MBABANE: Mlungisi Makhanya, the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) has urged anyone with a list of political prisoners who are languishing in jail to bring it to them.
Responding to a critical article authored by Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin Dlamini regarding political prisoners who are languishing in jail, Makhanya said while it was true that there were Swazis who were locked-up during the political unrest, the number was not as high as others claim.
“We can confirm that some Swazis are in jail but the number is not as high as others claim. What is happening here is that there are people who are busy collecting money from the public saying they want to pay bail for incarcerated Swazis but they don’t want to be questioned on how many people they have bailed-out.We are on the ground working with the people directly, there is no way there could be such a large number of prisoners without us knowing.You see, when you collect money from the people, you must then come back and report that you collected this amount and the number of people you have assisted.It’s true that there were political unrest prisoners but most of them were bailed out while others were tricked to plead guilty.What is happening now, some people are continuing to collect money from the public saying they want to bail out political prisoners, where are those prisoners? I am challenging anyone with the list of political prisoners to provide it so that we can assist,” said the PUDEMO President when speaking to the editor.
In his article, the editor reminded political leaders not to forget the ordinary Swazis who were arrested during the June 2021 political unrest.
However,PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya has come-out to clarify that they were working tirelessly to assist but warned those who collected money saying they wanted to assist only to avoid accountability of the public funds.
PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya