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POLITICAL PARTIES GOING TO COURT

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MANZINI – Political parties and civil society organisations will compel government, through a court application, to hold national elections in 2018 under a multiparty system of governance.


Simangele Mtetwa, Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), said multiparty democracy remained a universal basic human right.
She said they should mobilise funds and lobby the international community to support their action.


Her suggestion was that political parties and civil society organisations should not be afraid of being cited as applicants in the court application.
Vincent Ncongwane, Secretary General of TUCOSWA, was of the opinion that the struggle for liberation in Swaziland required the full use of foreign media as the local print and electronic media had serious challenges of censorship.
This transpired at yesterday’s meeting held at Caritas, Manzini, under the auspices of the Institute for Democracy and Leadership (IDEAL), which is headed by Thulani Maseko, a human rights attorney.
Barnes Dlamini, former President of TUCOSWA, chaired the meeting.


Themba Mabuza, a political activist, supported the court route on condition political parties and civil society organisations were united.
Musa Hlophe said the delay in the country’s liberalisation was not caused by the Tinkhundla regime but the political parties. He said political organisations were disunited.  “We are self-centred,” he observed.
The issue of the 2018 elections being challenged in court was then put to a vote. The majority supported the court route; to introduce multiparty democracy in Swaziland.


On another note, other speakers were of the view that His Majesty the King, in his capacity as the new Chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), should not be left out of any action they intended to take. They said SADC had charters on how elections should be conducted; hence it was vital to engage the chairperson on issues related to free and fair elections in Swaziland.
The police were not in attendance at the meeting, as is usually the case.

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