By Wendy Magagula

MBABANE: Sibongile Mazibuko, the President of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress(NNLC) has thanked the Deputy President of the Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF) Floyd Shivambu for prioritizing the plight of incarcerated pro-democracy Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.

This comes after the Inter-Parliamentary Union(IPU) took a resolution to visit the Kingdom of eSwatini and investigate the alleged violation of the MPs rights who were arrested by Mswati,merely for demanding democratic reforms.

“We would like to thank the EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu for raising the plight of the incarcerated MPs during the IPU meeting in Indonesia. It’s not the first time the EFF stands in solidarity with us as the oppressed. Our appreciation also goes to EFF President Julius Malema who always advocates for the freedom of Swazis,” said the NNLC President when speaking to this publication on Sunday.

During the Inter-Parliamentary Union(IPU) Assembly held at Nusa Dua, Indonesia in March 2022 Shivambu made submissions and urged the IPU to pay specific attention to eSwatini.

“The IPU should pay specific attention to eSwatini because what is obtaining there is that political parties are not allowed to exist, a lot of activists have been arrested, who are trying to call for democratic reforms.I wouldn’t think that it would be a correct assessment to conclude that we’ve a constitutional order in eSwatini because there isn’t such. It’s an absolute Monarchy and only being one in the entire world possibly where all Parliamentary and Executive functions are performed by the royal family and does not permit political activity to exist there, to the extent that the Prime Minister is appointed by the King. When MPs express their disagreement with the King, they get arrested and they are detained, it’s more than twelve months now, we got MPs that have been detained in eSwatini. I would think that the IPU might need to pay closer attention of what is happening in eSwatini,” said the South African MP who doubles as the Deputy President of the Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF).