THE Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) said today that the country’s security forces abducted and tortured four of its leaders last week.

The CPS said that national organising secretary Bafanabakhe Sacolo, head of youth & students commission Kwanele Fakudze, Simanga Dlamini and Lwazi Maseko were heavily tortured by the Eswatini authorities before being released later on the day without charge.

In 2018, the country, until then known as Swaziland, was renamed Eswatini.

In a statement, the CPS said that the activists were “on their way to attend a court case of comrade Mvuselelo Mkhabela who was arrested on April 15 2023 for disrupting the sham tinkhundla civic voter education exercise.”

The day of the abduction, June 29, marked the second anniversary since the massacre of the people of Swaziland by security forces in 2021, leading to the death of about 100 unarmed people, the maiming and injuring of hundreds, and arrest of more than 700 people.

The CPS said: “The regime is targeting CPS activists to brutalise them with the intention to destroy the party as well as the struggle for democracy.”

They added: “The Communist Party of Swaziland demands justice for our comrades and all democracy activists who have been brutalised by the regime. 

“The party will intensify the struggle for socialism.”