Perhaps it’s important to remind the Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) Themba Masuku that Free Primary Education(FPE) was implemented or included in the Constitution after the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) and Jan Sithole’s Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) fought for it.
Even though he is now a Mangololo, one of the unionists who fought for a better life for Swazis is Jabulani Nxumalo, the then SFTU Deputy Secretary General(DSG) and former Speaker in the House of Assembly Themba Msibi, who is now Lubombo Regional Administrator.
I am not a fan of Jabulani Nxumalo who sold the Swazi struggle and or workers to the oppressor but the truth is; he fought for some of the social benefits enjoyed by Swazis today.
DPM Themba Masuku must stop misleading Swazis by suggesting that social programs like the Free Primary Education came as a result of a political dialogue, that is not true.
But it is the late PUDEMO President Mario Masuku, Mphandlana Shongwe, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, political activist and human rights expert Velaphi Mamba, Swazi Democratic Party\'s (SWADEPA) Jan Sithole and other activists who fought for it.
The elderly are enjoying grants today because there were men and women who fought for this social benefit, PUDEMO’s Zodwa Mkhonta and Mpandlana Shongwe are among those who braved police brutality so that Swazis could enjoy a better life.
Now,DPM Themba Masuku claims the Tinkhundla system has been progressing or improving through dialogue, that is not true, Tinkhundla manipulated some of the twenty-seven(27) demands and claimed they were ideas of the King.
Mswati’s started paying elderly grants after the twenty-seven(27)demands, which was the work of the progressives.
The DPM can fool us with the 1960s propaganda but some of us remember what happened between 1990 until now, he can’t fool us anymore.
Tinkhundla has been implementing ideas of the progressives sourced from petitions, this is a regime that’s operates without any capability to think.
It has been stealing ideas from the progressives to improve itself.
But despite the political plagiarism, Mswati and his government failed the Swazis.
The late former SFTU Secretary General Jan Sithole.