Den Forenede Demokratiske Front i det lille kongedømme mellem Mozambique og Sydafrika smider radikalt solidaritetsnetværk ud efter bitter strid på internettet med angivelig tilsvining af frontens ledere – men kun få er på nettet.
A rift has opened between the major opposition party in Swaziland and the most vocal of the prodemocracy movement’s organisations, reports Swaziland Newsletter Friday.
PUDEMO – the People’s United Democratic Movement – has suspended the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) and thrown it out of its offices.
The move comes after long-running arguments about the direction of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The SSN runs a Google forum in which many people in the past few months have been posting items critical of PUDEMO’s leadership. Often, the language in posts directed at some leaders of PUDEMO has been abusive (grov og fornærmende).
Lukker kontor i Johannesburg
In a statement Wednesday, PUDEMO announced the indefinite suspension of the SSN, which it formed in 1997. It also reported that the office in Johannesburg, South Africa, where SSN is based, will be closed within seven days.
Its statement said, that SSN had “a systematic, well-orchestrated and deliberate plan to undermine, maliciously attack and insult PUDEMO as an organisation, its leadership, its structures and its most disciplined cadres, including the president”.
PUDEMO went on:
“SSN Google forum has been used by certain elements to attack the integrity of the movement and its leadership with SSN leadership shockingly silent. We have held meetings, time and again, to engage soberly and avoid the point which SSN Google forum has pushed us to”.
“It is for that reason that we wish to state categorically that PUDEMO will not allow itself to be abused or be treated less than other organisations, to which most SSN comrades belong in South Africa or wherever.
“We are also alarmed at the attacks on our genuine allies, particularly certain members of the tripartite alliance in South Africa by the recklessness of these elements, as well as on genuine forces for democracy in Swaziland, particularly TUCOSWA [Trade Union Congress of Swaziland] and SNUS [Swaziland national Union of Students] recently”.
The PUDEMO statement was posted on the SSN Google forum Wednesday.
Initial reactions from people posting to the SSN were of disbelief, but also a resolution to continue with criticism of PUDMO’s leadership.
The SSN Google group has 800 members and its Facebook page has 2.800 members.
Kun 90.000 swazier på internettet
Many of them are not in Swaziland (but in Canada and South Africa), as only about 90.000 people are on the Internet in the tiny poor country and of these 63.720 are on Facebook.
A commentator writes, that many of the posts (indlæggene) have nothing to do with Swaziland, but consist of academic tracts about revolution and Communists. Last year when Col Muammar Gaddafi was kicked out of Libya, many of the SSN posters argued vehemently in favour of Gaddafi and against the ‘counter revolutionaries’ trying to overthrow him.
In Swaziland, where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, all political parties are banned.
About 70 percent of Swazis live in rural areas and rely on local chiefs (who are the King’s representative) for their livelihoods. They have little understanding of the concept of democratic reform.
Through the chiefs and control of the media, the monarchy has managed to keep people depoliticised and largely unorganised. Intimidation from the state police and ‘defence forces’ is also used to keep the mass of the Swazi population passive.
The commentator continues: “The real struggle for democracy needs to take place in the rural areas, not online. The SSN Internet sites do nothing to change the situation of ordinary Swazi people and the row between PUDEMO and SSN about what is published online is irrelevant”.
Kilde: Swaziland Newsletter No. 254 – 11 May 2012
News from and about Swaziland, compiled by Africa Contact, Denmark (www.afrika.dk) in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com), and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland – free of charge.
