On the Launch of the "Break the Chains Campaign" (BCC)

The "Break the Chains Campaign" (BCC) was launched in Limpopo on 23 March 2013 at the campus of the University of Venda. This is a campaign meant to advocate for the release of all political prisoners in Swaziland. The campaign is centred around Comrade Amos Mbedzi as its face and has none other than a man with a befitting profile Dr Tshenuwani Farisani as its convener. Dr Farisane is a former political prisoner, a politician who occupied several Cabinet posts in the Limpopo government including as a speaker of Legislature, and is a dean of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa and to top it all he is an author of several books.

On 17 September 2012 Comrade Amos Mbedzi, a former member of MK, a cadre of the SACP and the ANC; was sentenced in Swaziland court after spending 4 years in jail awaiting trial. Mbedzi was charged with sedition, murder, unlawful possession of explosives and immigration offenses.

Sedition is a special law passed to incarcerate those who speak ill against the King. and it carries a minimum of 15 years in jail. Anyone who is brave enough to point out the corruption and extravagance going on in the kingdom amidst raging poverty, where even AIDs patients resort to eat cow dung so as to complement the anti retrovirals faces the wrath of King Mswati.

The context is that cde Mbedzi according to the Swaziland Court "tried to place explosives under a prominent bridge near important Swazi government and royal buildings' with an aim to overthrow the regime. At that moment it is alleged that Musa Dlamini, a Swazi citizen and jack Govender were travelling with him in the same car when the explosives accidentally went off. This resulted in the two persons in the names of Musa Dlamini and Jack Govender dying and cde Mbedzi was charged for their alleged murder.

Cde Mbedzi gave a version of his side of the story that he was unaware that the car he was travelling in as a passenger had explosives. Also that when the explosive went off he had gone out of the car to relieve himself but was near enough that he got injured. The prosecution being unable to refute that looked for cell phone evidence which did not implicate Mbedzi. As such they went further to create propaganda that cde Mbedzi was found in a nearby hospital with a document entitled "top secret" which detailed how the Swaziland government will be overthrown in collaboration with Pudemo.

This was propaganda in a sense that it is inconceivable how Mbedzi will carry such document knowing he is under great suspicion from the regime. Even if he was in possession of it how does it prove that he intended to take any action against government? If Mbedzi was given fair trial he would have given his side of the story as to how he became to be in possession of the document. Instead he was tortured and harassed, put in a jail without lights to an extent that his eye was injured to partial blindness.

Commenting on Mbedzi judgement Nicole Fritz of the Southern Litigation Centre writes as follows in the "Sunday Independent" of 16 September 2012

"It (referring to Mbedzi Trial) doesn't meet the standard of a fair trial. It isn't the rule of law. In Swaziland the principle has been turned on its head: the courts in Swaziland don't generally check the abuses of Swaziland's authorities. They promote them".

As the SACP we call on revolutionaries across the world to condemn the undemocratic and illegitimate "Tikundla System" by the last absolute monarch in the world, King Mswati. We call on SADC and the AU to suspend Swaziland‘s membership in their respective organisations and the South African government to send the High Commissioner of Swaziland packing. The South African government must show same determination in attending to the Mbedzi issue as that of Prof Garibus and other similar cases.

 Why there is always the urgency when our white compatriots are in trouble overseas but we don't see the same determination and vigilance with cde Mbedzi. Deputy Minister Marius Fransman even went to an extent of calling South Africans to pray for the safe return of Prof Karabus. The media made noise about how frail he is and how terrible that he missed the birth of his grandchild. But a question can be asked in the same vein if comrade Mbedzi is not also a son to his beloved mother, is he not a brother, a father to his beloved Children? Are his credentials as an SA citizen in doubt? Are there any transformation issues in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation that we are not aware of?

I listened to Prof Karabus's interview on 23 March 2013 on SA FM when he was asked if he can attribute his acquittal to the intervention by SA government and his response was that he was ‘not sure if it were the efforts of SA government or the decisions of the Medical review Board instituted by the UAE government which did not find him guilty". I said to myself the DIRCO got what they deserved, his lack of gratitute. Prof Karabus values more of a decision by the Medical Review Board than SA government because as a professional he knows the Board clears his conscience and ethics on the alleged murder of the patient he was treating.

Further the racist SA media is guilty of being quite on the Mbedzi matter but very alert on fellow white citizens who are ill-treated in foreign countries? Mswati is a liability and an embarrassment to Africa`s reforms, particularly the movement towards democratisation of countries and must not be tolerated.

As the SACP we demand the following:

• The immediate release of all political prisoners in Swaziland
• The unbanning of political parties in Swaziland
• The abolition of the undemocratic, feudal and fascist "Tikundla System of Governance" where only wives, girlfriends, concubines, relatives and friends of the King are allowed to occupy key positions in government
• The creation of constitutional multi-party democracy in Swaziland

Walter Mothapo is Head of the SACP Provincial International Relations Commission in the Limpopo province. These are his personal views.

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