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Seeds of revolution blowing South?
Politics of the formal, Parliamentary kind, have never been big at the Suns.
We don't even have a political correspondent.
But we've got lots of people reporting on "street politics"...the kind that
hammers the lives of our readers directly...broken sewerage pipes, stolen
electricity connections, fractured roads, bad local councillors. The dismal list
is l-o-n-g.
And now there's a new politics swirling in the air.
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The
marchers were a mixed bag of Tunisian-style, disaffected civil servants,
educated-but-unemployed youths and the young and the restless. |
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It's
the so-called Arab Spring - the tsunami of popular uprisings that shook, and
continue to shake, long-time tough guys to their cores and off their cosy
thrones.
Southern Africa has its share of those...
Will the "Arab Spring" strike root in these parts?
It's a question that's entered the discourse in the shebeens - they're actually
called "lounges" these days - where lots of SunReaders hang out.
And that means we MUST be engaged as well.
The first acid test, it seems to me, will be Swaziland.
"Fun Valley" is also Africa's last absolute monarchy.
Lots of people like it that way.
Lots don't.
And which side is in the majority is about to be tested.
There was a big march, by tiny Swaziland's standards, last week.
The cops stood by this time and let it all happen peacefully.
The marchers were a mixed bag of Tunisian-style, disaffected civil servants,
educated-but-unemployed youths and the young and the restless.
They chanted anti-royalist slogans and some called for the establishment of the
"Democratic Republic of Swaziland..."
Our story noted the emergence of the "Swaziland Solidarity Network" and a
group called The April 12 Uprisings has even got
a Facebook page...
To those who have watched the unfolding of events in North Africa and the
Middle East, this will all have a familiar ring.
Another big march is planned in April...on the very day that political parties
were banned in Swaziland in 1973.
There's also going to be a march on the Swazi consulate in Jo'burg.
As we said in the second paragraph of our front-page story this week: "Some
of the seeds of the (North African) revolution have blown south..."
(see picture >>)
As I also said: Whether or not they take root there is the question.
Most South African papers - including ourselves up to now - have not made much
of the growing grumbling in the kingdom.
A consequence of us putting the story on Page One this week was a flood of phone
calls from Swazis...in and out of their homeland.
Their theme was the same: A thousand thank yous for laying the current Swazi
situation before a large swathe of the South African newspaper-reading public...
So we'll see.
Maybe this will fizzle out...but, of course, maybe it won't.
The Suns - the so-called People's Papers - will be watching with the usual beady
eye to see what the people are going to do.
Regards,
Deon du Plessis
SunPublisher
PS
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about 4 hours ago from SunPublisher, Deon du Plessis
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