Maxwell arrested again

According to a source within the democratic movement, Secretary General of SWAYOCO Maxwell Dlamini and Secretary for International Affairs Sonkhke Dube were arrested this morning. “They have been arrested and are in the custody of the Royal Police. The charges are not clear. Both of them were arrested this morning,” the source says.

According to PUDEMO, “about 23 Police officers arrested SWAYOCO Secretary for International, Comrade Sonkhe Dube. He was arrested at Matsanjeni. This Government is in a serious mission to silence and send more threats to the entire glorious movement.”

Last time Maxwell Dlamini was arrested he was tortured be Swazi police and put on trial for possession of explosives, a case that has been postponed several times. Africa Contact led a campaign for his release that saw his released on bail.

Swazi students’ explosives case postponed again

The case of Maxwell Dlamini, Secretary General of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), and former student leader Musa Ngubeni was postponed yet again Wednesday.

The case was supposed to have been concluded with the prosecutor’s final cross-examination of witnesses. But instead the he formally withdrew from the case, the third prosecutor to do so, citing ”own work commitments”, according to a SWAYOCO statement.

Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngubeni were abducted and tortured by Swazi security forces before a democracy rally in 2011. They were subsequently charged with possession of explosives, allegations they both deny,

Maxwell: boycott undemocratic Swazi elections

“We will not partake in these undemocratic elections in Swaziland unless political parties are unbanned. We seek to intensify our boycott,” Swaziland Nationals Union of Students (SNUS) President Maxwell Dlamini told Africa Contact today.

Maxwell Dlamini, who has himself been tortured and harassed by Swazi security forces and has currently been on trial for over a year in a case that has brought no credible evidence against him, also said that SNUS were mobilizing against this year’s elections in Swaziland, both at home and abroad.

“We as the youth of Swaziland commit ourselves fully to mobilise all young people and the generally oppressed people of Swaziland not to partake in these elections.

Maxwell harassed by police again

“The external region of SWAYOCO is disgusted and disturbed by reports that [Swazi] student leader Maxwell Dlamini was arrested [on Friday] for allegedly not abiding by his bail conditions,” SWAYOCO’s Wandile Mazibuko wrote in a statement published on PUDEMO’s Facebook account yesterday.

“This is despite that Maxwell has been religiously observing and abiding by all the bail conditions as set out by the High Court. If anything, it has been the state that has been giving this reason or the other for failure to capture on the record books his reporting to the police station,” Mazibuko continued.

No legal representation for Swazi student leaders in court case

“Once again the student activists, Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngubeni appeared before Magistrate Gumedze without any legal representation,” Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice (FSEJ) wrote in a press statement on Friday.

Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngubeni were both abducted and tortured by Swazi security forces during the so-called April 12 Uprising in April 2011, and were later charged with possession of explosives.

Maxwell and Musa case continues

The case against student leaders Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngubeni continued today at Sigodvweni Police Station in Matsapha, Swaziland.

“Today the case progressed with two state witnesses giving evidence. After submissions from witnesses and a cross examination by the defense, the case has been postponed to the 28th of September,” the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice Informations Officer, Mbali Dlamini, said in a press statement today.

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].

Amnesty International annual report criticises “brutal” Swazi regime

“Arbitrary and secret detentions, political prosecutions and excessive force were used to crush political protests,” Amnesty International writes about Swaziland in their 2012 annual report on the state of human rights throughout the world that was released today [24 May].

Swaziland is an absolute monarchy where all political parties are banned, where the monarch King Mswati III rules by decree and where two thirds of the population survive on under a dollar a day whilst the royal family spend lavishly on luxury items and prestige projects.

Maxwell and Musa on indefinite bail?

“We may be acquitted or the government will do as it always does, keep us on indefinite bail,” says president of the Swaziland National Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini. “We are just hoping that the trial will be over very soon. We are to know the direction it will take after the 16th of May 2012, where the next [court] sitting will be. Until now they haven’t led any evidence that links us to the charges.”

He and his fellow accused, law graduate and former student leader Musa Ngubeni, are on trial for allegedly being in possession of explosives in connection with last April’s protests against Swaziland’s absolute monarchy on the 38th anniversary of the country’s state of emergency and banning of all political parties.

Regimet i Swaziland afregistrerer faglig hovedorganisation for at stoppe protester

Fagforeningerne i Swaziland er en meget væsentlig del af kampen for demokrati i Swaziland, et feudalt enevældigt monarki i det sydlige Afrika. Ikke mindst fordi de er de eneste instanser der lovligt må demonstrere.

Netop derfor var sidste måneds fusion af Swazilands vigtigste faglige organisationer i en faglig hovedorganisation, Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), så vigtig, ligesom fusionen var et vigtigt symbol på en enhed i Swazilands demokratibevægelse som førhen på ingen måde kunne tages for givet.

Når regimet i Swaziland således søger at neutralisere TUCOSWA ved at afregistrere organisationen, er det et helt bevidst forsøg på at stoppe den markant tiltagende bølge af protester