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CPS: Swaziland’s Finance Bill a declaration of war against the people

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CPS: Swaziland’s Finance Bill a declaration of war against the people

CPS: Swaziland’s Finance Bill a declaration of war against the people
Photo by Duane

21st June 2018

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/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The Communist Party of Swaziland is not surprised by the open declaration of war against the people by the Mswati III regime through its Finance Bill of 2018. The Finance Bill has been drafted with the clear intention of deepening the impoverishment of the people of Swaziland so as to pay for Mswati and his family’s luxurious lifestyle, in particular Mswati’s recent 50th birthday extravaganza on 19 April 2018 which cost the country over E1 billion (about US$75 million). If the Bill is passed, exorbitant fees will be charged for various government services, including marriage registration, travel documents application, registration of births and businesses, and other services.

The most obvious exorbitant fee proposed by the Finance Bill is the E30, 000 for the issuing of a citizenship certificate by marriage. This effectively means that before a Swazi and a non-Swazi citizen get married, they will have to consider the xenophobic huddle of the exorbitant E30, 000 as application fee for citizenship.

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The Bill also amends the Births, Marriages and Deaths Registration Act by charging a whopping E300 for the insertion of a father’s particulars in the birth registration of a child, whilst E150 is charged for a certified copy of a birth certificate. Various hefty sums will also be charged for the application of business licences which will prove a huge barrier for the poverty stricken people of Swaziland.

The Mswati regime claims to be truly African, but through this Bill it continues to show its true colours. It develops a xenophobic stance to love and marriage, employing legal means to attempt to cleanse Swazi society on racial and tribal lines. Love and marriage will now be an exclusive arena for the rich.

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In the bigger scheme of things, the Bill serves to strengthen the position of international capital, including Mswati’s business associates who are the leading local capitalists. At the same time, it aims to suppress Swazi small and informal businesses, with the working class and poor facing the worst attack. With this setting, Mswati, who rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch, together with his family, will continue to rest comfortably in the royal throne, knowing full well that every drop of blood of the people has been squeezed out for royal enjoyment.

The Bill will deepen further the already existing levels inequality in Swaziland. Mswati prefers that the poor be poorer so that he can disperse his patronage and control them with his iron fist.

Close to 70 percent of the people of Swaziland survive on less than US$2 a day, cancer patients are unable to continue their treatment as Mswati’s government claims it is broke, government clinics and hospitals run without vital drugs. The school system has literally collapsed, with school children reported to have gone for weeks without food in their feeding schemes. Meanwhile, the massive spending for the luxurious upkeep of the royal family continues.

In truly democratic societies this Bill would not be passed. But the issue is different in Swaziland. Swaziland’s parliament is a puppet for Mswati to rubberstamp his decisions. It has no power whatsoever to call either Mswati or his government to account. This is why the 2018 tinkhundla elections process, planned for election of members of parliament, is a worthless exercise.

The people’s first duty towards defeating this unbridled royal corruption is to reject the sham elections of Swaziland. The Mswati autocracy continues to prove itself that it has no interests in the future of the people. It must be overthrown by a people’s war for justice, against its feudal rule!

Down with the Mswati autocracy!

Down with the monarch!

Down with the tinkhundla system!

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland

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