Swazi Times

For three haloed years in the middle of the 80s I grew up in Swaziland, from my ninth year til the onset of highschool back in South Africa. Multiracial schooling was then a first for me but there was no need for trepidation. In the separation of the black township from the village where the white managers and technicians of the paper pulp industry resided, its spatial design and economy followed a familiar apartheid logic. Our neighbours were for a novelty black, but I never played with children outside of the school I attended, which was an exclusive primary school serving the white community of South African, British, Rhodesian, Portuguese and German ex-pats. There were just 3 Swazis in my class of 20-odd learners; the children of the black working class crowded instead the prefab classrooms of the public school in the township. The school offered the best primary education in the country and ex-pats in the capital, Mbabane, the industrial city of Manzini and those managing the pineapple plantations at the foot of the forested mountains sent their children on daily commutes to attend the school. It was an undeclared apartheid that was practiced at all the agro-industrial plants around the kingdom against whose privileged children we'd compete in the 'independent' schools sports competitions.  It's only in retrospect that I realise this white idyll was incubated by an autocratic monarchy who smiled down at us in classrooms. My parents took me and my sisters to the annual reed dance once where the then newly crowned King Mswati selected a new wife from amongst the dancing maidens. The monarchy and institutions of government were otherwise distant from the village, only ever reminded to us by the teaching of Swazi history and by the trinkets given to all school children on the royal occasions of Mswati's coronation and his deceased father's golden jubilee. Both monarchs were complicit in apartheid, at least to the extent that Mbeki and Zuma shared a cell for their 'protective custody' in 1976. Protection of liberation cadre was not guaranteed, however: as late as 1989, the kingdom did very little to prevent incursions into the country by SA security forces to assassinate student activists in the forest not far from the village of these reminisces. The ambivalence of the Swazi state towards the liberation of South Africa was rooted in the economic relations between the two countries. Experiencing a severe labour shortage in the post-World War II economic boom, the Native Recruiting Commission for the Rand mines lured and coerced Swazi labour  with a dividend per worker sent to the rockface for the tinkundla system of traditional rule. The close relationship between Native Recruiting and the kingdom was a formative relationship for what is now no less one of Swazi dependence. Since the financial crisis had taken nearly 25% out of the kingdom's revenue from custom dues, nearly all derived from South Africa, the IMF early this year approved of spending cuts. The democracy movement immediately quickened its pace with students and the unions  taking the lead. Their mass march on April 12 was snuffed out by police repression before the movement could find its Tahrir. Below are just two statements of the revolution en cued. ****************************** Swaziland Democracy Campaign in South African condemns the barbaric act of the Swazi police on ordinary people, activists, and leadership of progressive forces in Swaziland. We just received news from inside Swaziland that the Police has surrounded the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL) preventing them from moving out of the offices ahead of the mass protest starting tommorrow. We strongly condemn such acts and call upon the police to dissist from being used by Mswati to suppress the people of Swaziland . Instead ,they must join the masses in protests from freedom and Democracy. Meanwhile, yesterday more than 40 activitist who attended the SDC Anniversary Conference and Public Rally over the weeked had the political regalia and campaign material confiscated by the police at the border. We also condemn such. Despite intimidation and harasment, the planned mass actions are going ahead. COSATU, SDC and other progressive forces in South Africa are going ahead with thier 3 km march at Oshoek borders in solidarity with the suffering people Swaziland. CRACKDOWN!!! As Swazi’s gear up for the protest march billed for tomorrow (12th April 2011) and the world waits with bated breath to witness this historic event, the Government has conducted itself true to form and in furtherance of the threats uttered by the country’s illegal Prime Minister in his statement on the protest marches. Yesterday (11th April 2011), comrades returning to Swaziland from the Swaziland Democracy Campaign’s one year anniversary commemoration were intensely searched and questioned at the Oshoek border post. Some of them had their belongings including t-shirts confiscated with no information as to when they would be returned to them. The items confiscated were mainly those that have the COSATU emblem on them. There are a series of roadblocks along the route from Oshoek to Manzini including the following: at Sidwashini in Mbabane; at Mvutjini in Ezulwini, at Mhlaleni in Matsapha. At one of these roadblocks (Sidwashini), four comrades who were travelling together in the same motor vehicle went missing. They are as follows: 1.      Themba Mabuza: National Organising Secretary of the Swaziland Democratic Front (SUDF). 2.      Sifiso Mabuza: Deputy President SWAYOCO (Youth League of PUDEMO). 3.      Maxwell Dlamini: President of Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS). 4.      Samkeliso Ginindza: Deputy Secretary General of SUDF and Secretary General of SNUS. At 2050hrs, Samkeliso telephoned Mary Pais Da Silva (SDC SD Convener) and informed her that they had been stopped and the attitude of the security forces was very hostile. He further stated that they were unsure of their safety because of the conduct of the security forces towards them. It was agreed that they would keep in constant communication, however this was not the case as his mobile number is unavailable on the network (and so are the other comrades’ numbers). A legal team has been making attempts at tracing the comrades since word of their disappearance arrived at 1130hrs, but so far there is no lead as to where they are. It is generally agreed that the security forces had a hand in their disappearance. Attempts to reach the Police Headquarters have been futile as there is no answer to the telephone calls being made. Attempts at the Mbabane Police Station have not yielded any fruit, as the Station Commander is reported to be out of office and he is unreachable on his mobile number and this was as soon as attempts to call him thereon were made. At first his phone rang with no response. The SDC condemns in the harshest terms, the manner in which the regime is attempting to derail the move to democracy. We demand that the comrades be released immediately and that these arbitrary arrests be brought to an immediate end. Arresting and detaining comrades only adds fuel to the fire that is burning in us. We shall not be deterred in flooding to the streets tomorrow. The day after: Aluta Continua!!!! BEATEN, ARRESTED AND DETAINED, BUT NOT OUT!! Mary Pais Da Silva   This below is a personal account of the treatment I received at the hands of police officers today: 1.      Two male comrades and I were at the SFTU offices where we were sending out information to our international friends on the happenings of the protest action billed for today. 2.      At roughly around 1230hrs, an army of male police barged into the offices and whilst I was in the middle of a telephonic, live interview with talk Radio 702 and headed directly to me and began punching and slapping me on my face. 3.      There was SUDF material in the office and I was questioned about it, to which I pleaded ignorance. This did not go down well with them and the same police officer (the most heavyset of them all), then came and continued assaulting me. 4.      This time around, he decided to punch me on the stomach because he then became aware of the damage he was doing to my face. Another officer then decided to assist him in my assault. 5.      I was then bundled into a van with the other two comrades and taken to the Manzini Regional headquarters where we were detained for about two and a half hours. We were questioned individually. 6.      During the whole process, I was being insulted with every vulgar word imaginable in the SiSwati language. 7.      After the interrogation, I was strictly warned to desist from my activism and the Station Commander stated that they would do everything possible to find some incriminating evidence so that I can be arrested and imprisoned because I was proving to be a very painful thorn in their behinds. 8.      I was also given a “friendly” warning that my safety cannot be guaranteed. 9.      I was then released. This is what I have to say: I will not be intimidated by these bullish antics of the government. Bashing me only strengthens my resolve in the role that I play in the democratic movement in Swaziland. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWAZILAND MUST GO TO HELL AND ON THE WAY THERE, THEY  MUST KISS MY BEAUTIFUL BEHIND!!!! AMANDLA!! More is in the offing with the coming of Spring while the king's been reportedly been taking his country's winter of a 14+% deficit to Zuma with a R10-billion loan request. Neither side is admitting the loan request but it seems the despot's days are numbered.