ONE LAW FOR THE SWAZI PRINCE

Swaziland’s newspapers have revealed that a member of the ruling elite has received special treatment from the police in a criminal case.

This has prompted one journalist to ask whether the police ‘are a tool for the ruling class’.

The story involves Prince Guduza, the Speaker of the Swazi Parliament’s House of Assembly, who co-owns a company at the centre of an E17 million (about 2.5 million US Dollars) cigarette smuggling case.

The case hasn’t come to court yet, but in typical fashion the Swazi media have revealed many details of the alleged crime. In many democratic countries this would not be allowed because it could prejudice the accused person’s chance of getting a fair trial.

But since Swaziland isn’t a democracy and there is no such thing as a jury trial one might argue that no one can be prejudiced by news reports.

Anyhow, in the spirit of fairness I won’t give the details of the case here. Suffice is to say that the newspapers reported that Guduza was the co-owner of the accused company. Guduza claims that he used to be a co-owner but he gave up his share of the business after police tipped him off that they were investigating the company for illegal activity.

The question journalists must ask now is why did the police tip him off? One journalist who thinks he has the answer (and I tend to agree with his analysis) is Vusi Sibisi.

In his As I See It column in the Times of Swaziland on Wednesday (5 March 2008), Sibisi writes,

The Royal Swaziland Police in their course of duty build a prima facie criminal case against a company suspected to be importing contraband or being involved in other illicit operations. In the course of their investigations, the police find out that one of two of the directors of the company is a prince.

Instead of effecting arrests or seeking the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the police go and warn the prince to pull out of the company, whose alleged contraband is confiscated almost immediately after.

That briefly is the story of Tanya Investment Company and Prince Gudza, the Speaker in Parliament’s House of Assembly.

As I see it, had Prince Gudza been any other citizen it is doubtful if the police would have warned him before making arrests.

Which raises the question of whether the police have become a political tool for the ruling class.’