Times Of Swaziland: SWALIMO MANZINI DISTRICT CHAIRPERSON RESIGNS

SWALIMO MANZINI DISTRICT CHAIRPERSON RESIGNS
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Sithembile Hlatshwayo on 19/08/2022 08:19:00


MBABANE – The Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) Manzini District
Chairperson Brian Sihlongonyane has resigned.
Sihlongonyane confirmed his resignation during an interview with this
publication. According to Sihlongonyane, he broke the news of his resignation on
his Facebook page, something that got a number of people talking, while some
thought the account had been hacked.“The account was not hacked but the post
was deliberately written by me,” Sihlongonyane boldly stated. He said he had
resigned as district chairperson and also as a member of the newly-established
party. According to Sihlongonyane, his resignation was due to not seeing
eye-to-eye with some of the members of the leadership.
He said as someone in leadership, he was supposed to make key decisions within
the organisation but his ideas were not considered. According to Sihlongonyane,
the last push happened when the organisation deliberately disregarded respecting
him as a person and the office he held.
This, he said, happened after the president tasked them to form a youth league.
He said they formed a task team as per the request but while forming it, two
senior officials went ahead of them to form a youth league committee. He said
the committee was further launched without their consent or input, yet the
process of forming it had to be all inclusive.Sihlongonyane said, the issue
resulted in factions within the organisation as others embraced the newly-formed
youth league by the two senior officials, while others were against it.
Appointment
“I was also totally against the appointment in the committee,” said
Sihlongonyane.He said while they were fighting the way the current Tinkhundla
System of Government operated, their leadership was seemingly acting in a
similar fashion, appointing people into positions without any transparency.
Sihlongonyane said they did not know where the appointed committee members came
from and whether they were competent enough for the position and could execute
their duties.
“What happened is that the two senior officials placed their friends into the
positions and we took them to task,” he alleged. Sihlongonyane said the two
were summoned to a meeting and they failed to honour it and continued to
recognise the committee they had put in place. He further said as they tried
hard to address the issue in the midst of a gathering to launch the Manzini
District, the senior officials frustrated the processes. “They did this
because I questioned them on the appointment of the youth league committee,”
he added.
Sihlongonyane stated that he reported this to the other leaders that he could
not work as he was being frustrated by some people in the leadership. He
mentioned that they also engaged the national executive committee (NEC) on the
issue but they sided with the officials who also sat in the same structure. He
said he felt that he was deliberately being frustrated, adding that the NEC then
gave powers to the district secretary. He said he was undermined by the
secretary, who had an upper hand with the support from NEC that directly
communicated with him, rendering his services redundant. This, he said, he
discussed with the Manzini District secretary he was leading and failed to get
redress. “I then decided to resign after failing to get redress from all the
structures within the organisation.”
Sihlongonyane said he would continue to be part of the struggle. Furthermore, he
alleged that the NEC did not want to be questioned, despite that they were in a
democratic platform where robust ideas needed to be debated. He appreciated the
opportunity to serve under SWALIMO, which he described as an honour, further
appreciating members of the organisation who were supportive as he led
them.Sihlongonyane said the movement gave him a platform to lead and showcase
his leadership skills politically. He stated that he felt it was not where he
belonged but in a place where he would be democratic and able to execute his
responsibilities transparently. When called for comment on the allegations made
by the district chairperson, one of the officials did not respond. A whatsapp
message was also sent to him to clarify the issue but he did not respond,
although he appeared to be online.
Meanwhile, the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) has suspended the Manzini
District Chairperson, Brian Sihlongonyane. His suspension was communicated
through an internal memo, which was sent to all leaders and structures. The memo
was signed by the National Chairperson, Busie Mayisela. Mayisela was addressing
and responding to circulating social media issues on the resignation of
Sihlongonyane.She stated that the leadership of the organisation had not
received any official resignation from Sihlongonyane as the Manzini District
chairperson or member.
Part of the memo read; “The office of the chairperson wishes to clarify that
Cde Sihlongonyane was only suspended as the Manzini District Chairperson
resulting from valid concerns from the district executive committee he is
leading, other internal and external stakeholders, issues that were putting the
organisation in disrespute.”
Mayisela noted that notwithstanding that a series of engagements were held and
on occasions with Sihlongonyane, with the district leadership, they reached a
decision to suspend him. This, she said, was to enable corrective actions and to
allow time for resolving the emanating issues amicably.
However, Sihlongonyane stated that he was shocked and frustrated by the memo
which was sent following his posts on social media. He said he questioned how he
could be suspended yet he had resigned and they told him that he needed to write
a formal resignation letter to them. Sihlongonyane said the resignation was
written to the leadership structures and submitted on Wednesday night but they
had not responded to it.