“PUDEMO is not our party” — Emaswati
The people of Eswatini vote with their words and actions as to what kind of country they want, and they do not want to be represented by PUDEMO.
This was very clear when Swaziland News tried to sell their usual propaganda to the public by claiming that PUDEMO is the main political party in Eswatini.
Swaziland News editor, Zweli Martin Dlamini who is a PUDEMO member, okayed the publishing of an article titled “Eswatini’s main and largest political party PUDEMO declares 2024 as the year of revolution”. The article was nothing but a puff piece promoting PUDEMO president Mlungisi Makhanya’s statement — this propaganda was very easy to see because the whole article is 205 words, and 152 of those words were just a direct quote from the PUDEMO president.
The author of the article only wrote 49 of the 205 words, and even there she is just repeating what the PUDEMO president said. This propagandistic parroting of PUDEMO rhetoric has become so dumb and clear that the people of Eswatini were very resounding in their repudiation of PUDEMO as speaking for them.
The article begins by saying “Eswatini’s largest and main political party, the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) has declared…” Almost everyone who cared to comment on the article seems to have been lost in that first sentence, as nearly all the comments were decrying the “main” and “largest” part of that claim about PUDEMO. People denied this representation in many different ways, from pointing out that PUDEMO does nothing for the citizens of Eswatini, that there is no way to prove the claim of “largest”, and that “Eswatini’s main political party” is just an outrageous way to promote your own political organisation while pretending to be a journalist.
Below are some of the comments from Emaswati:
It is encouraging to see Emaswati speak up against disinformation and anti-Eswatini propaganda in such large numbers, as standing up for the truth and national values is a very strong foundation for a successful nation.
