Stop ikke støtte til Swaziland, siger demokratibevægelse til regeringen

“Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) [paraplyorganisation og talerør for de demokratiske kræfter i Swaziland] er chokerede over, at DANIDA har valgt at stoppe den økonomiske støtte til demokratibevægelsen i Swaziland”, siger SUDFs koordinator, Wandile Dludlu til Afrika Kontakt.

DANIDA informerede i juli Afrika Kontakt (som har flere DANIDA-finansierede projekter i Swaziland, blandt andet et med SUDF) om, at dette ville resultere i at alle projekter i Swaziland ville stoppe med udgangen af 2014.

“No other choice” than self-determination for Western Sahara

“There is no other choice but self-determination,” says a lady interviewed in a new documentary about Western Sahara made by 31-year-old English independent film-maker and journalist, Dominic Brown. She is the wife of one of the many activists belonging to Western Sahara’s indigenous population, the Saharawis, who have been imprisoned and tortured for campaigning for independence for Africa’s last colony.

According to the documentary, called La Badil  (literally “no other choice”),  the Saharawis have been discriminated and systematically robbed of their resources by Morocco since a Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara in 1975 that was carried out in agreement with the colonial power Spain. Because, as a speak over in the documentary says, “Western Sahara’s abundance of natural resources provides vital revenue to the Moroccan state.”

Global week of action for democracy in Swaziland

Swaziland’s democratic movement will hold its Global Week of Action, which has become the biggest campaign for democracy in Swaziland, between September 3 and 7 – in the wake of the several weeks of protests by Swaziland’s public sector employees.

According to a press release from one of the many Swazi organisations that have pledged to participate in the event, the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice, they are “demanding a Swaziland that is socio-economically and politically empowering to all Swazis.”

Swazi student leader denied scholarship for being politically active?

It would seem that Swazi student leader Maxwell Dlamini is being punished doubly for having actively engaged himself in Swaziland’s democratic movement. Maxwell, a commerce student, was detained and tortured by Swazi police and sat his last exams from prison where he was remanded until February accused of possession of explosives. Now he is in effect being denied the possibility to continue his studies.

“I have been readmitted at the university. The only problem I currently face now is the issue of scholarship. I did apply for government scholarship a month ago and still I haven’t received any correspondence. I have also did make a follow up but still there have been no correspondence,” Maxwell Dlamini told Africa Contact yesterday [August 11].

Cheated Swazi Ex-mineworkers link their poverty to corrupt undemocratic regime

Imagine having worked a long life deep down in the mines in a foreign country just to make ends meet for you and your family. And then imagine that your pension, or the compensation for your disability, that you thought you and your family were to live on when you retired, was lost somewhere between the company that was meant to pay it to you and your own corrupt government.

This is what has happened to thousands of Swazi mineworkers – and 50.000 mineworkers from other countries throughout Southern Africa – who have for decades worked in South Africa’s gold and diamond mines.

South African union gives support to striking Swazi teachers

The South African Public Servants Association (PSA), that represents over 200.000 South African public servants, is calling “for a speedy resolution of the on-going public service unrest in neighboring Swaziland.”

In a statement today [7. August], the union condemned the Swazi regimes handling of the “protracted strike by teachers belonging to the Swaziland National Union of Teachers” that has been underway for six weeks now, including the attempted wage reductions and firing of over 200 teachers for participating in the strike action.

Swazi students to hold conference amidst national crisis

The Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) – one of the most dynamic organisations in the Swazi democratic movement – is to hold their general conference between October 12 and 14 amidst mounting economic and social crisis in Swaziland.

SNUS has invited foreign delegations, including student organisations, unions and others from around the world to take part in the conference that will include presentations, discussions, and workshops on the role of education in development.