15 YEARS IN THE TRENCHES: A DECISIVE CALL TO END THE MONARCHY AND SEIZE DEMOCRACY NOW!

Fifteen years ago, on 9 April 2011, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) was founded with a singular, revolutionary aim: to smash the absolute monarchy of King Mswati III and build a democratic, socialist Swaziland for the working people. From that day forward, the regime responded not with dialogue, but with continue to ban, forcing our Party to operate in clandestine conditions. Yet, repression has not broken our resolve. Instead, it has forged the CPS into one of the most vital and organised forces in the struggle for national liberation.

Over the last fifteen years, the CPS has been the unyielding, militant voice of the oppressed. We were not mere spectators during the 2021-2023 uprising; we were a central force, helping to transform mass discontent into a political insurrection that permanently put the dictatorship on the defensive. Our cadres have organised the working class, mobilised the youth, and built international solidarity against a regime that criminalises dissent and rules through terror and the brutal Tinkhundla system of exploitation.

Today, we salute all political prisoners languishing in the regime’s dungeons, all exiles forced from their homeland, and all fallen comrades who have sacrificed their lives for freedom. Swaziland is among the top ten worst violators of workers’ rights globally. The monarchy has banned protests, unleashed its security forces to gun down peaceful demonstrators, and even resorted to labelling pro-democracy advocates as “terrorists”. But the people are no longer afraid. The growing participation of the elderly and the organised working class in the streets of the majority towns shows that the masses are rising.

Comrades, the next five years must be the decisive period in our long struggle. The regime is isolated, internationally condemned, and increasingly delegitimised. The criminalisation of political opposition has failed to halt the emergence of a multi-stakeholder forum, including pro-democracy discussions within certain sections of the regime, who are actively discussing the formation of an interim transitional government. Now is not the time for reformist illusions. Now is the time for the final assault.

The Communist Party of Swaziland therefore calls upon all revolutionary forces, the working class, the peasantry, the progressive intelligentsia, and all democratic organisations, to unite under a single, uncompromising slogan: END THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY AND ESTABLISH A PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

We reject the fraudulent “monarchical democracy” advanced by Mswati as a smokescreen for continued tyranny. We will not participate in any sham tinkhundla electoral process. We demand:

1. The unconditional dissolution of the absolute monarchy and the establishment of a democratic, secular republic.
2. The immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners and the safe return of all exiles.
3. The unbanning of all political parties and trade unions, and full rights to organise, protest, and strike.
4. The expropriation of the royal family’s vast wealth and the redistribution of land to the landless peasantry.

We further call on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to stop propping up this dictatorship. By appointing the autocrat Mswati to regional posts, SADC has disqualified itself as a champion of democracy. We call on the South African government to close the Swaziland embassy and consulate and consign the regime to the diplomatic isolation it deserves.

Comrades. The enemy is weakened, but he remains dangerous. The coming period will require sacrifice, discipline, and revolutionary violence to defeat the regime’s mercenary forces. The CPS is ready to lead the insurrectionary seizure of power to achieve democracy now.

The next five years will be the years of victory.

Forward to the final defeat of the monarchy!
Forward to the Democratic Republic of Swaziland!
Long live the international working class!

“For Freedom, Democracy and Socialism”

Issued on behalf of CPS Central Committee by:

Contact:

Thokozane Kunene
General Secretary
(+27)72 594 3971

Simphiwe Dlamini
CPS National Organising Secretary
+268 7627 9355