Swaziland closed its school due to student activism. The wave of protests has lasted all fall.
Africa the southern Eswatini, or Swaziland, closed all its schools last weekend, the prime minister Cleopas Dlaminin ‘immediately and indefinitely’.
The reason is exceptional. Prior to the closure, schools had ordered soldiers and police to block schoolchildren’s protests that had lasted for weeks.
High school students had boycotted classes and organized other protests demanding, among other things, democracy and the release of two imprisoned pro-democracy MPs.
A total of 17 students, one of them seven years old, have been arrested, the spokesman said Lucky Lukhele the pro-democracy Swaziland Solidarity Network.
Soldiers had been ordered to schools to “intimidate” students, according to Lukhele, but it had the opposite effect on the protesters.
The events are linked to a wider wave of democracy demonstrations.
“It’s wrong for thieves and drunks to use them [lapsia] to achieve his hidden and diabolical motives, ”the King of Swaziland Mswati III said last Friday.
Northern Savonia Swaziland, with a population of over one million, is surrounded by regional giants South Africa and Mozambique. It is the last absolute monarchy in Africa. Political parties are forbidden, and the king has the sole authority to appoint and dismiss ministers, judges, and other important officials. There is no free media.
Demonstrators demanding democracy are opposed not only to the form of government, but also to the wealth accumulated by the royal family and the rest of the elite, with more than half of the population living below the poverty line.
To the demonstrations public transport drivers, among others, have also taken part. With buses and taxis out of order, people have had to walk between cities in many places.
“I think there is a revolution going on in Eswatin, not just protests,” he tells HS Eugene Dube, who serves as the political news manager for The Swati Newsweek.
According to him, the protests stem from corruption, police violence, nepotism, mismanagement and political intolerance.
Dube says he had to flee because of his job. He left his home after police raided his home and detained him temporarily, he said, for no reason at all.
Dube says harassment and intimidation of journalists and the media critical of the regime is commonplace and the security machinery is also beating journalists and activists with grief.
Because the king has a tight grip on the media, reliable information on events in the country is difficult to obtain.
“The state cut off access to the internet after the king incited soldiers and police to attack democracy activists, resulting in more than 74 people being killed,” Dube says.
Human Rights Organization Amnesty International says more than 80 have already died. On Wednesday, one person was reported dead and at least 80 injured as security forces seek to disperse protests in the capital, Mbabane and Manzin.
“This is a recipe for war. The king fights in the war and makes the country uncontrollable because he uses troops, ”President of the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland Wonder Mkhonza said the news agency AFP.
“The ostrich-like world of thought of a dictatorship is, to say the least, shameful. The ruling elite is determined to collapse the whole country, and they will be held accountable for their actions. ”
If it is a revolutionary attempt, as Eugene Dube describes the events, the realization of its goals is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Foreign Policy Katariina Mustasillan more likely if the movement remains non-violent.
“Mass protest movements and non-violent resistance movements are statistically much more dangerous, especially for undemocratic regimes,” Mustasilta tells HS.
“This is despite the fact that violent and armed movements are often believed to be effective or dangerous to the administration.”
This is because violence often drives more moderate forces away from protest movements, giving extremist elements a greater role in them.
According to Mustasilla, the power of change lives precisely in the broad support of the protest movements.
According to Mustasilla, the reaction of the administration and its actions also have a great influence on the nature and form of the protest movements. If the actions are violent and the protest movement or movements are not very well organized, violent repression can lead to radicalization of the movements.
Black bridge says the Swaziland leadership has sought to portray protest movements as looters controlled from the outside, particularly from South Africa. According to him, there is no stern here.
“The protests have arisen for domestic reasons and the citizens of Eswatin are at the forefront of the current protests.”
.
#Swaziland #Africas #absolute #monarchy #faltering #king #blames #villains #drunks