3. The Road towards democracy begins: The Birth of PUDEMO in 1983 as a watershed moment in the history of Swaziland The consolidation of royal supremacy through the formalisation of tinkhundla as a political system of Swaziland left the people with no alternative or hope for change without waging a mass based struggle for democracy. This led to workers, students, rural and landless masses, women of different religious, racial and social backgrounds coming together on the 6th July, 1983 to form the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) as their legitimate representative and co-ordinator of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland. In its founding provisions, they proclaimed that, “We, the people of Swaziland met on the 6th July, 1983 to form the People’ s United Democratic Movement, to represent fully the interests of the people of Swaziland and to unite them against undemocratic governance, oppression, exploitation,
unfair discrimination, corruption, nepotism and favouritism. We declare to the world that Swaziland belongs to all its people regardless of race, colour, sex, religion or social status and that PUDEMO is our true representative. We dedicate ourselves to struggling together in unity until final victory”. It must also be remembered that part of the basis for PUDEMO formation related to its internationalist duty to assist the liberation movement of South Africa in the struggle against the brutal clutches of apartheid, particularly after a realization that Swaziland can never be liberated or democratic while South Africa was still under apartheid, because of the well known policy of aggression by the apartheid regime.