Here’s evidence that in Swaziland it doesn’t pay to stick your neck out.
Just a day after newly-elected Swazi MP Marwick Khumalo called for political parties to be made legal in Swaziland comes news that he is in trouble over a different kind of party.
No less a person than Swaziland’s Attorney General (AG) Majahenkhaba Dlamini is encouraging people to report Khumalo to the police for holding a party to celebrate his election victory.
The Times of Swaziland newspaper reports today (8 October 2008) that the AG thinks the party may be a thank-you to people for voting for Khumalo – or put another way an illegal ‘treat’.
‘It is very difficult for one to draw the line between a party and a genuine thanksgiving ceremony, so we need the courts to interpret where we are supposed to draw the line regarding this issue,’ the AG said.
The Times report singles out Khumalo for throwing a party, but personally I find it hard to believe that no other victorious MP threw a celebration.
The Times reports the AG saying ‘anyone who witnessed the event and feels it was wrong should just go to the nearest police station to report the matter’.
The Times misses the point that this is an incitement to people to act against Khumalo and instead reports the rather mealy-mouthed AG saying, ‘We need such things to be on record so that they could be easily dealt with and if no one reports them then we have no guidance in the matter because there has to be a complainant first.’
Khumalo has denied that the party he held was anything other than a celebration. And the Times, despite publishing a total of three reports in a single day on the matter, offers no proof to the contrary.
Am I the only one who thinks the timing of the AG call for people to report Khumalo to the police just one day after the MP called for democracy in Swaziland is more than a coincidence?
It looks like a clear case of vendetta journalism to me.
See also
SWAZILAND MP WANTS LEGAL PARTIES
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