RELEASED INTO THE BIG SWAZI PRISON

Kenworthy News Media, 15 July 2015

SOURCE

After having spent over a year in prison awaiting trial for having shouted pro-democracy slogans, pro-democracy leaders Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini were granted bail Tuesday (14 July 2015) in the small absolute monarchy of Swaziland, writes Kenworthy News Media.

Masuku and Dlamini, both high-ranking members of banned pro-democracy party the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), are charged under Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act, an act that Amnesty International calls “inherently repressive”. They have previously applied for bail twice without success. 

Pressure led to release

Mounting pressure for their release, combined with a crisis in the judiciary in Swaziland that has led to the sacking of the Chief Justice and the Minister of Justice and the subsequent release of two other pro-democracy advocates in June, may have paved the way for Masuku and Dlamini having been granted bail.

An international campaign for their release is supported by amongst others Amnesty International, the ANC, the Swaziland United Democratic Front, the International Trade Union Confederation as well as former anti-apartheid organisations ACTSA and Afrika Kontakt from the UK and Denmark respectively.

The Danish embassy, the UK Foreign Office and the Commenwealth have also raised the matter of Masuku and Dlamini’s case and imprisonment with the Swazi government, as has the former Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mogens Lykketoft, who will be the next President of the UN General Assembly.

Suffered more than enough

According to Swazi trade union leader Wonder Mkhonza, who knows both Masuku and Dlamini personally, they have already suffered more than enough in prison. “No one deserves such treatment”, he says.

Mario Masuku, who suffers from diabetes, has been seriously ill during his prison spell, but has been denied proper treatment. Maxwell Dlamini has previously been tortured by police while detained, and was receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of his arrest in 2014.

Both have had to sleep on the floor in a small cell with as many as 35 other inmates.

Into the big prison

Although Masuku and Dlamini have now been released on bail, they still face the challenge of what Mario Masuku has called “the big prison that is Swaziland”.

These challenges include debilitating bail payments and legal expenses, gruelling bail conditions and continuous harassment of anyone who challenges the rule of absolute monarch Mswati III.

See also

DEMOCRACY LEADERS FREED ON BAIL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/democracy-leaders-freed-on-bail.html

‘NOT AFRAID OF JAIL’ – SWAZI ACTIVIST

Kenworthy News Media

May 14, 2013 

SOURCE 

Wonder Mkhonza released on bail, not free

Asked whether his imprisonment would dampen his political activism, Wonder Mkhonza replied “of course not! The threat of jail can no longer dent our spirit as we push for democracy in Swaziland.”

Wonder, who is the National Organising Secretary of Swazi liberation movement PUDEMO and Deputy General Secretary of the Swaziland Processing, Refining and Allied Workers Union (SPRAWU), spent a month in prison on charges of sedition but was released on bail yesterday. His alleged crime -  being in possession of political pamphlets.

“I was interrogated by an army of police who used a variety of strategies to make me speak,” Wonder said of his prison ordeal. “The prison authorities refused me visitation rights for my colleagues and friends and I was to moved to the maximum section in solitary confinement at Matsapha.”

Wonder thanked those who had contributed to his bail and campaigned for his release. “I appreciate the support that was given to SPRAWU, PUDEMO and to me and family personally” he said. “And I appreciate the support from our international allies – both organizations and individuals – who went out of their way to support our struggle for a just society in Swaziland. On that note I wish to applaud the speed with which the campaign for my release was implemented; it made a huge difference.”

Although he is now out of prison, Wonder is not a free man. Amongst other things he has to report every week to a police station and surrender his passport, and the court cases of political activists in Swaziland such as Wonder are deliberately drawn out for years.

“He joins a growing list of many political prisoners [in Swaziland] who have been out on bail, but their cases are deliberately not finalized. In the process these are suffering from the extremely stringent conditions that are imposed on them,” as PUDEMO National Spokesperson Zakhele Mabuza put it.

See also

ARRESTED ACTIVIST MKHONZA GETS BAIL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/arrested-activist-mkhonza-gets-bail.html

ARRESTED ACTIVIST MKHONZA GETS BAIL

Kenworthy News Media

May 10, 2013

SOURCE 

Wonder Mkhonza granted bail

According to a statement today from PUDEMO national spokesperson, Zakhele Mabuza, Wonder Mkhonza has been granted a bail of 15 000 emalangeni, approximately 1650 US$, writes Kenworthy News Media.

 Wonder Mkhonza was arrested on April 12 for allegedly possessing 5000 political pamphlets, and the international ACT Now: Free Wonder Mkhonza campaign started by Africa Contact has called for his release ever since.

“This is quite a huge ransom to pay for ordinary poor Swazis who live on under $ 1 per day,” says the statement. “But Leo Gama, Wonder’s lawyer has been able to convince the court and secure the release on bail.”

Mabuza thanked those who had campaigned for Wonder’s release, but insisted that Wonder remained a political prisoner even though he was released on bail. “The ransom he is to pay for his freedom is only meant to keep him away from the prison while out there he is still a prisoner. He joins a growing list of many political prisoners who are all our members that have been out on bail, but their cases are deliberately not finalized. In the process these are suffering from the extremely stringent conditions that are imposed on them. Such include unreasonable reporting at a police station and the removal of their freedom to travel outside Swaziland.”

The fight for the release of political prisoners such as Wonder is linked directly to the fight for democracy and human rights in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, said the statement. “However difficult the route to democracy might be, we are never intimidated and we shall continue to call for the release of all political prisoners; respect for people’s rights; unbanning of all political parties; and the democratization of the country’s politics.”

PUDEMO TAKES THE MESSAGE TO DENMARK

Kenworthy News Media

May 9, 2013

SOURCE 

PUDEMO outlines road to democracy in Swaziland during visit to Denmark

“Swaziland is a dictatorship where the king rules by decree. You should go there to see for yourselves how PUDEMO-members and those who are associated with them are treated. Conditions are worsening and the youth are becoming increasingly impatient,” Linus Mavimbela told members of Danish party the Red Green Alliance, writes Kenworthy News Media.

Linus Mavimbela, International Secretary of the banned Swazi party the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), visited Denmark between the April 25 and May 2 2013. He was meant to have been accompanied by PUDEMO’s Organising Secretary, Wonder Mkhonza, but Wonder was symptomatically arrested by just prior to the visit, charged with sedition for allegedly being in possession of 5000 political pamphlets.

The visit was part of the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy (DIPD) project between PUDEMO and the Red Green Alliance and centered on the Annual Conference of the Red Green Alliance. “The conference was very interesting, especially the open and frank debates where ordinary members took an active part, and the fact that the Red Green Alliance had succeeded in forming a cohesive political alliance out of several political parties,” said Mavimbela.

“In Swaziland we also need open and honest debates and to make the various organisations of the democratic movement come together and fight for democracy so that we can push the regime to a point where it is willing to talk. PUDEMO has always believed in honest dialogue and we have seen the value of this in the fact that people are beginning to question the way they are governed.”

After the conference, Linus Mavimbela met with several stakeholders, including DIPD Director Bjørn Førde, representatives of the Danish Social Democrats, members of the Red Green Alliance international department and Red Green Alliance MP Christian Juhl.

”We can learn a lot from the Red Green Alliance,” Mavimbela told Christian Juhl. “For instance it is important to understand the people when you are a party official or politician. You shouldn’t become a career politician, and the Red Green Alliance has a rotation system and wage cap for this reason.”

PUDEMO has good programmes and will to implement them, insists Mavimbela. “But we haven’t been able to implement them properly because we don’t have the resources and because the regime has clamped down heavily on us for many years.”

“What PUDEMO has done well,” he says, “is that we have succeeded in making our people understand that another Swaziland is possible – a Swaziland where political parties are legal and where two thirds of the population do not have to live in absolute poverty. But to succeed in bringing about multi-party democracy in Swaziland we need to show ordinary Swazis that democracy is an option worth fighting for and worth risking your livelihood for. And we need a combination of mass mobilization and outside pressure.”

Applying this pressure has been difficult, however, both because of the dangers of being associated with PUDEMO – being arrested, tortured, beaten up or killed – and because the regime rewards those faithful to it with better job opportunities  and other fringe benefits.

“This means that many people are not focusing on how to achieve democracy but on how to be recognized by the regime so as to be co-opted and rewarded. Many of these people are not really loyal to the regime but want the benefits that come with being associated with the regime,” says Linus Mavimbela. “It is therefore necessary for all the sectors of the ruling elite – including traditional leaders and big business – to feel the heat.”

DENMARK PROTESTS ACTIVIST’S ARREST

Kenworthy News Media, April 22, 2013

Swaziland’s constitution guarantees freedom of speech, says Danish civil servant

SOURCE

“Swaziland’s constitution guarantees the right to free speech,” senior civil servant Mads Mayerhofer from the Danish Minsitry of Foreign Affairs replied to a letter to Danish MP Christian Juel from the Red-Green Alliance, writes Kenworthy News Media.

The letter from Christian Juel to Mads Mayerhofer concerned the recent arrest and charge of sedition of Swazi trade unionist and political activist, Wonder Mkhonza, for the possession of 5000 political pamphlets – acts by the Swazi authorities that are evidently a breach of any meaningful interpretation of the concept of free speech.

According to Meyerhofer, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially contacted Swaziland’s High Commission in Pretoria concerning Wonder Mkhonza, who is part of a Danish government-funded project between the Red-Green Alliance and banned Swazi political party PUDEMO.

“The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have asked the Swazi authorities to confirm the detaining of Wonder Mkhonza and state the reasons hereof,” wrote Meyerhofer.

Denmark has been the largest contributor of foreign aid to the democratic movement in Swaziland for many years, although all Danish aid to Swaziland will be stopped by the end of 2014 as Swaziland’s BNI has exceeded the arbitrary limit that Denmark has set above which no development aid can be given.

Ironically, Swaziland was recently ranked as the 5th poorest country in the world by American financial news and opinion organisation, 24/7 Wall St., in a survey that pointed to Swaziland’s poverty rate of 69,2%, limited economic growth, reliance on subsistence agriculture, and low life expectancy due largely to Swaziland having the highest HIV/Aids rate in the world.

See also

CAMPAIGN TO FREE ACTIVIST GROWS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/campaign-to-free-activist-grows.html

CAMPAIGN TO FREE ACTIVIST GROWS

Kenworthy News Media

SOURCE 

People from around the world want to Free Wonder

Since the campaign to Free Wonder Mkhonza started on April 16 [2013], hundreds of people from around the world have petitioned Swaziland’s government to free him, writes Kenworthy News Media

Trade unionist and pro-democracy activist Wonder Mkhonza was detained by Swazi police on Friday April 12 and later charged with sedition for being in possession of 5000 political pamphlets.

Nearly 400 people from Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, neighbouring South Africa and Africa in general, and as far away as the USA and Australia, have petitioned for his release in the first couple of days of the campaign. Many have left messages of support.

Many of these messages spoke of Swaziland’s poor human rights record and the many laughable trumped up charges that the regime charge pro-democracy activists such as Wonder with. “Human Rights are just on paper in Swaziland,” said Gcinaphi from South Africa.

“Nobody should be arrested for possessing pamphlets,” stated Mona from Denmark.

Others lauded Wonder for his efforts and sacrifice. “Wonder is a peace-loving citizen of Swaziland. He is one of the many Swazi’s that live with the hope that someday Swaziland shall be a country governed by the people and they themselves should be key role players in bringing that democracy,” wrote Sebenzile from Swaziland.