PUDEMO-ANC Alliance: Is it dead?

(By Pius Vilakati, writing as Mr Pius Rinto)

Introduction

All members of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) grow up with the knowledge that there is an unbreakable historical alliance between PUDEMO and the African National Congress (ANC). This teaching has come under immense scrutiny especially from young comrades. We have seen some of these younger members of PUDEMO going to the extent of openly advocating for political parties that are opposed to the ANC in South Africa and daily alleging that the ANC has sold out its own friends in the Swaziland struggle. These comrades allege that the ANC has chosen to act ignorant on the brutalities committed by the royal regime of Swaziland.

Brief History of the alliance

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PUDEMO was officially born in 1983. Before that year underground ANC cadres who were based in Swaziland worked together with other Swazi nationals in the struggle against apartheid and in the organising of the trade union movement in Swaziland. As such, there are many unsung Swazi heroes who fought in the struggle against apartheid, some of whom even went to exile with the ANC. In the years leading to the launch of PUDEMO the relationship between the ANC and Swazi comrades became cemented. PUDEMO was formed by Swazi comrades in unity with South Africa’s ANC comrades.

Towards the end of the 1980s the PUDEMO-ANC alliance was so strong that the Royal regime in Swaziland was more willing to cooperate with the South African apartheid regime when it wanted to arrest or murder some important ANC cadres who were based in Swaziland. Some of the Swazi comrades had to go to exile, escaping from both oppressive regimes. The maintenance of this alliance meant that if any of the two movements attained freedom before the other, this would present fertile ground for the one which would not have attained freedom to find root in the independent state. Thus, for example, if PUDEMO had attained freedom before the ANC could, PUDEMO would be duty-bound, in strict revolutionary terms, to assist the ANC in its fight against the apartheid regime, and vice-versa.

The ANC- King Sobhuza II alliance

It is important to mention at this point that the ANC did have a strategic alliance with King Sobhuza II, such alliance having commenced during the reign of Queen Regent Labotsibeni, to such an extent that Sobhuza had an ANC membership card. ANC leadership would sometimes send delegations to Sobhuza to meet with him and discuss important issues with an aim to strengthen their strategic alliance. This alliance was, in my view, important for the ANC, for at that time South Africa was surrounded mostly by colonies such as Mozambique (Independence: 1975.), Angola (Independence: 1975), and Namibia (formerly South West Africa – Independence: 1990). Thus, it became important for the ANC to have at least a temporary strategic alliance with the independent Swaziland state (Independence 1968). This strategic alliance also made sense because they had a common enemy: colonialism.

Post 1994

PUDEMO members must have understandably believed that when South Africa had its first democratic elections in 1994, especially with an expected ANC victory, Swaziland would immediately follow and attain democracy. In 1994 I was too young to understand the mood of our PUDEMO comrades, but it must have evoked some spirit of freedom from within them. This, sadly, was not to be. South Africa celebrates twenty years of democracy this year, whilst Swaziland, on the other hand, seems too far from freedom and the ANC seems neutral on the struggle for freedom in Swaziland.

The ANC has had three presidents since 1994. Some of our comrades claim that President Jacob Zuma will never speak out against the Swaziland regime because he is directly related to King Mswati III. It is public knowledge that Zuma was given a woman, Princess Sebentile, as a gift from the Swazi royal family, to marry, although he now seems reluctant to officially marry her. Thus, Zuma is King Mswati’s brother-in-law. Princess Sebentile is King Zobhuza II’s daughter. Further, it is believed by many people, some of our own comrades included, that Zuma received great help, specifically in the form of muthi, which helped him beat the academically-decorated former president, Thabo Mbeki, in the 2007 ANC elective congress in Polokwane. It is true that on the years leading to that congress Zuma was in and out of Swaziland, in most instances the Swazi media choosing not to report on the visits or the reasons for those visits. With these facts in mind, some of our comrades are convinced that in order for our struggle to make greater progress, Zuma must vacate the presidency.

I do not entirely agree with my comrades’ narrative, however. Firstly, none of the previous two presidents, Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, has ever publicly condemned the Royal regime for its atrocities. In most cases it was just praises for King Mswati, with Mandela being the main culprit here. Mandela went to Swaziland and publicly proclaimed, in praising King Mswati, that the king was not just a king for the Swazis but also a king for all people in Southern Africa (Ingonyama akusiyo nje yamaSwati kuphela. Ingonyama eyethu nathi sonke eMzansi Afrika).

Secondly, Mandela is also related to King Mswati. His eldest daughter, Zenani, married Swaziland’s Prince Thembumuzi, a son of the late King Sobhuza II, in 1973. Zenani is still known in Swaziland with the title “Her Royal Highness” due to that marriage, although she has separated from her Swazi husband. Therefore, Mandela and Zuma find themselves in the same pot. Thabo Mbeki never condemned nor praised King Mswati. He was forever silent until the last days of his presidency when he committed the utmost blunder of visiting Swaziland.

There are many other reasons why I disagree with the above-mentioned anti-Zuma narrative. The main thing is that since 1994 none of the presidents has actually come out to condemn the regime. In fact one must boldly state that the greatest progress that has been seen in the ANC with regard to our struggle has been under President Zuma’s presidency. In the Mangaung conference in 2012, for instance, the ANC resolved to not only support the struggle for Swaziland’s democracy, but went on to form a special committee that would concentrate on the democratisation of Swaziland. Well, the fact that the committee is toothless and filled with too many pro-monarchy members is an issue for another day.

ANC in business with King Mswati III

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Today we have all accepted that the ANC is in business with King Mswati. Sadly, some of our comrades would not like to see us raising this issue repeatedly. They must close their eyes and ears, or better yet shut down their brains! I wonder what they stand to gain in this evil business partnership. The ANC, through its investment wing, Chancellor House, owns a large part of Maloma Colliery, with the other part being owned by King Mswati’s Tibiyo Taka Ngwane. Practically this means the ANC is in bed with King Mswati. All their business partnerships are simply about profit, bigger profit and more super-profits. All this happens at the expense of the oppressed people of Swaziland and the liberation struggle as a whole, whilst they proclaim the now-tired diplomatic phrase, “we will not interfere into the internal affairs of another sovereign state.”

It is known that many other rich ANC cadres do visit Swaziland and even go on to play golf with King Mswati. They even enjoy exclusive dinner with him in his extravagant palaces. No political program is ever attached to their visits. It is just great friends visiting one of their own great friends on great days. Some ANC comrades, such as Siphiwe Nyanda, have even supplied the regime’s army with guns and ammunition which the regime has proceeded to use for the murder of our comrades. Some ANC comrades make it a point to visit Swaziland during the Marula season and drink with Mswati whilst some prefer to take part during the reed dance ceremony. At one point Baleka Mbethe also took part in the Marula celebrations at Buhleni Royal Kraal, where she was also able to secretly meet and discuss with the king and other government officials such as Mr Lutfo Dlamini. At another point, Julius Malema, then an ANCYL president, visited Swaziland. He was reported by the Swazi media to have been on a tour of Swaziland and was later caught by the Royal Swaziland Police for drunken driving. He had gone to Swaziland to have some nice time with his Swaziland-based friends. Just like his elders’ visits, there was no political program attached to his visit as well.

Additionally, the ANC-led government has a deal with the autocratic regime of Swaziland to have a rail-line operating from South Africa, which will go through Swaziland and reach Richards Bay, a business venture aimed at cutting costs for the South African government. None of the projects being carried out either by the ANC or individual ANC cadres or the ANC-led government have any political program attached to them. None of them is of any benefit to PUDEMO or the struggle. They are all about business and making as much profit as possible for the ANC, the ANC-led government and some individual ANC comrades.

The ANC is today in warm blankets and comfortable bed with the brutal royal regime. It is as if they have forgotten about the people of Swaziland’s role in the South African liberation struggle. It appears as if they have forgotten the historical alliance between PUDEMO and the ANC. The myth that Swazi exiles receive refugees’ status in South Africa because of the existence of an ANC-PUDEMO alliance must be debunked. It is international law, not any PUDEMO-ANC alliance, which forces the South African government to issue refugees’ status to Swaziland exiles. If it were due to the alliance, then that would mean the ANC is also in alliance with Zimbabwe’s MDC and other opposition parties in countries such as Angola, Pakistan, Iraq, DRC, etc, as well. The truth is that Swazi exiles receive refugees’ status because there is a political crisis in Swaziland, a crisis which is well-acknowledged by the international community. Even people who are not members of PUDEMO have received such refugee’ status.

The relationship that the ANC has with the royal regime has muddied the PUDEMO-ANC alliance. Thus, whatever resolutions the ANC has taken in the past, when one views the relationship that it has with King Mswati, it becomes clear that those resolutions were nothing but cold water on the back of a duck. The ANC gives us hope whilst at the same time taking away the little hope that we have. This year PUDEMO was invited by the ANC-led government to president Zuma’s inauguration at the Union Buildings. All this was being done, in my view, to keep us quiet about the Mswati-ANC seemingly unbreakable relationship. I dare say that if Swazi guerrillas could attack King Mswati and aim to overthrow his regime by the barrel of the gun, the ANC-led government would interfere and attempt to save the monarch, partly in order to save its own economic interests, despite the non-interference rhetoric!

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Conclusion

It is sad that a revolutionary alliance that had a great promise has disintegrated to such levels. Some Swazi comrades seem to have given up on the struggle because of such a seemingly-dead alliance. If there is any life in this alliance it is important that drastic measures are taken to energize it. As things stand, the ANC looks like any of the other political parties in South Africa in so far as the struggle for freedom in Swaziland is concerned.

If it is not possible to resuscitate the PUDEMO-ANC alliance, then we should remove the wool in our eyes and start opening up to the fact that we no longer have an alliance and instead start treating the ANC as just one of the organisations of the world from which we can accept any kind of assistance, but with the knowledge that they are not our friends. We should wake up to the fact that they will not stand with us when it matters the most. As things stand the alliance looks dead!