King Mswati III’s
right-hand man has told a community they ‘will burn’ if they continue to defy
instructions from the King.
And, the Swaziland King
ordered a ‘complete silence’ from his subjects in the kaLuhleko chiefdom about
his decision to appoint their chief.
The warning was
delivered by Ludzidzini Royal Residence Governor Timothy Velabo Mtetwa, who is
commonly known in Swaziland as the ‘traditional prime minister’. This means he
is the voice of the King and more powerful than Barnabas Dlamini, the man the
King appointed as Swaziland’s figurehead PM.
Mtetwa and a delegation
from the King visited kaLuhleko on Monday (14 April 2014) to issue a dire
warning. The Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in effect
owned by the King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported ‘Bhekwako Dlamini of kaLuhleko has
been mobilising the people to snub meetings called by the newly appointed Chief
Zulwelihle Maseko, who was blessed by Their Majesties last June.’
The newspaper
reported, ‘His Majesty roared through Ludzidzini Governor Timothy Velabo Mtetwa
commonly known as TV.
‘“It has gotten to
the attention of His Majesty the King and the Queen Mother that there is
something irregular happening here and that is why we are here today,” he said
to deafening silence.
‘“There is a bad
habit that has come to the attention of the authorities that there are some
people who still choose to defy the chief and do not recognise a man who has
been appointed by the King. Where have you ever heard of that? This is the
person who has been chosen to take over from Mfanwenkhosi Maseko and I have
been sent by His Majesty to order that there be complete silence in this
place,” said the tough talking Mtetwa.’
The Observer reported Mthethwa warned that
people who did not adhere to the directive issued by the King ‘will burn’.
Swazi chiefs have enormous
power. It is through chieftaincies that King Mswati maintains control of his
people and chiefs do his bidding at a local level. People know not to get on the
wrong side of the chief because their livelihood depends on his goodwill. In
some parts of Swaziland the chiefs are given the power to decide who gets food
that has been donated by international agencies. The chiefs quite literally
have power of life and death in such cases with about a third of the population
of Swaziland receiving food aid each year.
Chiefs can and do
take revenge on their subjects who disobey them. There is a catalogue of cases
in Swaziland. For example, Chief Dambuza Lukhele of Ngobelweni in the
Shiselweni region banned his subjects
from ploughing their fields because some of them defied his order to build
a hut for one of his wives.
Nhlonipho Nkamane
Mkhatswa, chief of Lwandle in Manzini,
the main commercial city in Swaziland, reportedly
stripped a woman of her clothing in the middle of a street in full
view of the public because she was wearing trousers.
In November 2013, the
newly-appointed Chief Ndlovula of Motshane threatened to evict nearly 1,000
of his subjects from grazing land if they did not pay him a E5,000 (US$500)
fine, the equivalent of more than six months income for many.
He said his
subjects had illegally built homes on land put aside for grazing.
See also
CHIEF FORCES SUBJECTS TO GREET KING
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