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The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) extends its unwavering solidarity and support to the South African Communist Party (SACP) on this important occasion of the SACP’s 4thSpecial National Congress.

The fortunes of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) in South Africa are closely tied to our own fortunes as the Communist Party of Swaziland, and your efforts to boost the Alliance and put South Africa on a firmer path to socialism are crucial to the success of our own struggle for democracy and against the dictatorial absolute monarch in Swaziland.

We take great inspiration from the SACP for the vanguard role it has and continues to play in fighting against corruption and state capture in South Africa. This provides important lessons for our own struggle because, apart from having a corrupt monarchic autocracy, Swaziland is a looter’s paradise. Our struggle is not only to achieve freedom and democracy but to put an end to the culture of corruption which pervades our country. 

Swaziland is still ruled by the absolute monarch since 12 April 1973 when Sobhuza II unilaterally repealed the constitution and banned all political parties and activities. The result of the ruling system of Swaziland has been continuously deepening impoverishment of the people, along with their systematic suppression. Today people are dying in Swaziland’s public hospitals because the monarch has over the years looted public funds and destroyed the entire public health care system, while the royal family continues to live in extravagance.

The support given to the absolute monarch in Swaziland from the South African government more openly under the previous administration did hinder the march to democracy and freedom for our people. We call upon the current government in South Africa to change course and openly advocate for democratic change in Swaziland. We are lobbying for this, including through SADC.

Many of our comrades were exiled by the monarchic regime. As exiles, almost exclusively based in SA, our comrades contribute to the work and struggles of the SACP. They build, and indeed feel, strong family bonds with the SACP and our comrades in COSATU. This is a task that our comrades take as a revolutionary duty to unite with the working class and all other oppressed wherever they are found.

We greatly value the support and solidarity that the SACP has given to the CPS. We look forward to closer engagements, joint strategic and tactical planning on approaches to the issue of Swaziland, as well as joint actions through the Swaziland Solidarity Network and other progressive forces.

We are with you 100 per cent in the struggle to roll back the neoliberal stranglehold on South Africa and to create the necessary scope and space to introduce socialist policies and practices from the bottom up. We also support the struggles of the people of Venezuela, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in their fight against imperialist aggression by the United States of America. Our internationalism also stretches out to the people of Western Sahara in their fight against Moroccan colonialism. We also extend our solidarity to the people of Zimbabwe in their quest to rebuild their country, along with their struggle to unite the people. We send fraternal support to the Zimbabwe Communist Party as they continue to prepare for their inaugural congress during the month of December 2019.

Long live the SACP!

Long live solidarity between the CPS and SACP!

Socialism in our lifetime!

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland