The Swazi Government has been caught out in a lie in the controversy over a banned march and rally against ritual murders in Swaziland.
Last week the Prime Minister told editors that the march had been banned because it would humiliate Swaziland abroad. He said people would think Swazis were murderers.
Now news comes that the organisers of the banned march and rally propose to hold a ‘prayer meeting’ for the victims of ritual murder.
Both the Times of Swaziland and the Swazi Observer carried statements from the Government yesterday (8 July 2008) saying that the government supported the prayer meeting. The statement says that had the organisers of the march made it clear last week that it was a prayer meeting and not a march and rally they wanted, permission would have been granted.
And that’s where the lie comes in. If the reason for banning the march was to avoid alerting the international community to the murders and thus ‘humiliating’ the kingdom, how is it that this prayer meeting won’t also draw attention?
The truth is that the Prime Minister and the Government were just looking for excuses to ban the march. They know that there will be uproar in the Swaziland if they dare to ban a prayer meeting, so they have backed down.
A statement on the original march from the Prime Minister’s office said, ‘In the present climate, a rally, in the view of the cabinet, had political connotations and it appeared that there would be an attempt to use the ritual murders as a political ploy.’
The statement doesn’t say what this ‘ploy’ was, but as I reported on Saturday there are strong rumours in Swaziland that the reason why members of the government want to ban discussion on the ritual murders is that some of them used ‘muti’ to get themselves elected.
See also
SWAZI MARCH BAN – P.M. SAYS PRAY
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