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.