UNDEMOCRATIC SWAZI GOVERNMENT SHOULD PRAY FOR MANNA FROM HEAVEN The Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] wishes

to respond to the childish and rude responses by members of the government of Swaziland to the resolution to help Swazilands democratic forces taken by the African National Congress [ANC] at its International Solidarity Congress. The Swazi government, speaking through its incorrigibly delusional characters in the form of the Minster of foreign affairs, Mtiti Fakudze and its government spokesperson, Percy Simelane, has labeled the ANCs resolution as interference and shameless ignorance. To gain a better perspective to the ANC resolution and why the Swazi government officials are simply being cantankerous and speaking out of turn, one should first understand that the ANC is a political party which operates within a democratic political system that embraces plurality, a system that it spent the better part of the last century struggling to achieve. It is therefore logical that its international policy and sympathies will be with other liberation forces in the world that are fighting for the same status quo. Moreover, the ANC did not conceive this stance on Swaziland out of a desire to meddle in other countries affairs. This stance is the direct result of persistent efforts by brave Swazis who continue to struggle against king Mswatis autocratic rule despite incessant victimization, politically motivated murder, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment under false charges. It is Swazis themselves who for decades now have been pleading with the ANC to support their efforts to achieve democracy in that country. If Swaziland did not have the myriad of progressive and mostly militant political parties and political activists who want multi-party democracy, then the ANC would not need to extend its solidarity towards Swazis. The ANC resolution is therefore correct, logical and timely, and our network would like to stress that there is more that can be done by not only the ANC but all South African political parties and its ordinary citizens to level the playing ground in Swaziland to ensure that efforts to bring democracy to that country are not stifled by a dictatorial and well resourced regime which is hell-bent on remaining power at whatever cost, much like the Apartheid regime did. It is therefore clear that the only truly ignorant people in this discourse are the Swazi Government officials themselves because they continue to delude themselves with the ridiculous notion that Swaziland is a democratic country which is one of the best in the world. No event illustrates the foolishness of this notion more than the fact that the cabinet is currently operating by royal decree after the countrys rubber-stamp parliament passed an unprecedented vote of no confidence on it a month ago. This was after ordinary Swazis, in the equally meaningless Peoples parliament had requested the king to dissolve it. It has therefore been proven time and again that this cabinet is unpopular and undemocratic, and how can it not be unpopular when it was appointed by the king, to serve his personal whims and caprices?

Above all else, it is ironic, hypocritical and ungrateful for the Swazi Government to make such unsavory remarks about the political party whose government they begged to save it from its self-inflicted fiscal challenges. This public rebuke of the ANC goes a long way to prove that the Swazi government does not deserve the R2.4 billion loan it is currently seeking from the South African government. Instead of the government spoke-person praying for the ANC to solve its so-called internal squabbles, he should pray for manna from heaven to save the country from its economic difficulties.