Swaziland Photojournalist Assaulted, Camera Taken While Covering Protest March By Schoolteachers

A Swaziland journalist was assaulted by marchers as he took photographs at a teachers’ protest.

Mduduzi Mngomezulu, a photojournalist with the Swazi Observer, ‘was manhandled and assaulted by the teachers,’ the newspaper reported on Friday (28 September 2018).

It said, ‘He was assaulted with open hands and fists and he sustained injuries on the face and body.’ They took his camera but later it was recovered.

It happened near the United States Embassy in Mbabane while teachers marched to deliver a petition seeking support in their campaign for higher salaries.

Mngomezulu was rescued by executive members of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). 

The Observer reported, ‘Mngomezulu has already opened a case with the police. The newspaper will be taking the matter up firstly with the US Embassy where it will enquire if it encouraged assisting hooligans as a known supporter of press freedom.’

It added it would also take up the matter with the kingdom’s Editors Forum, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the SNAT executive.

Swaziland was recently renamed Eswatini by absolute monarch King Mswati III.

See also

Swaziland Teachers Want U.S. to Tell Absolute Monarch to Stop Wasting Public Money on Himself

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/swaziland-teachers-want-us-to-tell.html 

Two More Human Rights Groups Condemn Swaziland Police Attack on Journalist

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/09/two-more-human-rights-groups-condemn.html