PUDEMO, SWAYOCO’S PLAN TO DISRUPT ARMY RECRUITMENT EXERCISE

MBABANE – PUDEMO and SWAYOCO say they will disrupt the ongoing recruitment of soldiers in the various constituencies.

In fact, the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), the youth league of the People’s Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), Sakhile ‘Aw’viva’ Nxumalo, has come out to state that his organisation was responsible for the confusion that occurred at Mayiwane Inkhundla last Thursday during the recruitment exercise. Nxumalo was addressing members of political parties on Friday, after the Supreme Court had reserved judgment in the appeal filed by government after a full bench of the High Court declared certain provisions of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938 and Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 unconstitutional. A majority of the political party members, who were in court, belonged to PUDEMO.

Gathering

The SWAYOCO president was one of the leaders who addressed the gathering at the High Court. He said members of the party should do everything in their power to ensure that the recruitment exercise was disrupted. He did not mention the methods to be employed in disturbing the recruitment process. Nxumalo alleged that their members had disrupted the start of the 3.2km race at Mayiwane Inkhundla last Thursday.  He alleged that members of the political party blew whistles while members of the army, who were conducting the recruitment exercise, were still getting the participants ready for the start of the race.

According to Nxumalo, after the whistles had been blown prematurely, allegedly ‘by our cadres’, the participants began to race. “There is this thinking that our comrades should take part in the recruitment exercise in the tinkhundla centres in order to become soldiers. We must do everything in our power to disorganise the exercise. “Our cadres have made sure that the thing collapses. At Mayiwane, our cadres did it. They blew whistles before the soldiers signalled the start of the race and the people started running,” said Nxumalo. He stated that it was their task as the youth to do so. The SWAYOCO president also said they had to do the same thing at Kukhanyeni Inkhundla.

When sought yesterday to clarify the method of disrupting the exercise, Nxumalo’s cellphone was not available on the network for the better part of the day. He was seen on videos of those who attended the funeral of political activist Amos Mbhedzi in South Africa (SA). PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya said ‘you will never find us being told by soldiers to race in order to join the army’. He said they were soldiers of Mario Masuku and Amos Mbedzi’. Masuku is a former PUDEMO president while Mbedzi was a political activist who died while receiving treatment in a South African health facility. This was after he had been released by His Majesty’s Correctional Services to their South African counterparts. Mbedzi’s health had deteriorated while incarcerated in the kingdom.

Recruitment

The recruitment exercise began last Monday at Sigwe and Ngudzeni tinkhundla. It has been conducted at Matsanjeni North, Lugongolweni, Maseyisini, Gege, Mhlangatane, Mayiwane, Madlangempisi and Mkhiweni. The recruitment at Mayiwane was rescheduled to Saturday after the mishap. During the first phase of the recruitment exercise last Thursday at Mayiwane Inkhundla, about 450 aspiring soldiers bolted despite being warned not to do so as some were not ready. There were about 500 participants in total and 50 heard the order and they did not run. A majority of the participants ran the 3.2km distance and they were not aware that the soldiers had instructed them not to proceed with the race. The race is the initial phase of the recruitment process and is followed by other exercises of physical fitness such as the jack-knife, sit-ups and press-ups. However, the aspiring soldiers under Mayiwane Inkhundla did not move to the next stage last Thursday, as the exercise was stopped since they did not take instructions and it was postponed to Saturday. When the participants who had continued to run the 3.2 kilometre-race, despite being ordered to stop, returned, they were shocked to discover that the race had in actual fact been stopped.

Excited

One of the participants, who was among the first to finish the race, was so excited that he even pointed at a passing army vehicle and referred to it as ‘imoto yase msebentini wami’, meaning, a vehicle from my workplace, only to be told that the whole exercise would be postponed. Meanwhile, at the High Court on Friday, PUDEMO President, Makhanya, acknowledged other formations but not the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO). He acknowledged PUDEMO Women League, Swaziland Union of Students (SNUS), Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF), Swaziland Rural Women Assembly, Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), Multi-Stakeholders Forum (MSF), Political Parties Assembly (PPA) and others. Notably, SWALIMO is a member of MSF.

Makhanya informed the gathering that as PUDEMO, they were not worried about those who were not at the High Court with them. “They always make noise when we are not next to them. We get insulted when we are not next to them. They are not here today and we don’t have a problem because this is a movement for the brave. We don’t have a problem that they are not here. In fact, we don’t want them next to us because they tend to disturb us, telling us that the police want us to leave; we don’t take orders from the police,” he said. He also apologised on behalf of their members, that some of them were blocked from entering the courtroom because it was said to be already full. Makhanya said nobody should be denied access to the court.

“If that happens, the case will not proceed. Some of you did not benefit from hearing what was being said inside. You should have been there to hear it for yourselves. You are PUDEMO and these charges are against you. I apologise for the miscommunication since some of you had been informed that the case would continue yesterday (Thursday),” said Makhanya.

Fair

The president pointed out that it was not fair that the advocate who represented the State, Advocate Gregory Harpur, in the terrorism case, to say they did not suffer any prejudice despite the six-year delay of the hearing of the appeal. Apart from Makhanya, other respondents in the appeal are former Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) Secretary General (SG) Maxwell Dlamini, Human Rights Lawyer Thulani Maseko, PUDEMO’s Mphandlana Shongwe and others who were charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. Some of them were arrested for wearing T-shirts with political slogans inscribed on them and others carried placards calling for democracy in Eswatini. Makhanya also encouraged their membership to attend MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube’s case tomorrow at the High Court.  

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