Swaziland has not yet changed
its name to eSwatini, despite
a public announcement from the absolute ruler King Mswati III.
There needs to be a legal
instrument directing the name change.
This was said by Foreign
Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze after the King’s
speech.
Already, opposition is
growing inside the tiny impoverished kingdom to the King’s message.
The Observer on Saturday, a newspaper in Swaziland in effect owned by
the King, reported (21 April 2018), Gamedze saying, ‘We stand guided by the Attorney
General on the matter. With that instrument of a name change, we will then
forward same correspondence to the United Nations, African Union and SADC
[Southern African Development Community], which are the main international
bodies. They will then inform their subsequent structures of the name change.
So we expect the process of the name change to start soon with the legal
instrument (gazette), so that we can inform the rest of the world thereafter.’
It is not clear how much
discussion will take before the ‘legal instrument’ is issued. King Mswati rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are
banned from taking part in elections and the King appoints the Prime Minister
and government ministers.
It is possible the King would
simply make a proclamation, without further discussion. There
is a precedent for this. In 1973 Mswati’s father King Sobhuza II proclaimed
that from that date power in the kingdom rested with the King. He dissolved the
democratically-elected parliament and banned political parties. That proclamation
has not been cancelled and remains in force.
The King’s announcement of the name change was made during
his speech on Thursday at a celebration to mark his 50th birthday and
the half-century anniversary of Independence from Great Britain. It came as a surprise and was made without public
consultation.
Criticism of the move will be quiet within Swaziland. Those
advocating for democracy face arrest and imprisonment under the Suppression
of Terrorism Act.
The
AFP news agency reported that, ‘Critics of the King, who took the
throne in 1986 aged 18, said the move was an example of his authoritarian and
wasteful reign in a country that suffers dire poverty.’
It quoted Alvit Dlamini, head of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress,
saying, ‘We see here King Mswati’s autocratic style. He can’t change the name
of the country on his own. He was supposed to consult the nation.’
AFP reported, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland warned that the
process was not immediate. ‘When the king has made a pronouncement, due process
must take its course,’ acting general secretary Mduduzi Gina said AFP. ‘The
legislature must initiate a process to amend the constitution. The change
cannot be a knee-jerk reaction.’
See also
KING
UNILATERALLY RENAMES SWAZILAND
NOTHING
TO CELEBRATE FOR MOST SWAZIS
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