There is deep suspicion in Swaziland that King
Mswati III’s regime is not telling the truth about the number of deaths in the Reed
Dance road smash on Friday (28 August 2015).
Official police figures put the number of deaths at
13, but one pro-democracy group has said it is as high as 65.
Police initially were reluctant to give any
information about the accident on the main Mbabane to Manzini highway at Matsapha.
Reports circulated on the Internet that journalists had been prohibited from
reporting the incident.
The news was first broken on Friday by the Swaziland
Solidarity network (SSN), a group banned in Swaziland where King Mswati rules
as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The SSN said the number of
deaths was 38.
The Associated
Press (AP) later reported SSN spokesperson Lucky Lukhele saying members of
the Swaziland Defence Force alerted the rights group to the accident and gave
the number of deaths.
By Sunday, the SSN was reporting the death toll had risen to 65. Lukhele
told the Anadolu
Agency that 38 girls had been killed instantly on Friday when the trucks
they were travelling in collided with another vehicle.
‘And on midnight Saturday, we received information that another 27 girls
had died in hospital,’ Lukhele added.
He told the Daily
Telegraph, a UK-based newspaper, ‘According to our reports from
military and medical officials, at least 65 girls were dead by midnight on
Saturday.’
The girls were travelling on the back of open trucks in a convoy. They
were on their way to attend the Reed Dance where tens of thousands of topless
virgins dance in front of the King.
According to reports
in Swazi newspapers, a car or a van hit the back of one truck which
resulted in a pileup. The dead were reportedly thrown from the back of the
truck which was usually used for transporting building materials and some were
said to have been hit by on-coming cars.
Police spokesperson Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba told
the Observer on Sunday newspaper in
Swaziland that not all the girls died on the spot.
By Monday, police were insisting that the death toll was no higher than
13. It released some details, but no names, of the dead. The youngest was 11
years old and seven were aged 16 or under.
Reports circulated on social media all weekend that the figure was
greater than 13 and that scores of children had been taken to hospital, some to
South Africa. The Observer
on Sunday, quoting government
sources, reported that at least 66 girls, including the 13 dead, had been taken
to Raleigh Fitkin Memorial hospital.
It was confirmed by international media that there was a clampdown on journalists
who tried to report news of the deaths.
The Daily
Telegraph, a UK-based newspaper, on Saturday quoted Bheki Gama, a
freelance journalist who was at the scene of the accident. Gama disputed the
government’s claims that only 13 people had died.
The Telegraph reported, ‘He
said paramedics had told him that dozens of young women had died at the scene
or on the way to hospital.
‘He said he saw at least five bodies strewn across the on-ramp, which
was covered with blood.
‘“It was absolutely terrible,” he said. “There were bodies everywhere.
The tar was covered with blood. Many of the bodies had been collected by the
time I arrived.”’
The Telegraph added, ‘Mr Gama
said the government blacked out coverage of the accident and is refusing to
release information to journalists.’
The AP
also reported, ‘Press photographers were prevented from taking pictures at
the scene, said a Swazi journalist who insisted on anonymity for security
reasons. However some people managed to take photographs of the aftermath of
the crash with their cell phones.’
The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), the best-known of the
banned opposition groups in Swaziland, reported in a statement on Sunday that
hospital sources had said 40 people had died. It added the figure, ‘was given with the
caution that there is a lot of secrecy involved with giving out numbers of
those that have passed on because there is an order circulating that there
should be minimum reporting on the matter.’
The Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), the PUDEMO
youth wing, called on the government, ‘to provide full disclosure on how many
people died and assist the families locate their loved ones.’
It said, ‘It is not acceptable that the nation can
engage in public speculation and contradicting media reports on the number of
deaths or those injured. Government must put the nation into confidence and
make full disclosure as a sign of accountability and transparency.’
See also
‘CANCEL
REED DANCE AFTER DEATHS’
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