BABANE Troika official flooded with
CONCERNED:
Various youth petitioners who feel their concerns were not addressed by Sibaya have been sending their petitions to the SADC Troika.
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M– An official of the SADC Organ Troika o n P o l i t i c s , D e f e n c e and Security Cooperation feels harassed by emaSwati who have been flooding his private phone with petitions and text messages.
The official asked not to be named for fear of a possibly renewed harassment by some people who are eager to report alleged human rights violation in the country.
Various youth petitioners, who feel their concerns were not addressed by Sibaya have also been sending their petitions to the SADC Troika.
This is after phone numbers of the Troika Secretariat were published on social media before the three Members of Parliament calling for change also made their submissions to the Troika.
An instruction on a whatsApp group read: “We all send our petitions to SADC Troika + 2677 036… Everybody save the number and send your text # we need democracy.”
One even sent text message to the Troika secretariat and made a screenshot of the submission. “The King ignored our call for an elected prime minister, so now we discovered that he doesn’t care about us…”
TOUCH
The youth said they were gearing to revive the petitions as they felt that the Sibaya address did not touch on any of their petitions.
An official of the Troika told Eswatini News that he felt harassed by the petitions.
“This is my personal number. I have no idea why someone posted it on social media and said this is a number for r e c e i v - ing petitions from e m a S w a t i . That action was uncalled for and has seriously inconvenienced my private communications. There was never a number meant for receiving petitions,” the official said.
The petitions served to the country’s Members of Parliament in tinkhundla centres predominantly called for justice for Thabani Nkomonye; political changes that would allow the people to elect their own prime minister; unbanning of political parties and availability of employment opportunities.
At the time that they were stopped by the police in violent confrontations, the petitions had been served to about 50 tinkhundla centres while only about five were outstanding. One of the forerunners of the petitions, the Swaziland National Union of Students ( SNUS) said, at worst, he did not even sense a commitment to genuine dialogue over the demands in the petitions.
SNUS President Colani Maseko said the King’s address turned a blind eye to the youth demands.
REALITY
“In his address, there was no practical reality in addressing the real cause of the unrest in the country. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear when people are calling for multiparty democracy is not going to work. No government in history has ever fought its people and won,” he said.
He said the youth would not be dampened, but would continue to use other means to pursue the petitions.
“The Sibaya speech did not address any concerns of the emaSwati citizens. The King even failed to pass condolences to those who were brutally killed by the army; those who were injured as well as those who were still missing,” he alleged.
One of the youths who submitted a petition at Mahlangatsha Inkhundla, Mnelisi Maseko said he also heard nothing at all about the contents of the petitions.
He and the youth of the inkhundla had submitted 14 demands that included calls for clean potable water, availability of reliable public transport and advanced education and several political demands.
“The youth said they were gearing themselves to revive the petitions as they feel the Sibaya address did not touch on any of their petitions”