SWAZILAND@NEWSLETTER: DOCUMENTATION
This series will contain documents of the democratic movement in
Swaziland, reflecting and analysing successive fases in the democratic
struggle of the Swazi people.


Matsulu Declaration of SWAYOCO
As adopted at the 7th General Congress of the Swaziland Youth Congress
held at
Matsulu Youth Centre, Nelspruit on the 17-20th June, 2004.

After 2008 the history of Swaziland shall be written anew –
Towards the 25th anniversary of PUDEMO on the 6th July, 2008 in a free and
democratic Swaziland


Introduction

We who are gathered here are the trusted sons and daughters of the Swazi
people. We represent the finest core of the future of our country and have
every reason to act in their defence, because we are part of, feel and
share in the pains of our people who suffer royal humiliation in their
daily experiences. Therefore, we are justified in being angry and
militant, because enough is enough!

We are gathered here not just as delegates from structures of the
organization throughout the country, but primarily this is a gathering of
militants and freedom-fighters, whose ideals threaten the very core of
royal supremacy and the foundation of political oppression.

Our goal is very clear; to destroy the system of tinkhundla royal
supremacy and in its stead, establish a truly democratic society.

We are a component of the mighty wave that crushed colonialism in
Mozambique and Zimbabwe yesterday, destroyed apartheid in Namibia and
South Africa recently, and is on the verge of completing the process
through the ultimate liquidation of the tinkhundla royal fascist regime in
Swaziland today.

Tinkhundla royal house is on fire!

In concluding our 6th General Congress two years ago (2002), we said,

“The eyes of the people and the rest of the world, both ally and enemy,
are focused on this congress. That is so because the crime of tinkhundla
has persisted for far too long. Almost everywhere people are convinced
that this marks the beginning of the end of tinkhundla. Everyone
recognizes that the pioneer of the Swazi revolution, PUDEMO, is and will
be at the centre and head of the process which will result in the
overthrow of the tinkhundla royal minority regime and the elimination of
the crime of royal supremacy and national oppression”.

Any struggle cannot progress until the people have the courage to fight,
the will to sacrifice and readiness, if needs be, to die! Our will and
determination to be free has now gone beyond the boiling point.

The issue today is not whether or not freedom will come. The question is
on which side you should be – whether to perish with tinkhundla or to
triumph with the forces of democracy and change. Freedom is within sight,
the horizons of democracy are ever drawing nearer on a daily basis.

Therefore, anyone seeking refuge in the tinkhundla house shall perish with
it. The flames of revolution and justice are unstoppable. This is why
anyone talking dialogue with a violent and treacherous system can only
succeed in misleading the people and betraying the ideals for which our
movement was formed. This is not the time for tea breaks, but the moment
we have been waiting for all along, to bury the royal demon once and for
all.

By refusing to be bullied into acceptance of the enemy’s constitutional
schemes, we reaffirmed our determination to defend the integrity of the
Swazi people in pursuit of a common victory against a common enemy. We are
asserting the truth that freedom is indivisible, that democracy for some
is democracy for none, and hence, that no section of the people can be
free while another is oppressed.

On the shoulders of the tinkhundla regime rest such crimes as the
scandalously high infant mortality rate amongst our children, the HIV and
AIDS genocide, the unemployment disaster and the general crisis that bring
about endless misery for our people in their own country. Swaziland is
littered with graves of young men and women, patriots of our nation and
future hopefuls of our country who are victims of the viciousness of the
system. Therefore, we have no reason to relax, our nation is dying out
slowly like a candle in the wind.

The situation in the rural areas requires special attention. In accordance
with the Piet Retief Declaration of PUDEMO, we must give serious attention
to the organization and mobilization of our rural people. Basing ourselves
on the needs of the people, and taking due account of the concrete
conditions of their existence, we must devise suitable organizational
structures and mechanisms to reach out to the rural masses and provide
them with the organizational and political tools to defend themselves
against exploitation and to assert their inalienable right to land.


As we have always said, we must place the perspective of seizing land (by
force) from the dispossessor in front of our rural masses and educate them
to understand that this is a task that calls for dedication, determination
and sacrifice.

The solution to the land question is inextricably linked to the struggle
against feudal remnants and oppressive structures of local governance,
where tinkhundla puppets, not satisfied to do the dirty work of the royal
supremacists, have taken upon themselves to impose even greater burdens on
our oppressed people.

Some of these traditional puppets have taken firm positions on the side of
their masters at Nkhanini and against the oppressed people and their
organizations. Whenever the popular masses rise and telling blows against
the tinkhundla system their puppet voices are heard above the sounds of
battle, denouncing the people and defending the people’s enemy.

The plight of thousands of our people whose homes are regularly bulldozed
to the ground, and who are regularly bundled up and transported to distant
and inhospitable parts of our country, requires our full attention and
concerted actions of solidarity.

We must develop organizational methods and forms of action to bring to an
end this crime against our people and to express, in a concrete manner,
our solidarity with them. As we have said, we must organize the unemployed
into organs of struggle, enabling them to engage in a determined offensive
for jobs and proper unemployment benefits.

PUDEMO was correct in asserting that land belongs to the people and the
people belong to the land, because land is the economy, dignity and food
for our people.

Students are a critical detachment, without whose mobilization, the potent
energy required to turn the system upside down, might remain locked in the
prison of political disorganization and poor methods of struggle. We must
engage their massive potential, both intellectual and physical, through
patient political education and organization around their own immediate
issues on campus and in schools.

The education system is in shambles, the curriculum of the regime is a
hollow disgrace and education is a propaganda weapon and instrument of
royal control and hegemony, seeking to win the minds of hearts of our
people to accept royal rule as normal, inevitable and god-given.

The task of building Parents – Teachers – Students Associations to unite
all stakeholders in the education system against royal rule is critical.
In this regard, we must emphasise the urgency of forming SRCs in schools
to organize students and promote their active participation in issues
affecting them and their communities. Democracy must become a core part of
the transformed curriculum in our schools, so that we instill the values
of respect for human dignity and equality at tender ages. We must demand
democratic methods of teaching in schools, which promote the active
participation of the learners in the process of education. PUDEMO must
actively mobilize its members who are teachers and parents to recognise
their responsibility in this task of transforming education in our country.


We are part of the global family of young patriots

In his address to the 6th General Congress of SWAYOCO, President of the
ANCYL, Cde Malusi Gigaba, had this to say, “Sweeping changes are taking
place all over the continent. The Swazi junta that shuts its eyes and ears
to these changes must, through the intensification of the struggle, be
made to feel that there is no way out for it except the darkness of abyss
to which it is tragically but inevitably headed”.

He continued to say, “What the SWAYOCO Congress must do is to outline a
programme for the intensification of the struggle, to take the struggle
right into the belly of the beast for the ultimate push, to light the
revolutionary fires right inside there!”

Finally he said, “SWAYOCO belongs in the revolutionary fold of the
progressive movement whose thunderous feet are bringing massive change on
this continent. It is our advanced revolutionary base in Swaziland, a
reliable ally and friend in the struggle for social justice and equality,
and for the African renaissance. Of it is expected heroic feats of
struggle performed in the advancement of the revolutionary goal”.

Consistent to our previous declarations, we are inspired by the practical
solidarity demonstrated by the progressive youth movement of South Africa,
which humbles us to the realization of the universality of the cause for
democracy and freedom. In particular, here we are referring to the ANCYL,
YCL, SASCO, COSAS and all the components of the PYA, as well as the
progressive movement of South Africa in general; ANC, SACP and COSATU,
including all its affiliates.

The hospitality of the people of South Africa and their passion to share
with us the pains and agonies of our struggle, is a source of inspiration
in our forward march to democracy.

The fact that our congress is held on foreign soil is testimony to the
brutal conditions that deny us a space to freely determine our destiny as
a people in our own country, while on the other hand it point to the
indivisibility of our struggle and our common cause with our allies in
South Africa.

We reaffirm our 6th Congress declaration that, “This Congress stands as a
watershed in the confrontation between freedom and oppression in our
country, region and continent. Our country cries out for freedom; our
region demands peace and democracy, our continent calls for justice and
human dignity. Accordingly, we send fraternal greetings and pledge our
solidarity with other struggling youth in other parts of the continent and
beyond, who are still struggling for democracy, peace and justice”.

In this regard, we commit ourselves to international solidarity activities
that seek to profile the cause of children and young people in general,
women, workers, disabled and all victims of the atrocities of political
occupation, war and tyranny in; Sudan, Western Sahara, the DRC, Burundi,
Palestine, Iraq and Mauritania. We also take this opportunity to salute
the heroic Cuban people for standing firm in defence of their chosen path
of sovereign development and territorial integrity against US imperialist
aggression. In this regard, we support the call for the release of the
five Cuban comrades in US jails immediately.

The task of women’s emancipation

We take this opportunity to convey our profound greetings and salutations
to the courageous women of Swaziland under the leadership of PUDEMO –
Women’s league for their successful re-launch recently.

The task of women’s emancipation is central to the transformation of our
society, for they are the worst victims of royal terror and systematic
abuse. They are landless, are underpaid, experience inhumane working
conditions, are the poorest in our society, and worst still, suffer more
than their own comrades, even within the ranks of their own movement and
the struggle in general.

In this regard, we are all called upon to act decisively in the work of
women mobilization around their own immediate and long-term demands; in
their communities, workplaces, homes, learning centres, as well as in
sports, cultural and recreational centres and wherever they are to be
found.

We must work hard to change our attitudes and demonstrate renewed
seriousness on the question of gender emancipation, because the slow
progress to put into practice resolutions on gender issues shows that as a
movement we are not doing enough to put this question at the centre of our
broad struggle for democracy and fundamental change.


There is dignity in rebellion

We are first in commitment, first in discipline and first in sacrifice. We
are called upon to act as such, not necessarily because it is our
organizational motto, but primarily because in our shoulders lie the hopes
of a whole nation and we dare not let them down.

SWAYOCO leads the generation in whose shoulders lie the task of liberating
our people and beginning the work of building a new and democratic
Swaziland. In seeking to do so, SWAYOCO cannot succeed unless we rebel
against the oppressive conditions we face.

Rebellion is the engine of development and social progress in any society.
It is the only force capable of unlocking the contradiction of poverty,
backwardness, exploitation, underdevelopment, and oppression in general.
It is, therefore, in the interest of young people to rise, defeat and bury
these evils that threaten the future of our country, through organized
force.

The only way a dehumanized society can restore its dignity is through
rebellion, hence, there is dignity in rebellion. A people unable to rebel
cannot reclaim their lost dignity, a people unable to rebel cannot reclaim
their stolen land, a people unable to rebel cannot reclaim their lost
identity and sense of pride in their commonhood and humanity.

Therefore, the youth, relatively free from the ideological hostage of the
poisonous tinkhundla ideas, are better placed to challenge and defeat,
without offering any apologies, the ideas of hopelessness and despair
through struggle.


The crisis of poverty, HIV and AIDS, and unemployment in Swaziland

The socio-economic situation in our country has reached catastrophic
levels as a result of the combination of poverty and the HIV and AIDS
genocide. We repeat our firm conviction that the tinkhundla regime does
not have the political will to deal decisively with this epidemic and its
immediate attendants.

These crisis are compounded and deepened by the crisis of the tinkhundla
system of; unemployment, landlessness, illiteracy and ignorance, and above
all, the concentration of all power and wealth in the hands of a few royal
supremacists to the total exclusion of all the people of our country.

The dialectical relationship between poverty and HIV and AIDS were clearly
articulated by PUDEMO in its Sikhawini declaration, when it said, “while
HIV and AIDS can affect anybody, it hits the poor hardest. This requires
that the fight against the epidemic is a central element of the struggle
against poverty and its root causes. It should be part of the struggle to
make basic health services, clean water and sanitation accessible to fight
against opportunistic diseases and related causes”.

Another important generalization about poverty and HIV and AIDS is that it
affects women more than it does men. In our country, there are more women
at the low levels of income and more men at the highest levels of
decision-making. This is why central to the struggle for democracy, is the
struggle to transform gender relations and ensure a strong and popular
movement for social transformation in our country.

The character of the global economy is such that it is undergoing serious
neo-liberal restructuring, which makes it deepen poverty levels through
the creation of massive unemployment levels, casualisation, outsourcing of
jobs and the general scourge of attacking minimum labour standards.
Privatisation and retrenchments have resulted in worsened levels of
unemployment and poverty in our communities. They have also resulted in
expensive and unaffordable services for our people, thus denying our
people access to basic needs, such that levels of crime and women abuse
have gone high.

We must work hard to integrate all these elements of our people’s demands
into our daily struggles, if we are to be relevant in drawing the mass of
poor and working people of our country into active participation in the
whole struggle for democracy. The Worker’s Forum initiative of PUDEMO, is
but one critical effort in that direction to conscientise workers and
communities about the challenges facing the poor. We must organize
unorganized workers and strengthen organized workers in all sectors of the
economy.

With regard to the emerging social movements, we are called upon to
actively participate in the active mobilization of our people around their
most basic and immediate needs. The economic justice centre, i.e. the
foundation, must co-ordinate all these efforts to ensure greater
transparency, accountability and political correctness of these structures
in line with our overall political goals.


We have a future to fight for and an enemy to face

We have, as a movement, traveled the journey of sacrifice that began on
the 6th July, 1983 on the rocks and banks of the Mbuluzi river 10kms north
of Mbabane, when the finest sons and daughters of the Swazi people
gathered to form this glorious people’s movement, PUDEMO, as the
legitimate representative of our collective interests.

For tinkhundla, the age of illusion is coming to its tragic end. The
belief held for years, that royal supremacy is an attribute of godliness,
has come face to face with reality and its own unique fate. The idea that
to be royal was an embodiment of all that is Swazi, has given birth to a
tidal wave whose strength will not despair until Swazi culture and being
Swazi itself is to be understood in the language of freedom and democracy.

Our people want freedom now. They want to govern and determine the destiny
of their country today and not tomorrow. They have lost patience with
ideas that their liberation can be postponed for any reason whatsoever.
They measure the purpose of life by no other standard than that it should
have been spent in the struggle for the liberation of their country. They
have now shed all fear of brutality, because the words to live have
acquired the same meaning as the words to be free in their own
understanding.

Accordingly, PUDEMO shall be celebrating its 25th anniversary on the 6th
July, 2008. In that regard, the 7th General Congress of SWAYOCO, having
satisfied itself with a correct assessment of the political balance of
forces inside and outside the country, declare that this important
historic event and day in the political calendar of our country, shall be
held in a free and democratic Swaziland.

Therefore, SWAYOCO proclaims a four year liberation programme which shall
be rolled out in stages, premised on the following basic fundamentals;
· Creation and strengthening of community resistance organs which organize
our people around their most immediate demands
· Improved public profile and visibility, popular mobilization and
militant action to inspire mass defiance, through effective propaganda,
mass political education and strong organization on the ground.
· Active participation in mass democratic organizations to build a
revolutionary mass movement co-ordinating all forms of struggle into a
national democratic force for political purposes
· Building an international solidarity movement against tinkhundla, and
actively supporting the mass democratic movement led by PUDEMO.

The essence here is that we seek to build a popular national democratic
uprising supported by an effective international solidarity movement,
which reinforces the internal balance of forces in our favour. The future
of this country is in our hands and we certainly cannot abdicate our
responsibility of building it now.

All youth to the battlefront in defence of the people!!

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