Youth congress calls for political change by 2008

The Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) resolved at a weekend meeting in South Africa to use youth-led mass action to bring democracy to sub-Saharan Africa's last remaining absolute monarchy. "The assembly gathered under the battle cry: 'Youth of Swaziland unite and rise up against royal oppression', affirming the decade of liberation through popular and militant youth struggle," Kenneth Kunene, the SWAYOCO secretary general, told a press conference. At its 7th General Congress held in Nelspruit, about two hours' drive north of the Swaziland border, SWAYOCO set 2008 as the date when they expect to see a popularly elected democratic government in Swaziland, which coincides with the next parliamentary election scheduled under the current royal regime. "It was a historical undertaking for the people of Africa that by 2010 there will be a World Cup in South Africa, [by which time] Swaziland shall be a free and democratic country," Kunene said. SWAYOCO is the youth branch of the largest of the banned political parties in the kingdom, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO). King Mswati's father, King Sobhuza, outlawed organised political opposition in 1973, when he assumed control of the country. Mswati's brothers, who are coordinating a new national constitution, contend that Swazis do not want political parties and are content with royal rule. The constitution, which Mswati said he would decree into law, allows freedom of assembly, subject to approval by the king. SWAYOCO, which last met in Swaziland in 1998, says it has the support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.