Swazi Communist leader slams Mswati’s ban on non-Christian religious teaching in schools

The Communist Party of Swaziland has condemned the effort of the Mswati regime to ban all religious teaching in Swazi schools except Christianity.

"This is a cack-handed attempt to clamp down on the Muslim community, evidently to suck up to the ‘war of terror' posturing of the US and its imperialist allies," said CPS General Secretary Kenneth Kunene.

"Now that President Trump is re-ramping up the most brutal and idiotic aspects of US anti-terrorism policy, Mswati is seeking kudos from Trump by taking similarly counter-productive and witless steps. He probably thinks he'll get an invitation to Trump Tower and the White House."

But Kunene warned that racist and discriminatory moves against the Swaziland's Muslims will only backfire, generating yet more disaffection with the Mswati regime.

"Communists and other progressive forces must reach out to those in the Muslim community to make clear that they are not alone and to include them in the pro-democracy fold."

Kunene said that CPS education policy for a post-Mswati democratic Swaziland is to develop secular education in public schools. But this does not mean that discrimination against non-Christian religions should be tolerated.

"We believe that the history of religion and religious ideas should eventually replace religious instruction in public schools. And in this too there would be no discrimination bias hardwired into how the subject is presented. Until then, and while we have the current system, it should be as open as possible to all religious persuasions."

Kunene pointed out that the Mswati regime also binds Christianity to his own notions of traditional culture to intimidate Swazis and maintain his own domination of the country by asserting himself as a quasi-divine entity.