PUDEMO: No political education fund
MBABANE - “They may have formed another political party with the same name we may not know about.”
This is according to Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) President Ncamiso Mabuyakhulu following a statement by PUDEMO, stating that they had met with former SWAYOCO leaders to discuss the current state of the organisation and to also establish a political education fund to strengthen SWAYOCO.
According to Mabuyakhulu, the political party had not met with the People’s Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) to discuss any funds and ways of strengthening the party. He said they also did not hold a discussion with the party to request their assistance with ways of strengthening SWAYOCO.
“SWAYOCO has not had any meeting with PUDEMO. There is no member of SWAYOCO who has had a meeting with the party (PUDEMO) and have discussed anything about ways of strengthening it. I do not think that the party was talking about us but rather maybe a new party, which they had formed themselves and have used the same name as ours,” Mabuyakhulu said in an interview.
Problems
He mentioned that the party would not have problems with PUDEMO if they formed another party and called it SWAYOCO as even people would sometimes share the same name.
He mentioned that the picture that PUDEMO had used alongside their post did not have any SWAYOCO leaders or its members.
“I am not sure if the picture is recent but even if it is, there is no member of SWAYOCO in the picture,” he alleged.
When questioned about Mabuyakhulu’s comment, PUDEMO Secretary General Wandile Dludlu stated that the meeting they had was not formal but rather a barbeque (braai) session where they then discussed serious issues. Dludlu said SWAYOCO was part of PUDEMO but had people who ran away from the congress to form their own where they then used the name SWAYOCO.
“Those who are not part of us are the members who ran away and are not considered as SWAYOCO,” he said.
Dludlu was also questioned on what the political educational fund was and how the members would benefit from it.
In response, he mentioned that as a proscribed entity, they would not be able to manage an account as it would be terminated. He said the post was just some members who were informing the public how the meeting between the two parties went.
“There is nothing like a political education fund as everyone is clear that we are a proscribed entity and such accounts would be blocked in no time. These are just wishes from a member who decided to write on the page,” he said.
This was not the first time the two parties did not see eye-to-eye. In a previous interview, Dludlu denied SWAYOCO having any leadership.
He said SWAYOCO was yet to hold a congress and that was when the leadership of the movement would be elected.
Dludlu had highlighted that currently, there was no executive running SWAYOCO and those who were claiming to be part of the leadership were not recognised.
This came after a regional gathering held by PUDEMO in the Shiselweni Region at the banks of Mabhudlweni River on top of eNhlatfwini Rocks, where some members of SWAYOCO were also present.
Dludlu, when asked about the absence of the President of SWAYOCO, Mabuyakhulu, and other executive members of the congress, he stated that as far as he knew, there were currently no national executive members of SWAYOCO as the office bearers were yet to be elected.
When reached for comment, Mabuyakhulu said some members of the executive of PUDEMO seemed to be in denial about the current status quo.
“We had a congress and there was a consensus that SWAYOCO should revert to being a stand-alone youth movement which was the case prior to 1991, when it joined PUDEMO as its youth league. The only way this can change is through a decision made through congress because procedure has to be followed. This wasn’t just an individual decision but a congress decision,” said Mabuyakhulu. Some commentators on social media have we been adamant that it would be impossible for SWAYOCO to simply de-link itself from PUDEMO. They argued that it was PUDEMO which gave birth to SWAYOCO as its youth league.