A court in Swaziland /
eSwatini sentenced a man to five months in jail with the option of a fine
because he allowed his shorts to slip down over his buttocks and expose his
underwear in the fashion style known as ‘sagging’.
Mbuyave Maziya, aged 24,
was found guilty of breaking the Urban Areas Act.
The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the
kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported
on Friday (1 February 2019) Maziya from Mankayane was stopped by a police
officer when he was out with his mother.
The newspaper reported he
said, ‘I was wearing my sagged shorts and vest and the officer demanded that I
pull my pants up.’
The Times added Maziya said he was a young man who expressed himself
through his fashion sense and music and he was also a rapper.
He was sentenced to five
months imprisonment with a fine option of E500 by Mankayane National Court. In
Swaziland seven in ten of the 1.2 million population have incomes less than E25
per day.
This was not the first time
in Swaziland that people have been victimised because of personal choices they
made.
In October 2017 it was
reported people had been refused national identity cards
because of their hairstyles. It happened at a time when schoolchildren
across the kingdom queued for IDs following a new rule that they had to have
them to sit examinations.
The Swazi Observer reported at the time officials at BMD [registration]
offices refused to take photographs of applicants they considered had
inappropriate hairstyles.
The newspaper said, ‘They
said they were told by one of the officers that if they had hairstyles, they
had to fix them and return to the BMD offices with their natural
hairstyles.’
One boy interviewed by the
newspaper had a Mohawk hairstyle.
In a separate case, at the national
election in 2013 Mana Mavimbela, aged 18, drew international attention when she
tried to have herself nominated to stand in the primary election for the House
of Assembly. The official presiding officer, employed by the Elections and
Boundaries Commission, refused to allow her to do so because she
was dressed in jeans.
Mavimbela was not the only
woman discriminated against at the nominations because she was wearing pants.
Fakazile Luhlanga of Ndvwabangeni in the Mhlangatane constituency was also
not allowed permission to nominate a candidate as she was wearing cargo
pants.
Local
media reported Luhlanga saying she was told that she was dressed like a man
and would be a bad influence to the community members as they would want to
emulate her.
Some chiefs
across Swaziland imposed a ban on women wearing trousers, shorts or
mini-skirts at nomination centres. Chief Petros Dvuba of Mpolonjeni in
Mbabane, the kingdom’s capital, said
people who would be going to the nominations should dress properly and show
respect as it was King Mswati III’s exercise.
He told local media, ‘Even those who have relaxed hair should cover
their heads when going to that place.’
In a separate incident away
from the election, Nhlonipho Nkamane Mkhatswa, chief of Lwandle in Manzini,
the main commercial city in Swaziland, reportedly
stripped a woman of her clothing in the middle of a street in full view of
the public because she was wearing trousers.
Also, three women in
Dvokolwako in Swaziland were summoned by ‘traditional authorities’ for wearing
trousers after elders in the area had banned them. One woman said someone
reported her after she was spotted wearing jeans as she was walking to the
shops. Another woman was said to be wearing pants at her home when she was
charged.
See also
Woman in pants banned from election
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/woman-in-pants-banned-from-election.html
Chief makes woman in pants strip
Chief makes woman in pants strip
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