18 May 2022:- Swaziland’s soldiers on Tuesday 17 May 2022 viciously assaulted the president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), Comrade Colani Maseko.

The military and the police also assaulted many other students who had been protesting for scholarships for all, allowances, better learning conditions, and democracy.

The assault of the student union’s president first took place at Kwaluseni campus of the University of Swaziland and later near a river just a few metres from one of Mswati's palaces (Engabezweni) and subsequently dumped at Sigodvweni police station in Matsapha. The royal police at Sigodvweni police station denied him access to medical attention.

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) condemns this latest attack on students. The regime is desperate to cling to power as it continues to resort to extreme violence in its bid to stop the democracy wave. In its attempts to stop the democracy wave, the regime has primarily focused on working-class youth and students, the most resolute in the “Democracy Now” campaign, abducting and brutalising them.

The CPS calls for consistent mobilisation of the youth for total democracy. The youth must not be hoodwinked into participating in the backward tinkhundla elections. These elections, no matter how many so-called “radicals” partake, are meant to legitimise the ruling absolute monarchy and deepen the autocracy. The CPS calls for the total boycott and disruption of the tinkhundla elections process, to make the country ungovernable by the Mswati autocracy to usher the country to total democracy.