Author Archives: Peter Kenworthy

Swazi student leader Maxwell: I was tortured

March 5, 2012 no comments

“I was tied to a bench with my face looking upwards and they suffocated me with the black plastic bag with a huge police officer on my stomach. They [Swazi police] asked me where the guns were and wh...

Refugee starvation could trigger new war over Western Sahara says Mini...

February 23, 2012 3 comments

“The strategy of the Moroccan regime is to starve the Saharawi refugees into accepting the Moroccan position. They pressurize the UN into not giving the refugees more aid,” says the Minister of Coope...

Economic justice and democracy is interdependent, says new Swazi campa...

February 17, 2012 no comments

“At the centre of poverty is the question of power,” Musa Andile Nsibande of the Swaziland Economic Justice Network (SEJUN) tells Africa Contact. “When we tell people to stand up for their rights, th...

Help us help ourselves, say Swaziland’s young single mothers

February 8, 2012 1 comment

Women in Swaziland are heavily discriminated against, both by law and by custom. According to the former, women in effect have the status of minors and cannot get a bank loan without the consent of t...

Student leader Maxwell Dlamini out on bail

February 3, 2012 no comments

President of the Swaziland National Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini, has been released on bail today [3. February]. The money for the 50,000 Rand bail (€5000) – the largest bail ever in Swazi lega...

Springtime for Western Sahara?

January 31, 2012 1 comment

In many North African and Arab countries, the demands for democracy and economic redistribution of the so-called “Arab Spring”, have sounded the loudest from the region’s youth. The press...

Swazi student leader’s trial begins with prosecution witness lies

January 19, 2012 no comments

The trial of Swazi student leader and political prisoner, Maxwell Dlamini, finally started last week after having been postponed and delayed since last April, where Maxwell Dlamini was apprehended by...

Steve Biko’s legacy lives on in Swaziland’s civil society

December 18, 2011 no comments

Looking at South Africa today, it is clear that the approach of the ANC has not ensured socio-economic justice for the majority of South Africa’s blacks. Indeed, the rich-poor divide has broadened, a...

Maxwell Dlamini’s trial to finally begin?

December 12, 2011 no comments

Will the trial of Swazi student leader, Maxwell Dlamini, and his co-accused, Musa Ngubeni, finally be heard in court? The trial has been delayed since Dlamini and Ngubeni were detained in April, in c...

Petitioners from around the world call for the release of Maxwell Dlam...

December 8, 2011 no comments

The Free Maxwell Dlamini Campaign has started a petition for the release of Swazi student leader and political prisoner, Maxwell Dlamini. Dlamini was detained and charged with possession of explosive...

Danish Foreign Minister to pressurize Morocco on Western Sahara

November 20, 2011 5 comments

Cheikh Banga has been on a hunger strike since mid-September. His life is therefore in danger. But he is willing to risk his life for the cause he is fighting for – independence for the population of...

Swazi student leader nominated for student peace prize

November 15, 2011 no comments

Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), has been nominated for the 2013 Student Peace Prize, an award given every other year on behalf of Norwegian students to ...

Imprisoned Swazi political prisoner: don’t mourn over me

November 7, 2011 no comments

“It is very unfortunate that a brave young comrade like Maxwell Dlamini [President of the Swaziland National Union of Students] can be made to stay in prison while we need him outside to pursue the s...

Morocco continues attacks on Western Sahara’s population

October 18, 2011 56 comments

Morocco’s Human Rights record in occupied Western Sahara has always been poor. But since the peaceful protest by ten of thousands of Saharawis (Western Sahara’s indigenous population) near El Aaiun i...

Swazi political prisoners interrogated by South African police

October 3, 2011 no comments

In a strange twist to the case of student leader Maxwell Dlamini and political activist Musa Ngubeni, both awaiting trial for allegedly being in possession of explosives in connection with the democr...

Swazi student leader tortured, framed

October 1, 2011 no comments

Press release from the Free Maxwell Dlamini Campaign - Students and other young people are at the forefront of the democratic uprisings of 2011 around the world. They have been the main instigators o...