Swaziland’s only mobile telephone network provider, MTN, is under pressure from King Mswati III to help him track down journalists and others in the kingdom who spread the word about the affair between one of his wives and a Swazi cabinet minister.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) reports that King Mswati, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and a shareholder in MTN, was made a ‘laughing stock’ of the nation when it emerged that his 12th wife Nothando Dube (also known as Inkhosikati LaDube) and his closest friend Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Ndumiso Mamba had been having an affair.
The scandal, although censored in the Swazi media, was well reported in South Africa, a country whose publications inevitably find their way to Swaziland, and on the Internet.
SSN says reliable sources reveal ‘that the king is so deeply embarrassed by the leakage of information to these publications that he has made it his mission to track all the people involved in revealing it.
‘MTN Swaziland, being the primary electronic means of communication between journalists, has been secretly ordered to investigate all phone calls made in the past week to in order to identify those who might have communicated with South African journalists.’
SSN advises journalists and political activists to take extra precautions in the days to come in order to avoid becoming victims of this illegal witch hunt.
SSN has threatened MTN that if it complies with the request from King Mswati, SSN will campaign across the continent of Africa for a boycott of MTN services.
No comments:
Post a Comment