CP of Swaziland, CPS message of solidarity with Malawian and Mozambican people on devastation by Cyclone Freddy

3/20/23 3:09 PM
  • Swaziland, Communist Party of Swaziland En Africa Communist and workers' parties

Communist Party of Swaziland 

CPS message of solidarity with Malawian and Mozambican

people on devastation by Cyclone Freddy

 

Sunday 19 March 2023: The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) conveys its deepest message of solidarity to the people of Southern Africa, particularly Malawi and Mozambique, following devastation by Cyclone Freddy, which may be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record. 

The record-breaking cyclone has caused about 560 deaths across Southern Africa, including Madagascar, Mauritius, Malawi and Zimbabwe. A total of over 1.4 million people have been impacted by the cyclone, with Mozambique and Malawi being the hardest hit. The working class and poor, the majority of the population across the region (and the world), have received the hardest hit from the cyclone and it will take a long time for them to rebuild their lives. 

In Malawi, over 183 000 people have been displaced. About 438 people were reported dead and over 200 missing. On the other hand, at least 86 people have been confirmed dead in Mozambique. In both countries, the cyclone has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, including roads, buildings and homes. 

Close to a million people remain food insecure in the affected southern African region. More than 280,000 children in Malawi are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The cyclone could further worsen Malawi's cholera outbreak which is already the worst in decades. The lack of running water, sanitation facilities, and worsening fears of waterborne diseases, was already a problem before the cyclone. The cyclone, therefore, has only helped to deepen a problem which already had an impact on the people of the region, with the working class and poor the worst affected. 

The CPS also conveys its solidarity with other peoples across the world who have endured the devastating effects of natural disasters, including in Peru, Ecuador, Türkiye and Syria, among other countries. 

The increasing prevalence of disasters is a matter of concern to revolutionaries across the world, and indeed should be a cause for concern for all humanity. Evidence over the years has proved that more of these disasters are increasingly products of human action, particularly the way in which human beings have produced their needs in the past few centuries under the capitalist system. The reversal of such a devastating mode of production, which places private profits for a few at the expense of an exploited and impoverished majority, therefore, is now an urgent necessity. The capitalist system is incapable of reversing these crises that have beleaguered the world and must be replaced by a system which places the human being at the centre of all forms of human progress, including production. 

The CPS calls for solidarity with the people of Malawi and Mozambique, as well as other people across the region, following the devastating effects of the cyclone. In addition, the CPS calls for people-centred processes during the rebuilding processes to ensure that human settlements as well as public infrastructure are strong enough to protect even the lowest from such and other disasters.

 

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland