SWALIMO DELIVERS PETITION, INSISTS ON SIHLANGU BAN

MBABANE – The Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) is relentless in the pursuit for the ban of the national side Sihlangu in the ongoing COSAFA Cup games.

This was after they delivered a memorandum sometimes referred to as a petition to Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) yesterday. This was confirmed by SWALIMO Secretary General Dr Siphetfo Dlamini yesterday. “Swalimo petitioned COSAFA to ban Sihlangu from participating in the regional tournament. “The Durban Municipality and the police cooperated well with us. The memorandum was well received on behalf of the president of COSAFA and SWALIMO was promised that a response will follow shortly after,” said Dlamini.

granted

SWALIMO organised the march through its Durban branch led by lawyer Sydney Maseko. The permit was granted by the Durban Metropolitan Police, South Command Center, Isipingo and the march started from Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) at noon yesterday and ended at King Zwelithini Stadium where Sihlangu played Mauritius. Sihlangu won 3-0, courtesy of goals from Lindo Mkhonta, Fanelo ‘Order’ Mamba and Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa. Asked if the protest was a success, Dlamini said; “Indeed any activity that will expire the injustices of the current regime is rendered a success; our comrades went all out in numbers to protest against these injustices. SWALIMO maintains that democracy first and soccer later,” he said.

He said what was of particular interest was that they were getting a lot of support even from ‘comrades’. “We got support from members who are not affiliated to the movement. Let’s remember this is not only a call that SWALIMO pursues but it part of the broader mass democratic movement project to which SWALIMO happens to lead in this case,” he said.

confirmed

An immediate comment from COSAFA was not available. However COSAFA had confirmed on Tuesday that SWALIMO had said they would deliver a petition. According to a statement released by the COSAFA Secretary General (SG) Sue Destombes, SWALIMO had called for Eswatini to be banned from participating in COSAFA events. In this past Tuesday’s statement COSAFA said it had no standing to bar a member association (MA) from participating in its competitions if the association had fulfilled all their obligations to do so. “COSAFA does not involve itself in the national politics of its MAs, and is focused solely on providing a platform for players, coaches, match officials and administrators from the region to develop their careers, and grow the wider football family at grassroots level,” reads  the earlier statement.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: