Times Of Swaziland: SIBAYA VERSUS MARCH: NATION DIVIDED

SIBAYA VERSUS MARCH: NATION DIVIDED
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BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 15/07/2021 08:48:00


MBABANE – It’s Sibaya versus the proposed democratic reforms march!
Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day in the history of Eswatini as people
seem to be divided on whether to attend Sibaya or head to Manzini for what has
been termed a peaceful protest. On Tuesday, the King, through Indvuna Themba
Ginindza, summoned the nation to Sibaya tomorrow morning at 10am, however, other
groups have advised emaSwati to attend the march which is scheduled to start at
9am. One of the groups which is encouraging people to attend the march is the
Multi-Stakeholder Co-ordinating team which comprises 20 different organisations.
The 20 groups represent political parties, some churches, labour, business and
women’s groups, while others are the youth, students, civil society and
concerned citizens. The organisations, according to the Chairperson, Human
Rights Lawyer Thulani Maseko, met yesterday at Tums Water World to map a way
forward and to come up with a resolution to the Sibaya call.
Waste
Maseko said the people felt that Sibaya was a waste of time and there was no
point of going there, given past experiences. He said this was more so because
they did not know the agenda. “Given the experiences of Sibaya in 2012, where
even progressives attended in numbers and people had called for the resignation
of the late former Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini and also said the
King must dissolve that Cabinet because they had failed to deliver to the
people, nothing happened,” said Maseko.
Some of the organisations include the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union
(SWADNU), Institute of Democracy and Leadership (IDEAL), Swaziland Concerned
Church Leaders (SCCL), Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) and National
Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) among others.  Maseko said the
2012 session was a benchmark for effectiveness of Sibaya.
“No matter what people say, there is no action taken,” he said. He further
said the group discussed that there were no documented minutes of Sibaya,
including the resolutions which the public never got to know of. “The
resolutions or minutes are never made public and as a result, people have
decided that they are not going to waste their time on this,” he said. He
further said the Sibaya was called when the people had already indicated that
they were going to march peacefully in Manzini. “So the people are saying the
call of the Sibaya is meant to undermine and detract focus of the people from
what they want. They are saying they can’t be diverted by the King’s call to
Sibaya yet they are focused on going to Manzini to attend the peaceful march,”
he said.
Apologised
He said government should have apologised first that the army had allegedly
killed people during the unrest that was marred by the looting, vandalising and
burning of some business structures. Maseko alleged that from their last count,
they had 77 bodies.