One of Swaziland’s most outspoken pro-democracy journalists says he is in fear of arrest for his dissident views.
Vusi Sibisi joins former Swazi Government minister Mfomfo Nkhambule in fearing that he is a target because he speaks out against the state.
Already Mario Masuku, president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko have been arrested. Masuku has been in jail since November 2008 awaiting trial on a sedition charge.
Sibisi says he was forced to stop writing his weekly column in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, because of his fear of arrest.
Sibisi said he was tipped off by sources within Swaziland’s ‘security establishment’ that an order had been made for his ‘arrest and detention’.
This order was made two months ago at about the same time as Nkhambule was targeted.
Sibisi is once again writing for the Times. He said the detention of Maseko ‘for expressing a harmless opinion just goes to show how the leadership is gradually and systematically steering this country into a totalitarian state’.
He goes on, ‘No one should be surprised, for example, if shadowy characters follow them wherever they go or have their cellphones and or telephones bugged because we are now in the era of Orwellian Big Brother.
‘To think critically of the state and the going-ons in this country has suddenly become a crime. To express dissenting voices to the obtaining autocratic leadership has also become a crime in this country.’
He adds, ‘This country is systematically ushering in a culture of subservience, praise singing and grovelling by instilling a culture of fear.’
He says, ‘I am not certain if indeed the order to arrest me will be carried out on publication of this column, but what I am certain of is that it will take more than threats to silence me from thinking independently and publishing my opinions on issues that I believe I have an inalienable right to freely talk about, discuss, debate and comment on for as long as there are platforms, such as this, to do so.’
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