Three drivers have
appeared in court in Swaziland on charges relating to the
deaths of 13 people, mostly children aged 11 to 16, who were being transported
on the back of a truck that crashed going to the Reed Dance in 2015.
Charges range from negligent driving to culpable
homicide.
But, nobody who ordered up to sixty girls to travel on
the back of an open truck like cattle has been charged.
The Principal Magistrate David Khumalo at
Manzini criticised
the delay in the case coming to trail and said it must be
finalised immediately. The prosecution was not ready and the case was postponed
to 14 March 2018.
The deaths caused outrage in August 2015. The exact
number of deaths in the incident is disputed. The Swazi
Government said 13 people died; 11 children and two older
people who were their supervisors. There was widespread
disbelief in Swaziland that the death toll was so low. The
Swaziland Solidarity Network, a prodemocracy group banned in Swaziland, citing
the Swaziland
Defence Force as a source, put the figure of deaths at 38. It
later revised this figure to 65, citing medical officials as a source.
The official figures included an 11-year-old girl and
seven girls aged 16 or under.
They died when they were
loaded up onto the back of a truck used for conveying building materials. The
truck was involved in a road collision on 28 August 2015. They were on their
way to the annual Reed Dance or Umhlanga where they were expected to be among
thousands of ‘virgins’ to dance half-naked in front of the King.
King Mswati came in for heavy criticism after the
crash because journalists were prevented from reporting the event. King Mswati
rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and media are
heavily restricted in his kingdom.
Thousands of young girls from across Swaziland were
forced to travel in trucks standing up in
the open back cheek-by-jowl. There was no space to sit down or even to turn
around. Photographs show that at least sixty children were squashed onto the
back of a single truck. Many of the trucks that transported the girls were
usually used to move building materials.
Young girls travel this way every year to attend the
Reed Dance where they are expected to dance topless in front of King Mswati. Media
in Swaziland routinely describe the girls as ‘virgins’ or ‘maidens.’ The King
was 46 years old at the time of the accident.
Media reports of the accident are inconsistent, but it
is generally agreed that the children were thrown from the back of the truck
when it was involved in a collision. Police reported that not all the girls
died on the spot. International
media reported that journalists in Swaziland were stopped
from gathering information about the accident.
Media in Swaziland are heavily censored; the Swazi Observer, one of only two daily
newspapers in the kingdom, is in effect owned by the King. The Media Institute
of Southern Africa Swaziland chapter in a report on media freedom in Swaziland
described the Observer newspapers as
a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’.
The Reed Dance, which is also known as Umhlanga, is
one of the main cultural events in Swaziland and it is strongly connected with
the King. In Swaziland reporting negatively about the Reed Dance would be seen
to be the same as criticizing the King.
Femi Falana, a lawyer in
Nigeria, later sent a petition to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Mr. Juan
Ernesto Mendez; the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes
and Consequences, Ms. Dubravka Simonovic; and the UN Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Mr. Christof Heyns.
Punch,
a Nigerian-based news site, reported at the time, ‘The lawyer said it was
particularly insensitive of the Swaziland monarch to have reportedly allowed the dance festival to proceed despite the news of the victims’ death.
‘He said it was also
condemnable that rather than address the issues of rights violation, King
Mswati III had continued to cover it up by trying to prevent publication of
reports on the incidents.’
According to Punch, the petition read in part, ‘I
argue that the annual Umhlanga Reed Dance itself is unlawful as it has
continued to perpetuate forced marriages, entirely inconsistent with
international human rights standards.
‘I also argue that
religion, culture and tradition cannot be used to justify human rights
violations, including violence against women, which is what the annual Umhlanga
Reed Dance constitutes. The continuation of the Umhlanga Reed Dance also gives
rise to other human rights abuses, including forced marriages.
‘Under international human
rights law, states like Swaziland are to be held accountable if they fail to
act with due diligence to prevent violations of rights such as those
highlighted above or to investigate and punish acts of violence against women
and provide effective remedies and access to justice for victims and their
families.
‘By packing the girls onto
the back of open trucks, the government of Swaziland should have reasonably
foreseen that this would lead to violation of their rights to life and human
dignity.
‘In fact, due diligence
places a strict standard of conduct upon the government of Swaziland to protect
all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction, including
the girls and women.
‘I argue that the
government of Swaziland has the supreme duty to prevent acts such as those
highlighted above that can cause arbitrary loss of life such as the unnecessary
deaths of these girls.’
See
also
DEAD
GIRLS ARE VICTIMS, NOT HEROES
DEAD
GIRLS TRANSPORTED LIKE CATTLE
‘COVER-UP
ON SWAZI REED DANCE DEATHS
‘CANCEL
REED DANCE AFTER DEATHS’
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/08/cancel-reed-dance-after-deaths.html
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