Swazi political prisoners and Cosatu

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There’s been silence for too long, but solidarity is growing around Swaziland’s political prisoners, with Cosatu leading the charge. Janet Smith talks to its international relations secretary, Bongani Masuku Janet Smith: What is Cosatu’s position on the current political situation in Swaziland? Bongani Masuku: Swaziland is the forgotten wound of the region that has been festering for some time now, and it’s coming to a dangerous implosion. You may remember that Swaziland’s problems are older even than the independence granted to other African states. This dates back to 1973 when the king banned the constitution and proclaimed himself the alpha and omega of Swaziland. So it means that even before South Africa could achieve freedom, before Mozambique could become free in 1975, before Zimbabwe in 1980, Swaziland was already under a monstrous royal decree.

JS: Where’s the regional, never mind international, solidarity you are trying to build around its desperate human rights record?

BM: International solidarity with the oppressed Swazi people is increasing daily as more and more people openly reject the tinkhundla system (see box). However, we still note that some, including within the SADC region, have deliberately turned a blind eye to Swaziland for convenient and expedient reasons.

That’s why there is so much political silence despite that there are political prisoners there – there has been no stage in Swaziland’s history where there were no political prisoners. But the world has always pretended there’s no problem or not to know.

So that’s why I think it’s very important to give it a special focus. The size of the country and population does not mean those who live and suffer there are less than human.

JS: There’s a growing list of political prisoners, headlined by the Pudemo (the People’s United Democratic Movement) leader Mario Masuku, and journalist Bheki Makhubu. What is their situation?

BM: Indeed, there are several political and civil rights prisoners in Swaziland, Masuku together with other suffering comrades inside prison walls.

As we talk, he is dying there, refused bail three times. He lost his two brothers and his mother while in jail, and he was denied the possibility of burying his mother and his relatives. Instead, he was taken to solitary confinement, where conditions are worse. He is also suffering from diabetes, but SADC is deafening in its silence – not because it doesn’t know, but because it doesn’t care.

JS: Why does Cosatu care?

BM: We’ve always been interested in Zimbabwe. We’ve been there several times. We’ve always been interested in Western Sahara, in Palestine, in East Timor. We’ve been interested in countries all over the world where workers and people are suffering, so there is nothing exceptional about our interest in Swaziland, although it is compelling for us because it is also a neighbouring country.

We feel we can’t make noise about faraway countries, while maintaining silence about a country next door, as people who care about human dignity and social justice. Charity begins at home.

Also, you will appreciate that Swazis and South Africans share a common history, geo-political proximity and an integrated economic relationship, so there is no way a Swazi problem would not affect South Africa and vice versa.

JS: How are you working towards the release of the political prisoners there? What kind of interventions are under way?

BM: Cosatu is working with our sister union, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland, and also with other progressive forces, particularly Pudemo. In that way, we’ve been able to get involved with the latest developments on conditions facing workers and the people, and, in particular, the political prisoners at this moment.

Take the case of Maxwell Dlamini, the secretary-general of the Swaziland Youth Congress (Swayoco), who has been denied the possibility of writing his university exams twice, and so his future is utterly destroyed by a bunch of greedy royal parasites.

We also have the case of the former MK comrade, Amos Mbedzi, who was given 85 years for expressing solidarity with the oppressed.

Yet, with all that horror, we have people turning a blind eye.

Activists and friends are completely denied access to Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini. They cannot be seen because they’re in solitary confinement in the maximum security prison in Matsapa.

JS: What’s going to happen next?

BM: The coming together of progressive civil society organisations in a meeting convened by Cosatu, where we’ve agreed to form a global coalition for the release of Swazi political and civil rights prisoners.

We’re planning an international conference in Joburg, and to launch this global coalition in July. South Africa would form its own chapter of such a coalition and so shall the UK, Denmark and so on.

We’ll be building on various internal struggles and initiatives, including what the International Labour Organisation will have done at its conference next month, and we’re expecting a particularly big push by the international trade union movement and Africa.

We now need decisiveness on the question of Swaziland at all levels.

JS: And what about the South African government and the ANC? Is Cosatu lobbying at the highest reaches of our own political structures?

BM: The alliance, particularly the ANC, has been lobbied at various levels. But we have to say, first and foremost, that there is the government on the one hand and the ANC as a liberation movement on the other. The ANC has pronounced in its own right, not as the government, since its hands are freer than the government’s to be able to make more pronouncements and take an active part. But we believe it can definitely do more.

Equally, the government has its foreign policy based firmly on the fundamentals of democracy and human rights, which are crucial to the development and renewal of Africa. The question now is: What does it mean practically, this renewal of Africa, and this advancement of human rights and development? The one cannot happen without the other. It’s not possible or is insufficient.

It’s our belief that the ANC and the government would not be inconsistent in taking a more active and decisive role, but we don’t want this to be a confusion, whereby people think South Africa must replace Swaziland’s forces in driving the struggle.

Ours should be in a support capacity, using those who believe in renewal, democracy and progress, which are the anchors of the country’s foreign policy to broaden the frontiers of human dignity and progress in Africa generally.

We need to do something extraordinary in our various capacities and forums.

* Janet Smith is the executive editor of The Star.

The Star