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Students union vows to stop elections

02/05/2012 00:00:00 SAMKELO NGWENYA

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MANZINI — Students under the unregistered Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), have vowed to stop the 2013 elections.

Addressing the more than 3 000 workers who had converged at the Salesian Sports Ground to celebrate Workers Day, yesterday, President of SNUS Maxwell Dlamini, said they would thwart the elections.

"We will not only boycott the 2013 elections, but we will stop them from taking place," he said, to applause.

Dlamini said they were already mobilising residents of Msunduza.

"We are tired of the Tinkhundla system. It has failed us," he said; "The Tinkhundla system of governance has overstayed its welcome. 2013 is a year of liberalisa-tion."

Dlamini said they would reach out to rural areas as far as Zindwe-ndweni in Lavumisa to sensitise them on the many social ills of the country. They also vowed that the new scholarship policy would never work in Swaziland.

The SNUS president said the scholarship policy would only work in the constituency of the minister responsible for Labour and Social Security.

He said they would engage the youth of the country to ensure that the scholarship policy and the 2013 elections are stopped.

...politics not for students - Percy

MANZINI—Government Press Secretary Percy Simelane has warned students to refrain from politics.

Instead,

Simelane urged them to concentrate on their studies.

The government spokesperson said this when asked to comment on the Swaziland National Union of Students’ utterances that they would stop the 2013 elections.

"There is prudence in the students concentrating in their education and leave politics for other times, lest it cripples them for life," he said.

Simelane said the nation had the duty to defend the Constitution. He said Swazis had the right to choose their path as a democratic state. "No formation will take our democratic right away no matter how undemocratic and self-centred it is," he said.

Simelane said the nation would give His Majesty the gift of peace he asked for. He revealed that such threats had been made before.

He said in 1993 certain formations made such threats but the nation came out in their numbers to vote despite the threats.

SNUS opposes those against TUCOSWA

MANZINI — The Swaziland National Union of Students opposes all those who frustrate the deregistered Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA).

This comes after government announced that the federation was improperly registered, as there was no legal provision for its registration.

Addressing the over 3 000 workers who converged at the Salesian Sports Ground for the May Day celebrations yesterday, President of SNUS, Maxwell Dlamini, declared SNUS’ opposition to those who wanted to ‘frustrate’ the federation.

Police

He accused government and the police of sabotaging the federation.

Dlamini also decried that Value Added Tax (VAT) has been introduced to ‘milk’ poor Swazis, saying it was painful that Swazis were struggling, but were heavily taxed.

He also accused government of neglecting education in the country. Dlamini called on the workers to support the federation in order to defend it from the government.