Eugene Dube, the journalist
critical of King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland (eSwatini), who was
beaten by police and is facing
a treason charge hid in a forest for five days as he made his escape.
Dube who edits an online
newspaper called Swati Newsweek wrote and published a number of articles
critical of the king and calling for democracy.
Writing
in his own newspaper on Friday (15
May 2020) Dube told of his escape from police and his flight for freedom.
He said, ‘I find myself on
the police’s WANTED list for giving a platform to a pro-democracy movement to
air their views on the political situation in Swaziland.
 |
| Eugene Dube, in hiding from Swazi police |
‘The Swaziland police
turned my home into a war zone, fighting a journalist armed with only a pen.
They came four times armed with guns within a month. I had to sleep in a forest
after I was assaulted by police during their first arrival. This was during their
allegedly “lawful raid”. I was subjected to extreme harassment; hence fleeing
was the only remedy.
‘I had no food, no shelter
in the forest where I was hiding. I had to sleep in the forest in fear of
police’s continued torture and arrest. Cops were coming to my home every now
and then. If I had committed a crime, they were free to charge me instead of
harassment.’
Dube said Police
Superintendent Clement Sihlongonyane based in Mbabane Police Headquarters told
him ‘When we come back to you Eugene, we will leave you reeling in a pool of
blood. Stop criticizing the king.’
Dube spent more than five
days hiding in the forest. ‘The first two days I had a loaf of bread. I was
alerted that police were in my home while I had gone to buy bread. Hence I
ended up with the loaf of bread in hiding in the forest.’ He later managed to
get more bread.
Further details of Dube’s
whereabouts are not being made public.
Swazi police also
charged Ncamiso Ngcamphalala,
President of the Swaziland Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), with sedition for
comments he made in an a
article published by Swati
Newsweek.
In the report Ngcamphalala
was quoted saying, ‘We want government to change people’s lives, the Swazi
Monarchy must know its place. We respect the King, but respect is earned and
when pushed into a corner; we will be forced to retaliate. We unapologetically
stand for multi-party democracy.’
Dube wrote, ‘Cops tried to
force me to testify against the EFF leader. This will put my journalism career
at risk. I cannot interview a person today, and then once the story is
published, the person is arrested. How can I be expected to testify against the
same person? No, that cannot happen. It has never happened before that a
journalist had to testify in such a political case in Swaziland. Cops are just
persecuting the Swati Newsweek for exposing failures of King Mswati’s
government. Our approach of promoting democracy has infuriated the Swazi Royal
Family.’
See also
Swaziland journalist critical of absolute monarch,
beaten, arrested, faces treason charge
Swaziland democracy leader charged with sedition
for criticising absolute monarch on news website
‘No
media freedom’ in Swaziland, Reporters Without Borders annual report states
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/no-media-freedom-in-swaziland-reporters.html
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