SIVE SIYINQABA: 70% OF OUR MEMBERS WON ELECTIONS

MBABANE – “We have 70 per cent of our members who won in the 2023 General Elections.”

This is what Sive Siyinqaba, a political formation, claims to have achieved in the elections that were concluded last Friday. The elections were for Member of Parliament (MP), indvuna yenkhundla and bucopho. Eswatini’s electoral system is embedded in the Tinkhundla System of Government, which is based on direct representation and individual merit, wherein a single-member plurality (SMP) applies. The political formation is celebrating having achieved its target, as its members have been voted into various political positions.

Members of the mass democratic movement (MDM) who supported the elections included Sive Siyinqaba and the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO). Of note, SWALIMO was on record stating that they were targeting over 40 seats in Parliament. President of the movement, self-exiled former Siphofaneni Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane, said this would help them fight the system from within. On the other hand, Sive Siyinqaba noted that not participating in the national elections would not solve anything because the current regime would elect a legitimate government to be in power for the next five years. In an interview yesterday with Sive Siyinqaba Publicity Secretary and Acting Secretary General Vusi Nxumalo, he said they were able to meet their objectives when participating in the 2023 General Elections, with 70 per cent of their members voted in.

Unveiling

Nxumalo said they were able to put their members into MPs, tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho positions. According to Nxumalo, they would be unveiling their elected members soon during a press briefing. “For now, we are still engaging our members to accept that they need to be known,” he said. According to Nxumalo, they would soon hold an executive meeting and it would be during the same meeting that they expected to engage their elected members as they had a mandate to achieve the organisation’s objectives, while in Parliament. He said soon, the organisation would be holding an executive meeting, where they would to give their members who were elected to the political positions a mandate on what they were expected to do. Nxumalo said they were also trying to influence senators who would be elected using their elected MPs. He said their newly-elected members would be unveiled after they had been given a mandate.

When asked if they managed to reach their target in terms of the individuals who were elected into political positions, SWALIMO Spokesperson Thantaza Silolo stated that what was encouraging was that the call for the ‘pro-the-people’ candidates reverberated across the land, leading to the ousting of many alleged pro-corrupt candidates. Silolo said SWALIMO never pushed its list of candidates but encouraged the nation to choose from among themselves in their voting areas. He said those who survived the elections and were voted for, would live to tell all that the winds of change were hovering all over the political space. Silolo said what they could confirm was that their members were voted for but were not in a position to expose them. “Parliament is already here and you will be able to see who is for and against the system when delivering their work. This is how you will then measure our victory or failure,” he said.

The spokesperson said political parties remained banned in the country, hence revealing the identities of their members was uncalled for.  “Indeed choices were made, some pro-the-people candidates won and some lost,” Silolo stated that they, however, had a good number of MPs-elect, whom they trusted and believed would pursue the call for change like former MPs Bacede Mabuza, Mduduzi Simelane and Mthandeni Dube.

Formations

According to Silolo, all three were never from political formations but from the communities and chosen by the people. Political Parties Assembly’s (PPA) Thami Hlatshwako said their view in the elections was whether or not as the MDM they had achieved 100 per cent in those voted for in Parliament, they could not have changed the system. Hlatshwako said given the current constitutional framework, which gave the King powers to form a government or even when they wanted to change same in terms of certain sections, they needed to at least make three quarters for the special paragraph. If not, they should form two-thirds and there was no way they could get that number without getting those people who would be appointed by the King to support their position, despite having 59 MPs.

Hlatshwako stated that they would, therefore, not judge how those MDM members who made it would work. He said they had opted to let it be for the elections and meet afterwards with their members to see how they push government to the table. He said getting government to dialogue would help emaSwati to get back their country and be able to choose their own government. “If emaSwati have their government, they will be able to hold people accountable and not get arrested when they have done wrong,” he said. Currently, he said there was nothing they could do without dialoguing and changing the Constitution. He said the political formations that participated in the elections and those who boycotted could only achieve a little as a result of the ballot votes.

Agreed

Hlatshwako said they had agreed as the MDM that they would support elections if conducted after the dialogue, but the opposite happened. However, he said it remained a fact that whether voted for into Parliament or not, no liSwati wanted to suffer but wanted a better life through achieving a government that would serve their interests. For now, he said no matter what wrong was committed by the current government, getting them arrested was not possible. On the issue of members of the MDM being elected, Hlatshwako said they had seen a fraction being successful while others crashed out. This, he said, did not mean they had failed as their power was outside Parliament than inside.

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