The Court could see through the three false witnesses and called the whole thing off while all had expected the hearing to last at least four days.
Jubilant PUDEMO members went to greet their President at the Matsapha Prison, where Mario Masuku had been kept. Now there are reports that Wandile Dludlu,President of PUDEMO’s youth wing SWAYOCO, has been harassed and tortured while waiting to see the release of Mario Masuku.
News is just coming out of Swaziland tonight (21 September 2009) that Mario Masuku,the president of the banned People’s United Democratic Party (PUDEMO), has been released from jail. He was attending the first day of his trial on a charge of sedition, when within hours he was acquitted. Masuku, probably the best known of the Swazi democrats had been in prison on remand for ten monthssince November 2008.
STATEMENT ON THE RELEASE OF PUDEMO PRESIDENT – MARIO MASUKU – 21 September 2009
The Release
The Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) wishes to formally inform its members, allies and friends both at home and abroad of the acquittal and release of its President Comrade Mario Masuku a few hours ago. He had been charged for allegedly making ‘seditious statements and supporting terrorism.’ He had been in detention since November 2008.
Since his detention and subsequent banning of PUDEMO, Masuku and his organization have remain resilient and refused to be intimidated by the oppressive and archaic tactics of the state. In court, the state failed to provide evidence and information to sustain the fabricated charge, hence Justice Mbutfo Mamba dismissed the case and granted Comrade Masuku his freedom.
Support and solidarity
PUDEMO wishes to express its appreciation for the unwavering support and solidarity displayed by our friends and allies both at home and abroad. They played an instrumental role in adding more pressure on the royal regime to release Comrade Masuku. We know this was only a battle and the war still continues until the total liberation of the oppressed people of Swaziland is released. We have no doubt that you will still be fighting on our side even beyond this trial, for we now need to channel our energies towards ensuring that the royal regime is taken down brick by brick until its foundation is destroyed!
The Legal Team
We mentioned last week that as PUDEMO, we are very pleased with our legal team. This is a team of lawyers who have always fought fearlessly for the rights of the people. We wish to thank them for their excellent work and until Swazis are liberated they must know the challenge is still there and hope more lawyers will realize this and join the fight for the liberation of the politically oppressed and abused masses of our country.
The Masuku Family
Throughout the challenge, the Masuku family has remained in support of Comrade Masuku and has never turned around to curse PUDEMO. This is because the family completely understands PUDEMO’s mission of liberating the oppressed people of Swaziland. We salute Mrs Masuku for her resilence in the face of hostile and challenging circumstances that she was subjected to. But like a true fighter, she has remained strong and focused together with the entire extended Masuku family.
The Wayforward
The release of our President does not mean the people of Swaziland are now free. PUDEMO remains committed to ensure the fully liberation and transformation of our people is realized as it is clearly explained in our document The Roadmap to a Democratic Swaziland adopted in our 6 National Congress in Matsulu in the year 2006. Work therefore shall continue inspite of the dangers, threats, intimidation, kidnappings, assaults, torture, random raids, etc constantly meted out by the oppressive regime on our members. We therefore, shall continue to fight side by side with all our democracy loving friends and allies until final victory!
Just who does Swaziland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Lutfo Dlaminithink he’s fooling?
Dlamini who also has ‘international cooperation’ as part of his job title has been telling international investors, ‘give us your money but don’t tell us how to run our country’.
OK, he didn’t use those exact words, but that’s what he meant when he addressed a meetingto launch a company called Nomakanjani Scrap and Recycling. I’m not sure Nomakanjani Scrap and Recycling is much of an ‘investor’ - it’s hardly an international conglomerate, in fact it’s owned by three people and one of them is Lutfo Dlamini’s brother.
Lutfo told the meeting that outsiders shouldn’t complain on Swaziland’s behalf. ‘The system that we use to run the country was chosen by the majority of Swazis. It is the same majority that will change it, if and when they want to. For now we love our King, we want our King and the Tinkhundla system of governance,” he said.
He said Swaziland was a kingdom by choice and the Swazi people like it as it is.
As I have often asked before where is the proof that the Swazi people ‘chose’ the present Tinkhundla system that allows King Mswati III to remain sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and where political parties are banned?
Because the system continues doesn’t mean that the Swazi people approve of it, it just means they can’t (yet) do anything about it.
Lutfo said it bothered government when foreign investors came into the country with the intention of investing and turned around to dictate terms on how the country should be ruled.
As usual he didn’t give any evidence for the assertion: which are these companies telling the government to democratise? I can think of many international human rights-based organisations that try to expose the undemocratic regime, but even if they hate the way the ordinary Swazis are exploited they continue to give aid. Just think if they did withdraw help, something like 600,000 Swazis (out of a population of about one million) would go hungry.
International investors are really only interested in making profits, not in ‘democracy’. Just look at the way the Taiwanese textile industry exploits Swazis in its factories for proof of this.
I’m not sure why Lutfo had to warn his own brother about interfering with the kingdom’s politics, but he went on to say that ‘Swaziland was so far the best country in the world’.
Best country? Who ran that election – Swaziland Election and Boundaries Commission?
Statementfrom the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO)
Saturday 19 September 2009
SUCCESSFUL PRAYER FOR MARIO MASUKU
As the trial of PUDEMO President Mario Masuku draws closer, the organization organized a special prayer session that was held in Manzini today beginning at 2pm. It must be noted that this activity was successfully done.
Present among those gathered in prayer were members of the Masuku family together with Mrs Thembi Masuku, wife to the President.
Speakers in the session included representatives of Swaziland National Union of Students, Swaziland Labour Council, PUDEMO Youth League and Masuku’s younger brother Julian. All the speakers spoke in one voice, emphasizing the need for justice to done in Swaziland , but most importantly the liberation of the people of Swaziland from the oppressive and corrupt royal regime.
Leading the prayer item on the agenda was Reverend Shabalala from the Lutheran Church in Manzini, the very church that provided the venue. In his sermon, the Reverend reminded all that it is God’s will and expectations that those in power must always provide the led with justice at all times; and when there is injustice, God will always fight on the side of the oppressed.
It was indeed a successful two hours of prayer and words of wisdom in the quest for the liberation of the oppressed people of our country. We as PUDEMO know that many people in Swaziland believe in the cause we are fighting and the ideals that Comrade Mario stands for. Outside Swaziland we also know that people are doing a lot in solidarity with Mario and the suffering people of our country. Soon the illegal regime will give way and the power it stole from the people through a coup in 1973 will be restored.
The following is an extract from an article by Vusi Sibisi, one of the most outspoken journalists in Swaziland against the ruling regime, published in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, this week.
In it he criticises the Swazi Government for introducing the Public Services Bill that ‘essentially seeks to ban civil servants from participating in the country’s politics [and has] widely been interpreted as a strong-arm tactic by the leadership to reign-in civil servants’.
Public Service Bill to add to SD’s woes
Already the all-powerful France-based Public Service International (PSI), a global union federation of organisations for civil servants, has condemned the proposed law and said it erodes the rights and freedoms of civil servants to be unionised and to belong to political parties.
The proposed law follows another controversial piece of legislation, the Suppression of Terrorism Act, which was promulgated in 2008. Already local public service organisations have put government on notice that they intended to take the battle to the streets over the proposed legislation.
As I see it, the proposed law will not help improve the international image of the Kingdom of eSwatini. For while most countries frown upon civil servants openly and publicly coming out to support political parties, especially while in the line of duty, their governments nonetheless respect the rights and freedoms of civil servants as private citizens to participate in the politics of their nations. This is why the proposed law has been viewed as an extension of the Suppression of Terrorism Act that effectively views anyone who is critical of the Tinkhundla system of government as a terrorist.
As noted by the PSI in its protest letter to the Prime Minister, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini: “The Public Service Bill would make it practically impossible for public servants to exercise their rights to organize themselves politically or to publicly express views of a political nature. This law is formulated in such a way that it can be used to suppress trade union activity and hinder the trade unions’ efforts to represent their members’ social and economic interests.”
As I see it, the proposed law is nothing but another mechanism by the ruling elite to whip into line anyone who is critical of the obtaining political status quo. This situation is unlikely to endear this country to the rest of the democratic world and as such not even a spin doctor from the heavens can project this country in a positive light on the backdrop of sustained oppression of the people from exercising their inalienable rights and freedoms as enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the national constitution.
BAE Systems says, ‘A variety of grenades, rifles and other weapons can be employed from inside the vehicle.’
It goes on, ‘In public order policing configuration, up to 12 fully equipped police officers can operate in the fully air-conditioned vehicle for extended periods. There is also ample space for the accommodation of additional police equipment.’
Three of the RG12s have been bought second-hand from a South African company at a cost of E2million each (270,000 US dollars).
The purchase of the vehicles has caused some excitement among the Swazi media where there are concerns that the vehicles were brought into the kingdom without the necessary delivery notes.
The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, spectacularly missed the point when it gave a blow-by-blow account of the bureaucratic pathway that needed to be followed to get the vehicles registered in Swaziland.
The question it missed, of course, is what are the armoured vehicles that can deploy a ‘variety of grenades, rifles and other weapons’ to be used for?
In November 2008 King Mswati III,sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch’ declared war on his own peoplewhen he instructed Barnabas Dlamini, his illegally-appointed prime minister, to crack down on ‘terrorists’. Since then freedom of speech and association have been restricted.
Later this month Mario Masuku,president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO)is due to stand trial on a terrorism charge and tensions within Swaziland are mounting. If Masuku were to be convicted we should expect some kind of civil unrest.
The purchase of the RG12 vehicles for OSSU follows the purchase in April 2009 by King Mswati for himself and his family of 20 armour plated Mercedes carswhich can resist an attack with small arms projectiles, a grenade or other explosive.
In May 2008 it was reported that the Swaziland Army had purchased ‘hundreds of guns and millions of ammunition’, as well as ‘security gadgets.’
As I wrote at the time, ‘an army would only purchase millions of bullets if it were about to go to war. And whom is Swaziland going to fight? There are no external enemies of Swaziland at the moment, so one can only assume that the bullets will be stockpiled for future use, possibly even to use against Swazis. There are fewer than one million people living in Swaziland so there will be enough bullets to go round, with some left over.’
The news of the army purchases came just as the army started to deploy troops all over Swaziland in what it described as an attempt to cut down on crime in the kingdom and round up illegal items such as guns, weapons, cars and smuggled goods.
The purchase of the RG12s is just another piece of a plan designed to impress upon the population of Swaziland that resistance to the regime will be met with force.
