Pius Vilakati: Appraising the Swazi Struggle

Blossom of Thought

For an appraisal of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, Pius Vilakati sits down with me. Pius is Central Committee Member and Head of Research and Policy Development of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and a former International Secretary of the CPS. He is former President of the University of Swaziland Student Representative Council (SRC) and a former prominent member of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS). He has been exiled in Azania/South Africa for over a dozen years.

After the 2021 uprising and protests for democratic reforms in Swaziland, things are back to normal and no more protest against the regime. Nothing has changed though: there are still about 100 people who died during the uprising, dozens and dozens maimed and disabled, 100s imprisoned including the 2 MPs (Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube) that were recently sentenced to 25 and 18 years respectively for calling for democratic changes. King Mswait’s regime has failed to conduct a transparent, independent, and impartial investigation into the killings and other human rights violations resulting from the security forces’ excessive crackdown on protestors, and the regime has not been moved an inch on the calls for democratic changes.

Pius views the uprising as a positive step forward, but is also convinced that nothing much would unless the masses are organized with political education.