Estimated E250k made in registration

MBABANE – With a cover charge of E50 to register a new member, SFDF has made above E250 000 from the over 5 000 members registered in the past two months.

SFDF is an acronym for Swazis First Democratic Front, a political party led by former Pam Golding Director and businesswoman Busi Mayisela.

The over 5 000 registered members and the E50 registration fee was confirmed by Secretary General (SG) of the party Gift Dlamini.

“We must make it clear that for the struggle to prosper we will need to be financially liquid and to also make sure that we recruit more members. We would like to encourage all members to recruit as much as possible so that we can occupy the space,” he said.

Dlamini stated that the organisation had created its own plan and their intentions were to put all resources towards achieving democracy in the country before they could think of any other project.

INITIATIVES

He encouraged members to remember that the organisation was self-funding at the moment and therefore such initiatives were important.

“We are calling upon all emaSwati to make contributions towards the running of their political parties, we are aware that there are organisations and other countries that are ready to fund the course but the struggled belongs to the people of Eswatini first and just our name suggests, it should be about Swazis First. Everyone that needs the project to move forward must assist financially and we will be very vigilant to ensure that we remain accountable,” he said.

Dlamini added the registration fees were part of the many revenue streams that the organisation was opening to ensure that they do not depend on other institutions that might dilute their call. He said organisation does not have a limit on membership and was looking at occupying every space within the country.

SFDF’s founding principles were adopted in Mpumalanga, South Africa in December 2022. Several programmes of principles were subsequently laid out for the policy direction of the party, and were used as compasses of guidance within the organisation.

FAIRNESS

According to its website, the political party’s fundamental values and founding principles are freedom, equality, solidarity, diversity, and fairness. SFDF’s ideological position was presented as social democrats which is the belief in democracy and the struggle for social equity that would drive policies that were pro-people.

SFDF considers its values to be of paramount importance and that without them, there would be no party.

“Values are fundamental in everything that the political party will do, and they set the direction for SFDF’s political programmes. In most parts of the world, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, while socialist democratic values are confined to a few countries where they have proven to work with much effectiveness. We therefore need a strong social democracy with strong values internationally,” said Mayisela in a prior interview.

She concluded that they were convinced that the country needed a strong social democracy which would have strong international values.