Lugongolweni youth’s protest aborted

SITEKI – Aborted!

The heavy presence of army personnel and police officers manning the almost complete freeway road from the KMIII International Airport prevented Lugongolweni youth from welcoming South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa with placards bearing their disgruntlement about the current political impasse in the country.

Ramaphosa, who is also the Chairperson of the Southern African District Community (SADC) Organ on Politics Defence and Security jetted into the country yesterday morning on a work visit.

The South African president was in the company of Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor.

Initially, the youth led by Mcolisi Sinisela had planned to host their peaceful protest march at the intersection road that joined the freeway with that of Malindza-Simunye main road, just above the Mbandlane Bridge.

Sinisela said the presence of the security forces intimidated them, hence they aborted their planned protest march.

The constituency youth leader pointed out that their main emphasis in hosting the protest march was to send a clear message to the visiting president that they had had enough of police brutality while calling for the country’s political reforms.

Anticipated

Sinisela stated that the messages were also to be seen by the international community as they had anticipated conducting a live broadcast of their protest march. He highlighted that the visiting South African president could have been compelled to share in other forums what he had seen along the road on his way to the meeting with His Majesty King Mswati III yesterday noon.

He added that as emaSwati were calling for democratic reforms of the country, they were determined to have their messages heard and the international community intervening.

Sinisela mentioned that the SADC community had not been proactive in addressing the country’s political impasse, hence it was imperative that their messages were seen by international organisations.

He said in fear of the unknown, they resolved to abort the planned protest march because their members who were to convene at the Mbandlane Bridge were not safe.

“The presence of soldiers and police along the road leading to the airport made us to change our plan.

“Our aim was only to send a message to the visiting president but our members whom we had planned the protest march with could have been victims of assaults,” Sinisela said.

Worth noting was that the constituency’s youth recently held a march that was aborted after army personnel allegedly opened fire on the marchers who were on their way to deliver a petition at the Siteki Police Station Commander, Edwin Dlamini.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa’s work visit preceded that of the SADC Troika envoy last month.