Africa-Press – Eswatini. Velaphi Mamba, a leader of the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) and Harvard Scholar is vigorously lobbying the United Kingdom(UK) Parliament and as a result, Labour Party MP Kim Johnson has tabled a motion calling for democracy in eSwatini.
MP Kim Johnson recently met the internationally respected human rights defender in Cape Town-South Africa to discuss the political situation in eSwatini.
Political parties are banned in the tiny Kingdom, human rights defenders and independent journalists are arrested, tortured, forced to exile or even killed for demanding democracy.
“That this House recognises the widespread human rights abuses committed under the autocratic Tinkhundla system of government in eSwatini since the dissolution of the constitution in 1973; notes erosion of democratic institutions, trade union rights, and civil liberties, including the banning of all political parties such as the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO); further notes the crackdown on rights, including freedom of expression, press, health, education, gender, and LGBT equality; condemns the violent repression of civic protests, particularly the deadly crackdown of June 2021; supports the demands of PUDEMO, the Multi-Stakeholders Forum (MSF) and the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland for a repeal of the 1973 Decree, the lifting bans on political parties, trade union rights, freedoms of association and assembly, the return of political exiles, the release of political prisoners and an end to state violence against activists; also notes the 2021 ITUC report finding eSwatini in violation of 10 of 16 Commonwealth Charter principles; calls on the UK Government to work through the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to investigate these breaches and ensure enforcement of the Charter; and calls on the Government to support an independently mediated national political dialogue for democratic transition, and an independent investigation into the assassination of human rights lawyer and former PUDEMO Secretary General, Thulani Rudolf Maseko, and all deaths linked to the 2021 unrest,” reads the motion tabled by the Labour Party MP.
But in a press statement sent to this Swaziland News on Tuesday, United Kingdom MP Kim Johnson said, the people of eSwatini have suffered for too long under the Tinkhundla undemocratic regime, the MP expressed solidarity with the pro-democracy movement.
“The people of eSwatini have endured brutal repression for far too long. As a Commonwealth member, the UK has a duty to speak up and act when human rights and democratic freedoms are so blatantly undermined.I stand in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in eSwatini and call on the UK government to do the same,” said the MP.
Acting eSwatini Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli declined to comment about this matter.
On another note, Mlungisi Makhanya, the PUDEMO President, thanked MP Kim Johnson for tabling the motion, describing it as historic.
“This motion is not only a watershed moment of the Swazi struggle but also historic and represents the hopes and aspirations of emaSwati for democratic transition. The courageous tabling of this important motion would not have taken place timelier than during the week where the eSwatini people commemorate four years since the fateful 29th June 2021 Massacre, the gravest atrocity against the Swazi people in recent history,” said the PUDEMO President.
But the United Kingdom MP who tabled the motion further called for an independently mediated national political dialogue in eSwatini to facilitate democratic transition and, an independent investigation into the assassination of prominent human rights lawyer and former PUDEMO Secretary General, Thulani Rudolf Maseko including, all the 2021 political unrest deaths.
Eswatini is ruled by King Mswati as an absolute Monarch, political parties are banned, while political activists, human rights defenders and independent journalists are arrested, tortured, forced to exile or even killed merely for demanding democracy.
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