Others stories from this week:
Nov 26 Dialogue the key for PUDEMO
Nov 23 40 foreign parties call for sanctions against SD
Nov 23 Discontent during 2008
Nov 23 USA, EU keeping close eye on govt
SSN Statement Nov 21
Nov 21 NCA still wants to march to king
Below read the ANC's Youth League article concerning Sd claims:
Hlomelang
African National Congress Youth League
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
"Now King Mswati III wants to spread his dictatorship to South Africa"
“What the early liberation struggle leaders avoided, therefore, was a long and massively bloody struggle around territorial issues due to complex disputes over boundaries. We know the dangers of these from the conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which has had untold misery on both sides. ”
WHILE WE ARE BUSY TRYING TO CONSOLIDATE OUR DEMOCRACY AND MEETING OUR PEOPLE’S NEEDS, a despot next door, King Mswati III of Swaziland, wants pieces of South Africa’s land and people, to add to his dictatorship.
Many people may have heard of Swaziland as the country of the maidens that dance before the King, wherein he is free to choose wives annually from virgins, giving each of his conquests an assortment of luxuries in cars and palaces, while the majority of Swazis languish in poverty. Recently, the King has gone on an overdrive to market his dictatorship and present this as healthy as any democracy, bringing both domestic and international celebrities as the new face of his Kingdom.
Indeed, like most countries in Southern, Central and West Africa, Swaziland is naturally beautiful, a largely mountainous country. However, beneath this undulating beautiful landscape, like still deep waters that hides some folktale beast, lies the beastly repression of a young king, whom at the age of 38 has already married at least 12 wives. He holds the title of being “Africa’s last absolute monarchy”. Not that there are no more monarchies in Africa, there are in fact plenty, we have some here in South Africa, we understand some Ugandan tribe not long ago had a boy king whom we believe strive to this day. But the difference in all these instances, is that the monarchies subscribe to democracy, while King Mswati III does not.
While the king is on his overdrive to market the lie that Swaziland is a dignified member of the international community of democracies, we are prepared as always, to join the Swazi progressive movements to tell the politically suppressed truth about this tiny kingdom. We know much about Swaziland, because it is our neighbour, we have sent political delegations there, we have read about it, and very importantly, we have hosted various political conferences of the youth of Swaziland who are directly suffering the repression of the Swazi King.
Swaziland got its independence from Britain without firing a gun in 1968. Together with Lesotho and Botswana, Swaziland was part of what became known as the British High Protectorate States. They attained this accolade after they had requested Britain to colonise them. This may sound rather strange and perhaps to those uninitiated with the history of colonialism may think colonialism was a cozy and sweet thing. We say a big NO! Colonialism was barbaric and it was attained by the use of force and in this instance it was but an exception. But the Swazis were apparently between a rock and a hard place, or should we say between the devil and deep blue sea, as this may be about taste and choice of metaphors.
As the situation was, there was a scramble for Southern Africa. The British East India Company, the Portuguese East India Company and the Dutch East India Company had all made Southern Africa their stop station, in their sailing on spice trade journeys to and from India. Jan van Riebieck had first made permanent station in the Cape, to supply fresh vegetables to the ships that were sailing between the western countries and India, via the southern tip of Africa. Fresh vegetables were a prized commodity for those who sailed for weeks and months without access to fresh produce, because they could be vulnerable to various diseases, particularly scurvy.
That was before the Suez Canal was built, making a shorter route via the North of Africa. “By and large”, as sailors’ tactics to navigate the stormy waters of both the Atlantic and Indian oceans, they were refreshed by the vegetables grown by the permanent stations such as that of Good Hope during their stopovers.
Later, as the colonialists realized how beautiful Africa was, decided to make Southern Africa their permanent home. They began fighting both the native Africans and amongst themselves, over political hegemony of southern Africa and the scramble over the region and its natural resources had begun. This scramble, was intensified by the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand area and diamonds in Kimberly. Diamond mining latter peaked to the extent that the first street lights were erected in that small town to enable work at night.
Amongst the wars fought amongst the British and Dutch settlers was what has become known as the Anglo-Boer war, waged from 1899 to 1902, resulting in the heavy defeat of the Dutch settlers by the British.
However, in 1909, the British Parliament resolved on the creation of the Union of South Africa, which effectively disenfranchised the Africans, resulting in the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, two years before the ANC was launched in 1912. The historical events of 1910 influenced the launch of the ANC.
Long before the Union of South Africa was subsequently launched in 1910, which gave name to the Union Building, a name hitherto we rightly want changed, the scramble for southern Africa had reshaped Africa’s boundaries.
Amongst those affected were the Swazi people, who themselves in the 1800 were in the process of forming their kingdom, through King Mswati I, the founding leader of the Swazi kingdom. King Mswati, apparently running away from King Shaka’s conquests, in turn made his own conquests of various clans and chiefdoms and founded Swaziland as a result. King Shaka himself, was in the process of consolidating the Zulu nation.
Upon realizing that the boundaries were increasingly being re-shaped, the Swazis had sought refuge in the British, legend has it that they had made their own calculation that the British were temporary colonialists while the “Boers”, as the Afrikaner community were known, were here to stay. It was a case of the lesser devil.
The British, the legend goes, obliged, and conferred the status to Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana the status of British High Protectorate States. This conferring of this status was clear message to the “Boers”, because they had suffered defeat in various battles with the British, amongst which had led to the “Great Trek”, which gave prominence to leaders such as Paul Kruger.
Later, in 1885, the colonialists, amongst whom were Belgians, British, Portuguese, Germans, Italians and others, convened a meeting popularly known as the Berlin Conference. The meeting confirmed the portioning of the continent amongst these victorious colonialists over the Africans. Basically, Africans had no say. Amongst the boundaries agreed to then were those of the current Swaziland.
This injustice is historical, wherein Africa had its affairs decided upon in Europe, and this should never be glorified by Africa’s posterity. Basically it was one of the worst human rights violation by European powers that used their military superiority to effect a barbaric order in our native land.
However, the Organisation of African Unity, formed in the early 1960’s to forge solidarity around the struggle for independence from colonialism, ratified the partitioning of Africa by the Berlin Conference. The early leaders of our struggle for independence and freedom had little options. The slightest options which could have been ambitious but very dangerous at the same time, could have been to revisit the African boundaries prior to the Berlin Conference. Some of the boundaries were in fact sketchy prior to the Berlin Conference and were not formally documented amongst the States themselves, because some States like that of Swaziland and South Africa, were in the process of being made.
What the early liberation struggle leaders avoided, therefore, was a long and massively bloody struggle around territorial issues due to complex disputes over boundaries. We know the dangers of these from the conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which has had untold misery on both sides. What this show, is that the evolution and formation of States was never a cut and dry issue, and this is true in Africa and across the world and throughout history. The African leaders convened by the OAU, had the wisdom to avoid bloodshed, which thing could have made the continental bloodshed that we know so far look like some picnic.
In 1982, the apartheid regime noted the Swazi kingdom’s ambitions to revisit the Berlin Conference decisions, and to overlook the OAU’s stance around the issue of international boundaries. As a result, the apartheid regime offered the Swazi government a price to claim certain land from South Africa, and that price was to stamp hard on the underground structures of the ANC that were operational in that country.
The Swazi’s obliged, now this is not legend. As a result, many comrades suffered the brutality of the Swazi monarch’s government, all done with the false hope that one day the Groot Krokodile PW Botha’s regime would relent and give them these claimed lands. The price was too high but nonetheless paid, but the commodity was never granted, now the Swazi monarch cries foul!
Perhaps the present King was too young then, and perhaps therefore he could not claim responsibility for what his government did to our cadres and in the first place agreeing to the apartheid regime on such a hilarious offer. Like Joseph’s brothers, the Swazi government was prepared to sell their own brothers to the colonial masters.
However, lest history be distorted, many Swazi citizens, who were very much politically enlightened and already fighting for democracy against the monarchy, helped many of our comrades. Therefore it was not a Swazis against ANC operatives affair, rather it was a case of two undemocratic regimes working together.
Now the Swazi government under King Mswati III, want to invoke the 1982 hilarious agreement between his regime and that of PW Botha, may the latter’s soul rest in peace!
We believe that King Mswati, instead of taking the matter to some court in The Hague, he should rather consider the African Union, where his own peers would educate him on the merits and demerits of revisiting the Berlin Conference’s decisions. Many African leaders now lead democratic governments, and for that reason are very much enlightened about the intricacies of spearheading change amidst the outlay of antagonistic but democratic forces.
What King Mswati should focus on, is bringing about democracy in his own country, stop repressing political organizations such as the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAOCO), who are amongst the leading forces for political change in Swaziland. He should adhere to a people’s assembly, where a proper constitution would be formulated democratically and offer lasting peace, freedom and stability to all the contending political forces and people of Swaziland. In other words, he should nullify the current constitution which was drawn by his proxies, and adhere to internationally acclaimed democratic principles of free political party participation and the freedom of speech of the media.
What King Mswati III should know also, is that Africa is undergoing change, and that the stereotypes of nationalism are being overridden by calls for increased political and economic cooperation. The SADC itself, to which he is still afforded participation, is undergoing rapid integration, reminiscent of the European Union. Sooner than latter, people from Swaziland and South Africa, as well as with the rest of their sister countries in the region, would move freely and trade freely without some of the current inhibiting bottlenecks particularly around trade issues.
We therefore unconditionally reject the calls by the King, as outdated, irrelevant and very dangerous. If we were to take his example, Africa would be on fire in proportions never seen before. We appeal to his peers in the AU and SADC to convince him to desist from these hallucinatory views, because they spell danger for the continent.
They must also give him an ultimatum, that he should comply to democratic values in his own country or face expulsion from the AU and SADC. We in the ANC Youth League will bounce our views with our sister organization SWAYOCO, to consider the possibility of campaigning for the expulsion of the King and his family from the AU and SADC, before we hear more of his outdated views. Of course we would wish to do that with the most minimum hurt to the ordinary Swazi people, who have already suffered enough under his heavy yoke of king-subject relationship.
As the ANCYL, we will not succumb to some legendary claims on our national territory, and we will defend this together with the progressive and freedom loving people of Swaziland. We say “legendary” because these claims relate to issues that have been considered now irrelevant to the configuration of the States in the continent as we now know them.
