Times Of Swaziland: SWALIMO DELIVERS PETITION, INSISTS ON SIHLANGU BAN

SWALIMO DELIVERS PETITION, INSISTS ON SIHLANGU BAN
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Sanele Jele on 07/07/2022 08:40:00


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.