2023 A TEST YEAR - MANZINI NORTH YOUTH

MANZINI – About 30 protesters braved the rain yesterday and delivered a petition to their Member of Parliament (MP) at Manzini North Constituency, where they said 2023 would be the year to air their views.

The protesters were led by Lucky Dlamini. Among them was political activist Mphandlana Shongwe. 2023 is when the kingdom will hold its elections. Undeterred by the drizzle, the protesters sang political songs, while dancing along the road leading to the constituency centre. They carried placards stating that unemployment was a disaster while their banner was inscribed ‘We want jobs now’. In their build-up to the delivery of the petition, the marchers took a swipe at the police as they sang a song insinuating that the police were shooting at them with guns bought with their tax.

Locked

The protesters found the gate locked at the constituency centre with law enforcers from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) deployed there. The law enforcers had been given an instruction by their superiors who were heard shouting that no person should be allowed entry into the constituency centre. This did not deter the protesters as they sang and danced at the gate before calling upon the police officers to convey to their MP, Macford Sibandze, that they wanted to hand him their petition. An officer hastened to call upon the legislator who approached the gate with the constituency headman – Fana Tsabedze. Upon their arrival, the concerned citizen leader relayed to the legislator that when people came to the constituency centre to raise their concerns, it did not mean that he they should shy from them and hide beneath tables.

Dlamini said the delivery of the concerns meant that the electorate was there and taking note of events that were unfolding before them. He claimed the system (Tinkhundla System of Governance) had made people fear to critique others, instead to assume a position of being friends with everybody and, hence failed to raise concerns. “When we are friends, we then lack the guts to tell each other when one is messing up,” Dlamini said.

Interests

He informed Sibandze that as long as they were politicians, their interests should be for the people they represented, not on what they could benefit from it. He said the people who were delivering the petition were from the communities that made up Manzini North Constituency.

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