that the forum be held only after the national elections, to which the organizers agreed.

Today the state arrogantly rejects the forum on the grounds that it will not be in the interest of the nation, peace and security. PUDEMO is aware that the actual reasons for disallowing this meeting are that the king has called the nation to the cattle byre; that the issues to be discussed are those affecting all the poor and underprivileged in our society and those bordering on corruption and mishandling of taxpayers' resources by governments, including that of Swaziland.

This ban will not hide the dilapidating health care, lack of sanitary systems, the abject poverty against extravagance by those in authority.

We condemn this dictatorial, ruthless and senseless autocratic reaction by this regime wherein it violates both the Swazis and global community's fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression. This is testimony to what PUDEMO has been saying for long that the people of Swaziland live under a dictatorship through the absolute monarch, lacking good governance under the peoples' will.

The Swazi people have sought for dialogue, peaceful transition and have gone through the courts of law to no success. We call on the international community to assess as to who the aggressor is here; what options are there for the poor , starving and oppressed people who seek a forum to share with others the current situations and possible resolutions to them.

PUDEMO calls for the members of the civil society to take drastic steps towards solidarity with the oppressed, poor and starving, implementations of socio-economic sanctions against the Swazi leadership.

For more information contact:

Mario Masuku –PUDEMO President:+268 608 3338

Or

Sphasha Dlamini- PUDEMO Secretary General: +268 608 9783

See also

SWAZILAND SOCIAL FORUM BANNED

SOCIAL FORUM BANNED - UPDATE

SOCIAL FORUM BANNED - UPDATE

Following the news that the Swazi Government has illegally banned the Southern Africa Social Forum from meeting in Swaziland this week comes this media release from the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), based in Namibia.You will notice that the Forum meets regularly and has had no trouble from governments in the past - not even from the most repressive regime in the region, Zimbabwe.

The Legal Assistance Centre has leant with deep sadness and disappointment of the attempts by the Swaziland Government to ban the taking place of the Southern Africa Social Forum. The Forum was to meet in Manzini, Swaziland on the 16-18^th October, 2008, but the Prime Minister of Swaziland, in a press release of this morning, banned the meeting.

The Swazi Government claimed that the meeting of civil society and human rights activists will not be in the national interest and will compromise peace, security and stability of the Kingdom. If the meeting will continue, the organisers and those attending the meeting risks being arrested. The Southern African Social Forum meets every year in a Southern African country and brings together several hundred activists to discuss pertinent social justice matters affecting the region and beyond.

The LAC views the illegal actions of the Swaziland Government as a blatant violation of the rights of people to association, speech and to participate in democracy, under both the Swaziland Constitution and international law, such as the SADC Treaties, to which Swaziland is a signatory. We are indeed concerned of the gradual erosion of established standards of human rights in not only in Swaziland, but also in countries such as Zimbabwe.

The 2005 Southern African Social Forum took place in Harare, Zimbabwe. It had the largest participation so far with around 4,000 people taking part. Participants came from all Southern African countries, including Namibia.

At the Zimbabwe meeting, the event organisers had been put under pressure from the Zimbabwean police who warned speakers that any criticism of Robert Mugabe would lead to the event being closed down. But by the end of the meeting, buoyed by the size of the participation, speakers were denouncing Mugabe. Half of the watching police were nodding along in agreement with the statements at the Social Forum in Harare. It is obvious that the Swaziland Government is afraid of something similar!

See also

SWAZILAND SOCIAL FORUM BANNED