Newspaper editors in
Swaziland were on the payroll of murdered businessman
Victor Gamedze, Zweli Martin
Dlamini the exiled editor of Swaziland
Shopping has said.
Dlamini
fled to South Africa after a
tip-off that he was to be arrested because he had upset the powers in the
kingdom where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch.
His newspaper has been
closed down by the Swazi Government.
The reporting style of the Swaziland
Shopper had also been criticised by the Swaziland Editors’ Forum.
In an interview
with South Africa’s Mail & Guardian
newspaper published on Friday (26
January 2018), Dlamini said, ‘The editors’ forum was captured by Victor
Gamedze. Almost all the editors were on his payroll. You know the Guptas in
South Africa? It was like that. The reason they were saying they are unhappy is
that I was writing about somebody they regarded as untouchable. So when I exposed
the guy, he would go back to them to complain.’
The Mail & Guardian reported, ‘The Swaziland Shopping published its last edition in December. Dlamini
never got to publish his last major scoop: a sensational story detailing how
Gamedze was plotting to assassinate Mswati, which was distributed instead on
social media. The story was long on speculation but short on evidence and, just
days after it was made public, Dlamini was warned to get out of dodge.
‘A month after Dlamini fled
the country, Gamedze was shot dead in broad daylight, at a petrol station,
where he had stopped to grab a cup of coffee.
‘The murder rocked
Swaziland’s political elite to its core. Gamedze was no ordinary
businessperson. His connections went all the way to the top, to the king, and
he used these to build himself a business empire. He ran the controversial
Swazi Mobile and presided over Mbabane Swallows, Swaziland’s biggest football
club. His wealth and his social status should have made him untouchable, but
also made him plenty of powerful enemies.’
The Mail & Guardian reported that Gamedze was ‘especially
controversial’. It quoted one anonymous ‘senior editor’ saying, ‘Victor had
captured the media. He had a very low opinion of the media, believed it was too
powerful, and he wanted everyone to write what he said. He had the ability to
call and stop stories from being published.’
The Mail & Guardian reported, ‘One example: in 2014, Gamedze
assaulted Baphelele Kunene, a journalist with the Swazi Observer, in front of the paper’s managing editor. Although
Kunene reported the assault to the police, they took no action. Another
newspaper, which reported on the assault, had its distribution of that edition
disrupted.’
See also
‘EDITOR FLEES AFTER DEATH THREAT’
SWAZI
GOVERNMENT FORCES NEWSPAPER TO CLOSE
JOURNALISTS
‘SCARED TO DO THEIR JOBS’
KING’S ‘BUSINESS PARTNER’ ASSASSINATED
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/kings-business-partner-assassinated.html
No comments:
Post a Comment