Communist Party of Swaziland

Mswati’s security forces abduct and brutalise Communist Party leaders for demanding release for Comrade Mvuselelo Mkhabela

Monday 3 July 2023: On Thursday 29 June 2023, Mswati security forces abducted four members of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and heavily tortured them before releasing them later on the day without charge. 

The members are CPS National Organising Secretary Comrade Bafanabakhe Sacolo, CPS Head of Youth & Students Commission Comrade Kwanele Fakudze, CPS member Comrade Simanga Dlamini and CPS member Comrade Lwazi Maseko. 

The CPS leaders were abducted at around 09:30am on Thursday 29 June 2023 along the Manzini-Mbabane Highway on their way to attend a court case of Comrade Mvuselelo Mkhabela who was arrested on 15 April 2023 for disrupting the sham tinkhundla civic voter education exercise. 

The human rights activists were loaded into an army truck and were heavily tortured thereafter. 29 June marked the second anniversary since the massacre of the people of Swaziland by Mswati’s security forces in 2021, leading to the death of about 100 unarmed people, the maiming and injuring of hundreds, and arrest of over 700 people. 

A convoy of five armoured vehicles drove them to Matsapha where they reside. Mswati’s police thereafter raided their houses in search of political material. 

When the comrades were later released later on the day, they had been heavily brutalised by the soldiers who had detained them since the morning when they were abducted. 

Despite the heavy torture by Mswati’s forces, our comrades remain high-spirited and even more convinced of the need to intensify the struggle for democracy and socialism. 

The regime has in recent years paid particular attention to the CPS and its programmes. In this regard, the regime is targeting CPS activists to brutalise them with the intention to destroy the Party as well as the struggle for democracy. 

The Communist Party of Swaziland demands justice for our comrades and all democracy activists who have been brutalised by the regime. The CPS will intensify the struggle for socialism notwithstanding the obvious target on the Party by the regime.