The repression of the people of Swaziland

12 April 2012

The Young Communist League of South Africa [Ufasimba] highly condemns the brutality by the Swazi government against its own people. By itself this act, as perpetrated by this anti-democratic institution, seeks to ensure that the people of Swaziland are kept at bay by fear and terror in the same way as the dissolute apartheid South African regime did before 1994.

The government of Swaziland must wake up and face the reality that its oppression is beyond comprehension. And this proves clearly that exploitation and oppression are not necessarily racial matters but have always been permeated by the reality of one class exploiting the other, as we notice the black on black oppression in Swaziland spearheaded by a modern and the last standing African monarchy in collusion with the local and foreign bourgeoisie.

We reiterate that the people of Swaziland have a right to determine themselves and the right to trade unions, which are part of the universal rights respected across the world in liberal or socialist countries without distinction. The Swazi government and its tinkundla must start appreciating the fact that they can no longer continue ruling a country by violence and that all oppressive regimes come to an end when faced with a growing class conscientisation.

We further call on the South African government and the SADC Troika to take steps towards ensuring that Swaziland impasse is resolved in the last surviving undemocratic monarch existing in Africa. The Swaziland situation is one that leads to spill overs if not managed correctly and has capacity to undermine South Africa’s gains.

It is important that the people of South Africa understand the need to stand in solidarity with the people of Swaziland as they fight for their own liberation from the clutches of the Tinkundla system which has proven to be an exploitative elite system that will do anything to feed itself whilst the masses live in squalor.

Issued by YCLSA head office

For more information contact:

Mangaliso Stalin Khonza
National Spokesperson
Young Communist League of SA
Cell: +27 83617 5546
Tel(w): +27 11 339 3621
Email: khonzam@gmail.com