Swaziland
Newsletter No. 736 – 22 July 2022
News from and about Swaziland, compiled by
Global Aktion, Denmark (www.globalaktion.dk)
in collaboration with Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com),
and sent to all with an interest in Swaziland - free of charge.
Another SADC summit to discuss a national dialogue in
Eswatini is cancelled
By Peter Fabricius, Daily Maverick (South
Africa), 19 July 2022
Regional efforts to resolve
the crisis in Eswatini hit another major stumbling block this week when a
second summit intended to discuss a national political dialogue in the troubled
kingdom was cancelled at the last moment.
Ministers and officials had
been meeting for days to prepare the summit of the security organ of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) for this Thursday, which would
have been chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who currently heads the
security organ.
Sources said Eswatini’s King
Mswati had at the last moment said he could only participate virtually, but the
other members of the SADC security organ troika, including Ramaphosa, Namibian
President Hage Geingob and Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi insisted on a
face-to-face meeting with Mswati on such an important issue.
And so the summit was
officially “postponed”, but with no indication of whether it would take place
later, or when. Swazi opposition forces are furious and have demanded that SADC
step up the pressure on Mswati to negotiate.
Previous pull-out
In April, Mswati also pulled
out of a planned SADC summit to discuss the national political dialogue, which
he had agreed to in principle in a meeting with Ramaphosa in Eswatini last
November.
Just before the April summit
was due, he told South Africa that he was not yet ready to attend the meeting
as he first needed to consult further with his own people about the draft terms
of reference — or draft framework — for the national political dialogue that
SADC had produced.
It seems very likely that he
pulled out of this week’s summit for the same reason. The “Draft Framework for
Inclusive Multi-Stakeholder National Dialogue in the Kingdom of Eswatini”
provides for Mswati and his government to hold an “inclusive” dialogue with all
political stakeholders. It strongly suggests this should include political
parties which are now banned.
Mswati and his ministers
suggested over the past few months that they would only enter into a national
dialogue within the “Sibaya” format; the traditional forum where the
king engages with his subjects in his palace and on his terms.
The political and civil
society opposition in Eswatini made it clear that they would not participate in
a Sibaya as they believe it is a format for a monologue and
allows the king to control the discussion. They demanded a proper dialogue
under neutral SADC supervision.
SADC’s draft framework accepts
the role of Sibaya and the Eswatini Parliament as a basis for
the dialogue, but proposes going further. Officials said Mswati clearly feared
that he would lose control of the process if this happened.
SADC criticism
The SADC framework was also
sharply critical of Mswati’s government for failing to address many of the
issues and grievances that erupted in the worst-yet violence in the country in
June last year when about 100 people, mostly protesters, were killed and many
government and business buildings were destroyed or damaged.
It was this violence that
prompted SADC to become involved and to send several delegations to Eswatini to
meet the government, the opposition and other players last year to discuss a
way out of the growing political crisis. Among the grievances that sparked the
violence was the death of student Thabani Nkomonye — allegedly at the
hands of the security forces — as well as a government ban on Swazi citizens
petitioning their members of parliament over issues.
The government arrested two
MPs who had supported the right of their constituents to petition them and
charged a third MP who had fled the country. The violence continued to
simmer and then flared up again in October last year.
Ramaphosa, acting as the chair
of SADC’s security organ, then sent a SADC mission led by former Cabinet
minister Jeff Radebe to investigate. It found there had been “no substantive
progress” by the government to implement its commitments to investigate the
deaths and injuries in the June 2021 violence. It also found that the delivery
of petitions to MPs by their constituents remained banned.
Radebe’s delegation reported
an “overwhelming call from stakeholders and the international community” for a
national dialogue, but little support for Sibaya as the
appropriate structure for this dialogue.
SADC’s draft framework was
produced in February. It envisaged a timetable for the national dialogue,
starting with an announcement in April by Eswatini’s prime minister to
Parliament or to the nation, of the start of a “pre-dialogue” in which the
participants in the dialogue proper would be identified.
During May, a
Multi-Stakeholder National Dialogue Committee would have been established,
would have begun its plenary assembly and would have adopted and implemented
its decisions or recommendations. None of this has happened.
Call to increase
pressure on Mswati
After Thursday’s summit was
cancelled, Thulani Maseko, the head of Eswatini’s Multi-Stakeholder Forum which
is coordinating political and civil society forces pushing for a proper
national political dialogue, called on SADC to increase pressure on Mswati to
negotiate.
“It is clear that we are
dealing with a king and government that are self-serving,” he told Daily
Maverick.
“A leader and government that
have neither regard nor respect for the people that he rules with an iron fist.
He also is treating the leadership of the region and the world with sheer and
utter contempt. He is rendering SADC as an ineffective organ.
“While we, the people of
Swaziland, are determined to continue the struggle for our liberation, the
fundamental question is: what will SADC do to call the king to his proper
senses?
“It appears that the king is
equally committed to let the country slip into a violent civil conflict and to
destabilise the region.
“Tomorrow we will continue
with our planned march to the SA High Commission [in Eswatini] to deliver a
petition to impress on the SADC organ’s chair to be decisive in dealing with
the Swaziland question.
“The King and his tinkhundla [traditional
government] regime must not be allowed to hold everybody [to] ransom. We appeal
to the SADC leaders and the global community to step up pressure towards future
dialogue.” DM
Four
police officers charged over Thabani’s death
By
Welcome Dlamini, Times of eSwatini, 17 July 2022
MBABANE – The
names Mohammed Bouazizi and Thabani Nkomonye have something in common – they
both catalysed political unrests.
For Bouazizi, it
was the Arab Spring of pro-democracy protests that took place in the Middle
East and North Africa in 2010 and 2011; for Nkomonye, it was nationwide
protests that escalated into Eswatini’s political unrest.Tunisian Fruit and
vegetable vendor Bouazizi, 26 years old in 2010, set himself on fire in the
town of Sidi Bouzid and triggered the Arab Spring, University of Eswatini law
student Nkomonye, aged 25 in 2021, died under mysterious circumstances
following a traffic accident at night and a #JusticeForThabani movement began,
as blame was apportioned on the police for his death. It is now just over a
year since May 8, 2021, when Nkomonye is believed to have died, and the Royal
Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has since acted on this death.
An impeccable
source within the REPS revealed that as per the recommendation of Coroner
Nonhlanhla Dlamini, disciplinary action has commenced against the four police
officers who were on duty on the night of Nkomonye’s death and they all face a
charge of negligence. Dlamini presided over the inquest into the circumstances
surrounding the death of Nkomonye and further compiled a report of the
findings.The officers who have been charged are: Constable Bhoncozi Kunene, who
was the investigator of the road traffic accident; Constable Isaac Msibi, who
attended the accident with Kunene; another officer identified as Thusi, who was
part of the team that attended the accident; and Sergeant Ntombikayise Sithole,
who was the senior officer on duty that night. Kunene, Msibi and Thusi are
from the Matsapha traffic police department and they attended the scene of the
accident on May 8, 2021 and towed Nkomonye’s motor vehicle to the Matsapha
police station, where it was kept until his body was discovered at the scene of
the accident five days later (May 13, 2021).
The coroner made
the following recommendation, which was one of four: “Administrative
disciplinary action should be taken against all the officers who were involved
in this matter, to answer for their failure to follow procedure and for their
negligence.” The highly-placed source said it was now expected that the
four officers would now appear before a tribunal that consists of the police
executive, where their matter will be dealt with. Chief Police Information
and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati did not refute the
information that the officers had since been charged. “The National
Commissioner is working on the recommendations as articulated by the Coroner.
Reports will be submitted to a relevant body if need be,” she said.
For
more of this report, click here.
Solidarity forces spokesperson: No
member arrested for shooting police officers.
By Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland
News, 18 July 2022
MBABANE: No member of the Swaziland International Solidarity
Forces(SISF)arrested in connection with the ongoing shooting of police
officers.
This was confirmed by the SISF Spokesperson when speaking to
this Swaziland News on Monday morning.
“We can confirm that no member of the Solidarity Forces has been
arrested in connection with the ongoing shooting of police officers. Such false
information is meant to intimidate the people so that the police could be seen
working trying to control the situation, all our members are safe and the
operation is ongoing. What they are trying do now is to arrest members of the public
and label them ‘solidarity forces”, said the Spokesperson whose name cannot be
revealed for ethical reasons.
The Times of eSwatini reported that two people were
arrested in connection with the killing of police officers adding that one
officer who was killed, Bongnkosi Dlamini asked for prayers not to meet
Solidarity Forces on his way to work.
Police Spokesperson Superintendent Phindile Vilakati had not
responded at the time of compiling this report.
On another note, the Commander of the Solidarity Forces said the
operation was continuing well adding that even the censored media was beginning
to acknowledge the presence of Solidarity Forces.
“I read a front page of the Times, they reported that a
police officers asked for prayers not to meet Solidarity Forces. So now they
know that Solidarity Forces exist, I thought, the newspaper would say, he asked
for prayers not to meet unknown people because they have been attributing the
killings to unknown people. Uyabona nawucatseka umuntfu umkhipha lishashadi,
leti timphawu tekutsi seliyaphuma lelishashadi”, he said.
The Commander of the Solidarity Forces further warned all police
officers not to arrest any of their members to avoid putting themselves at
risk.
“Arrest, torture, prosecute Solidarity and Ground Forces at your
own peril. Anyone who will arrest, torture, prosecute or even kill a member of
our forces will do so at their own peril because our response to such
provocation would not only be firm but it would be decisive,” said the
Commander.
The ongoing shooting and killing of police officers and soldiers
comes after King Mswati unleashed his security forces to kill dozens of
civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.
MPs call for dialogue to end violence
By
Sifiso Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 20 July 2022
Lobamba - Members of Parliament have
unanimously pleaded with the Prime Minister, Cleopas Dlamini to speedily
facilitate the much anticipated national dialogue.
The legislators are of the view that the
dialogue would bring the much needed calm in the country.
They have also indicated that they were
now living in constant fear for their lives as they could be victimised.
The PM, however, stated that the dialogue
would only be called once the situation in the country was conducive.
This was mentioned during the debate of
the prime minister's office first quarter performance report yesterday.
While delivering his preamble, the premier
made a humble plea to the nation.
He acknowledged that while it was true that the effects of the COVID-19
pandemic and unprecedented civil unrest as well as the negative impact of the
Russia-Ukraine war continued to tremendously upset economies resulting to
closure of businesses, job losses and resultant to an increasing inflation.
“The resultant frustration of our people
in particular the youth is understandable, but violence and destruction will
never be a solution.”
If anything, this is the time for unity of
purpose and collective efforts to address our challenges as a nation,” he said.
Dlamini added that it was imperative that
everyone embraced the spirit of peaceful dialogue when not in agreement as
opposed to violence.
He said government would announce the dialogue as provided for in the
Constitution as soon as the environment was conducive.
The MPs were of the view that government
should take the initiative and make the situation conducive for the dialogue.
They further urged the PM to speed up the
preparations.
Nkhaba MP Zakhele Magongo was the first to
urge government to stand up and be counted.
“I hear the PM saying that the dialogue will only take place once the situation
is conducive. Enough member of the public have died and have been laid to rest
when will the situation be conducive and who is responsible for facilitating
this," he said.
He urged the premier to be proactive and
make the situation conducive by facilitating the dialogue.
He said the dialogue was a must have and
should be speeded up.
Deputy Speaker, Madala Mhlanga, said this
was no longer the same Eswatini he grew up in.
He enquired what the PM was doing to unite the nation as they were now all
living in fear of being victimised if they spoke against the ongoing violence.
Lomahasha MP Ndumiso Masimula said the situation was now tense and there was a
need to curb the ongoing violence.
Conclusive
“It is now scary and the only way forward
is to sit down and talk, find solutions to the challenges we face as a nation.
If the situation is not conducive, will we wait for more people to die before
we have the dialogue,” he submitted.
He aslo said it was not acceptable to sit and fold their hands while hoping for
the situation to be conducive.
Madlangempisi MP, Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’
Nxumalo, said he pitted the PM who came into office during such a difficult
period in the country.
He said it was every one's duty to leave
the country peaceful as it was before.
Nxumalo said peace and stability was critical and should be promoted.
He also questioned why the Cabinet
excluded politicians in finding a solution yet this was a political problem.
Manzini North MP, Macford Sibandze, said
all the efforts made would count for nothing if the situation was still not
conducive and all were in a state of fear.
Sibandze said the PM should have a caucus with MPs to come up with suggestions
for promoting peace and stability in the country.
He said the country was now in a state of
emergency, which was now spiralling to a State of war in the country as the
police were now unsure if calls for help were genuine or not.
He enquired who was responsible for making the situation conducive and said as
politicians they should play their role. “I do not believe that the
situation will just miraculously become conducive and there is a need for a long-term
strategy,” he said.
For more of this report, click
here.
Swazi Lives Matter, Gawuzela asked
President Ramaphosa to intervene in eSwatini
By Eugene Dube, Swati Newsweek 20 July,
2022
LONDON - Mduduzi
Eric ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane joined Swazis in England in a peaceful protest march
to deliver a petition to the South African Embassy in London, UK.
Protestors
gathered outside the South African High Commission in London near Trafalgar
Square to call on the SADC (South African Development Community) to support
their efforts to bring democracy to Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).
The march and
petition as organised by Swazi Lives Matter pleaded with the South African
government to make representations on behalf of the Swazi people for the
Swaziland government to sincerely engage with all stakeholders in a national
dialogue to end the political crisis in the country; to stop the violence
against unarmed civilians with immediate effect; to comply with the human
rights obligations.
The petition
further demanded for the unbanning of political parties, the release of all
political prisoners and for political exiles to be allowed to return
unconditionally.
Reached for a
comment Simelane said, “It was one of the best marches the Swazi Lives matter
did a great job we managed to deliver a petition.”
Communist
Party of Swaziland organizer is attacked again as regime turns jittery
By Pavan Kulkarni, Peoples Dispatch, 16 July 2022
Early on the morning of
Wednesday, July 13, King Mswati III’s police raided the home of Bongi Nkambule,
a member of the Communist of Swaziland (CPS), which is banned along with all
other political parties in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
Nkambule, whom the police
identify as a key organizer of the pro-democracy movement locally, had already
been tortured in custody less than four months ago. When around 30 heavily
armed policemen “invaded” the Msunduza township on the outskirts of capital
Mbabane at about 6:30 in the morning, he knew he was the target.
“They were misled in the wrong
direction when they asked for me. That gave me just enough time to get out of
the house and make a run to the forest to escape,” Nkambule told Peoples
Dispatch, speaking on phone from a hideout.
“Without showing any search
warrant to my wife who demanded it, they then broke into my house and ransacked
the whole place. Then they arrested my wife and dragged her to the police
station at around 8 am. She was held there in custody, and beaten and harassed
for several hours before she was released by 2 in the afternoon,” he said. “She
is not safe, they have threatened to come back and kill her.”
The couple have two children –
one aged 11 and the other a two-year-old infant. Nkambule used to support his
family, laboring as a painter. He had been struggling over the last four months
to make ends meet on losing his regular job when his employer got intimidated
after he was picked up by the police without a warrant on March 23.
At that time, the police
assaulted him for several hours in custody, and then, without pressing any
charges, dumped him just outside the capital, with injuries to his arms, legs
and head.
Sunset Rallies to
symbolize the monarch’s nearing end
“Since then Comrade Bongo had
been under continuous surveillance,” CPS International Secretary Pius Vilakati
told Peoples Dispatch. Nevertheless, even under surveillance, “he
had continued his work as a community organizer in Msunduza and was playing an
important role in organizing the Sunset Rallies there.”
To signify to the communities
the nearing end of the monarchist reign over Swaziland, which the King has
arbitrarily renamed Eswatini, the CPS started organizing what it calls Sunset
Rallies in March. Soon after, Nkambule was abducted by the police.
In the four months since,
Vilakati said, these rallies have almost become a weekly event. Marches have
been held in the townships of Msunduza, Maphala in Mbabane and KaKhoza in
Manzini city, the commercial hub of Swaziland. For now, these rallies remain
relatively small, mobilizing a hundred or so community members each time.
Nevertheless, Mswati, who had
fled his kingdom briefly amid an unprecedented country-wide pro-democracy
uprising mid-last year, appears rattled by this increasing willingness of local
residents to raise the red flag and call for his overthrow. Slogans “Mswati
must Fall!” and “Democracy Now!”, which were promulgated by the CPS years ago,
have become a mass cry in the country.
The Msunduza township has
attracted much police attention after residents took part in three Sunset
Rallies here. Most of the residents are informal laborers who travel to the
capital daily in search of work. During the raid on Wednesday, the police also
broke into houses of several other community members, claiming to be in search
of weapons. As in the several other raids in the recent past, no weapons were
found, Vilakati observed.
“While the police claimed to
be looking for guns and grenades, ostensibly to be used in an impending armed
revolution against Africa’s last absolute monarchy, the true reason for the
raid was to instill fear among community members and victimize political
activists,” CPS said in a statement.
However, the rallies have not
only continued despite these raids, illegal arrests and torture, but have also
grown increasingly assertive in the nature of the speeches made publicly at
them.
Community-based Security
Councils to defend against police ‘invasion’
Addressing a Sunset Rally on
June 26 in KaKhoza township in the city of Manzini, the commercial hub of the
country, CPS National Organizer Simphiwe Dlamini called for the formation of
community-based “Security Councils”. These councils, he said, should inspire
“intense fear” in the police “whenever they think of invading communities. The
minority regime should not be allowed to rule over us any longer. We’re the
majority.”
Speaking to Peoples
Dispatch over phone on Friday, June 15, while en route to another
Sunset Rally in Macambeni township, about 45 kilometers from the capital, on
the outskirts of Piggs Peak town in Hhohho region, Dlamini explained: “What is
happening in the country today is that the police never respond to distress
calls by people faced with crimes or violence. The only task they undertake in
the country is to attack the pro-democracy movement and the communities in
which this movement is rooted.”
“The police”, he added, “is no
longer a force from which people can expect any security. They are left to
defend themselves. So the cadres of the Communist Party, the vanguard of the
struggling masses, are working in the communities to unite them and organize to
form Security Councils.”
A key task of these Councils,
he explained, will be to ensure that “at least one person from every family is
on the frontlines of the revolution. Because when police invade communities,
they are primarily targeting a few households from which members have taken to
the frontlines. It is time now for every household to respond by contributing
at least one member to the frontlines to overwhelm the police with numbers.”
Cops? Whistle!!!
The other important task is to
organize an alarm and response system. One proposal on how to implement this
has received a very positive response from communities, Dlamini explained: “The
Security Council should ensure that all community members are carrying
whistles. The first person to see armed policemen approaching the community
will raise an alarm by blowing his whistle and everyone hearing it will follow
up with their own whistles, and it will continue so on.”
This chorus of whistles, he explained,
should in itself be a deterrent “because the community is telling the police
even before they have arrived that we know you are coming, and we are ready.
The police are afraid of this. That is why in all of the recent raids, they
avoided detection till the last moment and caught the households they were
targeting by surprise. We should not let them have it easy anymore.”
What if the police proceed,
undeterred by the whistles? Then the dozens of heavily armed and armored men
will not find themselves confronted by one lone woman with an infant, demanding
to see the warrant with a furiously waving fist as she is dragged off for
custodial torture.
“On each raid, the police will
then have to fight off members from all households of the community, organized
and ready to defend each other and fight back against police brutality,” he
said, confident that such readiness is already in groundswell among the masses.
“The task now is of organization,” he said.
‘A basis to build
democracy after the King is overthrown’
Along with Security Councils,
the CPS is also at work in communities to organize Welfare Councils, Dlamini
explained. The monarchy, he argues, has virtually abandoned the people to fend
for themselves in a country where up to 70% of the population eke a living on
less than a dollar a day.
With the bulk of the economy
owned by the King and run to sustain his indulgences – palaces, private jets, a
fleet of Rolls Royce cars, million-dollar parties etc – his government is
unable even to pay the wages of its public servants. Little can be expected
from the government by the people living in the countryside.
“The only way forward is for
the communities to organize themselves for their needs of education, housing,
health, food and all the basic needs the government cannot fulfill,” he said.
By undertaking these tasks of catering to their own security and welfare
through grassroots organization, Dlamini argues, the communities in the
countryside can decide how to govern themselves and totally defy the authority of
the chiefs, who are the King’s local representatives.
“When we overthrow Mswati,
these community-based councils will provide the basis to build a bottom-up
democracy in Swaziland.”
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