Swaziland’s Prime Minister
Barnabas Dlamini has hinted his government might try to restrict access to
social media.
He told Senators there was
nothing police could do ‘at the moment’ about posts on sites such as Facebook.
The Prime Minister and his government have a long history of threatening social
media.
The Swazi Observer reported on Wednesday (28 March 2018), ‘The premier
told the senators that all countries in the world were concerned on whether
social media was good for development or not.’
He was speaking during a
debate about how video footage showing the murder of businessman Victor Gamedze
who was shot dead in a petrol station appeared on social media.
The newspaper reported,
‘The premier said it was unfortunate that social media was a very complex
phenomenon, which no single person or organisation could control.’
It added, ‘However, the
prime minister said there were many positives of social media. It enables
people to communicate easily at lower costs and it also enables people to do
business internationally. But he warned that abuse of social media could lead
to devastating effects.’
The Swazi Government has a
history of hostility to social media. In 2011, Dlamini said it was important to keep
information published on Facebook
away from the Swazi people. ‘If such stories from these websites then make it
to the newspapers and radios, then the public at large will start to think
there is some truth in the story yet it was just malicious gossip,’ the Times of Swaziland reported him saying at
the time.
He was commenting after information about a cabinet
minister had appeared on social media.
The Swazi Observer also reported at the time, ‘Dlamini said government
did not have any measures to control the internet but relied on the support of
the media which assists by shying away from information published or sourced
from the internet.’
In the run up to April 2011 a group used Facebook to
try to drum up support for an ‘uprising’ for democracy in the kingdom ruled by
King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The
Government threatened the online activists with prosecution.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), in a
statement in March 2011 said, ‘On
25 March 2011, Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini assured Senators in
Parliament that his government would track down, arrest and prosecute one
Gangadza Masilela, whose Facebook postings have been critical of the status quo
in Swaziland and the leadership in the country. Masilela, who is believed to be
using a pseudonym, has a large following on his Facebook page. Parliament
recently urged the government to do something about Masilela as his Facebook
postings were deemed too critical of the country’s leadership.’
It added, ‘Having seen the uprisings in the Arab
world where these social networks have been used to mobilize people to rise up
and demand political changes from their governments, the jittery Swazi
government is taking no chances and is trying to track down those calling for
the Swazi uprising.’
In
May 2011, the Times of Swaziland reported Swaziland
had specially ‘trained officers’ to track down people who used Facebook to criticise the Swazi Government. Nathaniel
Mahluza, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Information Communication and
Technology, said the government was worried by what the newspaper called ‘unsavoury
comments’ about the kingdom being published on the internet.
In March 2012, Swaziland’s
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze
said he would use the law against people who criticised Swaziland on the internet.
He told the Swazi Senate that he would use what he called ‘international laws’
to bring the internet critics to task. He was reacting to concerns from Senators
that the internet sites showed ‘disrespect’ to the King.
Academic research published in 2013 suggested that
people in Swaziland
used the Internet to communicate with one another
and share information and ideas about the campaign for democracy, bypassing the
Swazi mainstream media which was heavily censored. They debated and shared
information about activities designed to bring attention to the human rights
abuses in the kingdom.
The research suggested, ‘It is clear that social media
sites have extended the public sphere to offer opportunities for a wider range
of people both in the country and outside it, to produce, distribute and
exchange information and commentary about the kingdom – especially in the
context of the need for political change. People speak in their own voices and
are not mediated in the way mainstream media are in Swaziland.’
In
2016, Afrobarometer reported nearly one in three
people surveyed in Swaziland said they got their news from the internet at
least ‘a few times a week’. It also reported that 33 percent of those surveyed
got their news from ‘social media such as Facebook and Twitter’ a few times a
week or every day.
In 2014, a
report jointly published by the Media Institute of Southern
Africa and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) found young people in
Swaziland were turning to social media sites such as Facebook because it
allowed them to enjoy ‘the fundamental rights to freedom of expression’ that
was denied to them elsewhere in the kingdom.
They also bypassed mainstream media such as
television, radio and newspapers in favour of social media. The report called Youth Usage of Social media in Swaziland concluded, ‘The
young people have welcomed the emergence of the social media because, among
others, it affords them an opportunity not only to inter-act but also enjoy the
fundamental right to freedom of expression provided in Section 24 of the
Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland adopted in 2005.’
The report added, ‘They can now easily and freely bypass the severely
censored mainstream media to access, produce, distribute and exchange
information and ideas.
See also
ONE
IN THREE USE INTERNET FOR NEWS
SWAZI
PEOPLE SPEAK UP FOR THEMSELVES
GOVERNMENT
THREATENS FACEBOOK CRITICS
SWAZI
POLICE TRACK FACEBOOK USERS
FACEBOOK
TELLS TRUTH MEDIA WON’T
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/facebook-tells-truth-media-wont.html