April 12 demonstrations in Swaziland gets thumbs up

Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a network of various organisations and individuals committed to helping all Swazis in the fight democracy in Swaziland, has pledged moral and material support for our mass demonstrations on the 12th of April.

As a movement we are humbled yet strengthened by this support. We were hoping that Swazi pro-democracy groups would be in the frontline together with us on this historic day. However, as explained in our group’s mission statement, we are shall move regardless of their participation. Our time is right now.

We want to further clarify that our uprising is a popular mass demonstration which is founded upon the principles of non-violence as espoused by Martin Luther King and followed by the North African states who are currently liberating themselves from oppression. We do not posses any arms, Molotov cocktails or any military training. We are just ordinary citizens about to do a very important task in our country of birth.

It is therefore completely sensationalist for agencies like the Times of Swaziland to portray our uprising as being a violent one. It is mediocre journalism to write about a group without providing its members a platform to clarify their objectives. Whatever happened to the principle of fair and balanced reporting ? We were never interviewed by the newspaper. Instead they chose to interview individuals that they thought would distance themselves from our movement and paint misrepresent us.

No part of our group’s stated objectives mentions violence as a tactic. The truth is that any logical thinking person would know that no sane group would publicly declare a violent overthrow of its government and even state the date and venue for this.

To illustrate just how totally unfounded this ludicrous claim is, many employees of Swaziland’s security forces and known critics of our uprising were forcefully added to this group. This we did in order to protect our core members from being harassed. They have provided us with a very valuable shield against police and security agents.

We also did not add people against their will simply just to inflate numbers. Some of us have up to 5000 facebook friends spread out in all continents. If we wanted to inflate numbers then the group would have easily had up to 50 000 members in an hour.

Another misrepresentation is the interview with the elder statesman and comrade, Babe Musa Hlophe. Babe Hlophe for some of us is a role model and an inspiration. On Sunday, the 27th of April, he wrote an inspiring article celebrating the uprisings in North Africa. Those who have brains between their ears understand that writing about an uprising in North Africa for Swazi readers only means one thing : “Swaziland, what are you waiting for ?”.

Our elder comrade fully supports our mass protests, both in principle and at heart. No amount of Tinkhundla funded propaganda can ever divide our broad based movement. In fact he is being considered as a likely candidate for our negotiating team on our side when the regime finally falls.

We remain resolute to our national assignment. April 12 2011 is the end of the state of emergency and the fraudulent Tnkhundla system. We plead that the people not be caught unawares on this date. They have been given more than enough time to prepare themselves for this and it is critical that they prepare to govern the state for themselves. As Malcolm X once said : Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for It today. Get ready, Swaziland.