SWAZI MARCH BAN – P.M. SAYS PRAY

Controversy over the Swazi government’s decision to ban a march in protest against ritual murders in Swaziland refuses to die down.

The Swazi Prime Minister Themba Dlamini told media editors that Swaziland would have been humiliated if the march had been allowed to go ahead.

Instead of marching, he suggested people should pray.

The Times of Swaziland yesterday (4 July 2008) reported Dlamini saying that it would have been folly for government to allow the march given the ‘international humiliation the country would have suffered’.

The Times quoted Dlamini saying, ‘Imagine going outside the country and when you introduce yourself, people say you are a murderer. This march would not have achieved anything but embarrassment for the country. And besides, what would it have achieved? It would not apprehend the suspects afterward.’

Dlamini said that people who wanted the problem to end could go to church to pray.

Regular observers of the Swazi scene will recognise that ‘prayer’ is his regular response when questioned about problems in Swaziland. I don’t want to criticise anyone’s religious beliefs, but any objective observer can see that Swaziland needs a lot more than ‘prayer’ to get it out of the mess it’s in today.

There’s also a huge irony in Dlamini’s assertion that to march would ‘humiliate’ the kingdom. In fact, what is now humiliating Swaziland is the ban itself. It confirms that Swaziland is not a democracy (how dare the government ban a march?) but also that its leaders are completely out of touch with their own people and international opinion.

Why on earth should a march against murder humiliate a country? Only this week in London, UK, there was a public march against knife crime. This has followed a spate of murders of teenagers. I don’t believe the UK has been humiliated by the march which got a great deal of international media attention.

Rather, the march and media activity has prompted the police in the UK to set up a special task force to combat teenage knife crime. The UK Government is also considering whether there needs to be changes to the law.

The march helped to focus the attention of people on the issue and prompted action.

In Swaziland, I suspect, the Prime Minister and his Government did not want to bring attention to the ritual murders because they have no solution to them.

I’ll leave aside for now the rumours sweeping Swaziland that the reason why the government is scared of the publicity over ritual murders is that many of those in government were themselves elected with a little ‘help’ from ‘muti murders’. . .

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MORE ANGER OVER SWAZI MARCH BAN