OUTRAGE AT SWAZI LAWYER’S JAILING

Thulani Maseko, the lawyer for Swazi opposition leader Mario Masuku, appeared in magistrates’ court today (3 June 2009) charged with sedition.

Reports circulating in Swaziland say Maseko was whisked away early this morning from his home at Bhunya, 21 km outside of the Swazi capital Mbabane, dragged to court under heavy police guard, and charged with sedition. He has now been remanded in custody at Sidwashini Prison, Mbabane, to the High Court.

Maseko is the lawyer for Mario Masuku, the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), who has been on remand in jail since November 2008 on sedition charges. Masuku was originally arrested under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

It is alleged Maseko told a May Day rally that the two people who died in a failed attempt to bomb a bridge near one of King Mswati III’s palaces should have the bridge named after them.

In a statement PUDEMO said the arrest of Maseko had been expected for the past two weeks as he was a successful human rights lawyer in Swaziland.

Maseko had an important victory against the Swazi state when he won a High Court ruling that the Swaziland Government should honour its constitutional commitment to provide free primary school education for all Swazi children. The government refused to comply with the ruling.

PUDEMO said, ‘It is a known fact that the state does not like Maseko because of his uncompromising stance against human rights abuse in Swaziland.’

Maseko is a well respected lawyer around the world and recently travelled to the United Kingdom at the invitation of the country’s Foreign and Commonwealth Minister, Lord Malloch-Brown to discuss human rights in Swaziland.

Maseko is the coordinator and founder member of Lawyers for Human Rights in Swaziland, chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, former Secretary General of PUDEMO, a founder member of the Swaziland Association of Students and a former president of the Students Representative Council at the University of Swaziland.

PUDEMO condemned Maseko’s arrest as did the Swaziland Solidarity Network, South Africa Chapter, (SSN) which called it ‘a pathological knee jerk reaction from a crumbling royal banana state led by a schizophrenic King. It is a violent manifestation of its internal crisis of legitimacy and a growing obsolescence.’

SSN said, ‘As the world is enlightened regarding his intolerance to political criticism, the practice of random arrests and dispersion, authoritarian legislation and growing state imposed media censure, Mswati has chosen a rigid and confrontational path. He is unable to deal with the democratic movement inside the country. He has rejected the path for peace, negotiations and dialogue. This un-acceptable situation cannot be tolerated anymore. Either we act now or we anticipate a colossal chaos that will make the recent Zimbabwe crisis like a Sunday picnic.’

SSN is to protest this Friday (5 June 2009) at 12.30pm at the Braamfontein Centre, Jorrissen Street Johannesburg, South Africa.