Times Of Swaziland: PRINCE MBILINI ERA, 27 DEMANDS IN PM’S BOOK

PRINCE MBILINI ERA, 27 DEMANDS IN PM’S BOOK
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 BY THEMBINKOSI MAVIMBELA on 08/02/2018 01:51:00


MBABANE – It seems 1996 will forever go down memory lane with Prime Minister
Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini for more reasons than one.
This was the same year the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) organised
a mass protest that saw the then Premier, Prince Mbilini, stepping down to give
way to the current head of government.
In his book titled Inspiration: The Personal Journey of A Prime Minister of
Swaziland, Dlamini lists 65 key dates from memory, one of which is 1996. The
dates are from 1889, the year King Sobhuza II was born, to 2016, when His
Majesty the King was elected Chairman of the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC).
Narrating about the 27 demands and the 1996 strike, Dlamini says, in the events
building up to the strike, the SFTU conducted a campaign of door-to-door
engagement to identify burning issues with the aim of improving the standard of
living for workers across the country.
The premier says it was in this year that the SFTU launched a period of vigorous
industrial action.
The book states that the demands were received in October 1993 by the then PM
Obed Dlamini but with the elections on the cards, the demands lapsed for a
while. The demands were revived during a time when Prince Mbilini was at the
helm of government and this led to a change which saw the book writer assuming
the position.
Dlamini recounts the strike action leading to the arrest of the then union
leader and now Manzini North Member of Parliament Jan Sithole along with the
current Speaker Themba Msibi, Jabulani Nxumalo and other events he described as
tragic.