Swaziland Newsletter No. 791 – 25 August 2023
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.
Gawuzela tells the SABC why SWALIMO joined the
Tinkhundla elections
By Eugene Dube, Swati Newsweek 21 August, 2023
PRETORIA: Swaziland Liberation
Movement (SWALIMO), President, Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane has defended his
party’s stance on participating in the ongoing Tinkhundla elections.
Simelane was speaking to the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). He was responding to questions
posed to him by the national broadcaster's Noxolo Mtshali.
“Simelane we know that you are
against the tinkhundla system but why have you encouraged members of your
organisation to join the elections,” asked the presenter.
Simelane responded, “As
SWALIMO we have been inspired by South African politicians. The late Helen
Suzman opposed apartheid in SA. She is remembered for that. Secondly another
South African politician (Julius Malema) once remarked that at times we have to
kiss frogs to reach our political goals.”
He added, “I know very well
that the Swazi Parliament is a dictator’s parliament. There is limited work we
can do there however we have to seize this opportunity to elect pro democracy
individuals and amplify the call for democracy reforms.”
Simelane urged Swazis to rise
up against tinkhundla and elect pro-democracy leaders in Swazi constituencies
to frustrate king Mswati’s dictatorship.
See also
Mixed feelings as over 300 voters
turned back
http://www.times.co.sz/news/141594-mixed-feelings-as-over-300-voters-turned-back.html
Nominees divided over
special vote results
http://new.observer.org.sz/details.php?id=21003
Huge turn-out for
special voting
http://new.observer.org.sz/details.php?id=21007
Elections
Commission must declare number of prisoners eligible to vote, eSwatini has
about 3000 prisoners
http://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=5032
Correctional reported for violating trans woman
By Nonduduzo Kunene, Times of
eSwatini, 18 August 2023
MBABANE: His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) has been reported
for allegedly violating a transgender woman and forcing her to stop hormonal
therapy.
A transgender woman is someone who was born a male but identifies as a
female. A transgender person’s gender identity is not the same as the sex
recorded on their birth certificate. The Eswatini Commission on Human
Rights and Public Administration stated that it had noted that the country was
still lagging behind in addressing the issues faced by key populations as well
as people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex
(LGBTQI) community.
Human Rights Defender Nelisiwe Zwane, from the Human Rights Commission,
was speaking during an event that brought together government departments as
well as non-governmental organisations. The aim of the event was to have a
multisectoral conversation around laws and access for key populations. During
the event, different stakeholders had an opportunity to explain their role in
advancing an enabling environment for key populations. During a panel
discussion, the human rights defender gave an insight of the role that had been
played by the commission in creating an enabling environment for key
populations as well as the LGBTQI community in the country.
Zwane said the commission received complaints from key populations, more
especially the LGBTQI. She said there was a particular case, where a
transgender woman reported human rights violation at the hands of HMCS
officers. She said the complaint included harassment and being degraded among
other issues. Zwane said the transgender woman reported that when she was
admitted to the HMCS, she was searched by warders instead of being searched by
wardresses. Zwane said the reason the complainant felt she had to be searched
by wardresses was because she identified as a woman, besides being born a
biological man.
During the search, Zwane told the meeting that the transgender woman
said the officers made a mockery of her. In addition, she said all the officers
in the facility were called to look at her and made funny and derogative
statements about her gender and how she looked. Zwane added that the
transgender woman also stated that she found herself being punished for a
number of issues. During her admission to the facility, Zwane said the
transgender woman was on feminising hormone therapy. Upon admission, Zwane said
the transgender woman was prohibited from taking the treatment.
“She was stopped from taking the treatment because the service said they
would not promote the demonic activity,” she said. Further, Zwane said the
commission made its own findings and made recommendations to HMCS. She said the
commission indeed uncovered that the transgender woman’s rights were grossly
violated.
Furthermore, Zwane said the commission uncovered that key populations in
Eswatini were not involved in decision making that affected them.
She also highlighted mental health challenges that were channelled by
the discrimination they faced in their families and communities.
Zwane also highlighted the danger that some transgendered people went through
as they went through hormonal therapy. She said since hormonal injections or
medication was prohibited for people whose gender was transitioning, some of
those individuals resorted to black market products.
Zwane said black market products were endangering the lives of
transgender people, because that sector was not regulated.
She added that gender identity markers were still a challenge because a
number of them faced challenges when travelling. She said that was a challenge
for mostly transgender people as well as gender non-binary individuals. She
explained that transgender people found themselves being searched in a manner
that would be violating and harsh as compared to cis-gender people
“A transgender woman’s passport may refer to her as a man yet she
would be looking like a man and the similar case to transgender man,” she said.
She said the officials normally gave transgender people a hard time because
they would want to confirm if they were indeed the owners of the passport, for
that reason they found themselves undergoing uncomfortable inspections, of
which some of them would be humiliating.
Emaswati eating themselves to an early grave - dietician
By
Sibusiso Dlamini, eSwatini Observer, 18 August 2023
Emaswati’s unhealthy eating habits are a
matter of death as they are the main risk factor for heart disease, diabetes
and other forms of cancer, says Eswatini Medical Christian University (EMCU)
Vice-Chancellor Paul Yang.
Yang shared this concern when speaking at
the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the institution and
medical diagnostic laboratory, Biolab Eswatini.
The MoU will see the university’s students
getting placements at Biolab, internships, staff training and knowledge sharing
in conducting clinical trials. Yang noted with concern that whenever eating in
restaurants or buying from supermarkets, locals ingest food rich in fat, has
too much sugar and meat.
“Most of these foods are processed foods
and are high in the bad kinds of sugars and fats,” he said.
“They do not contain water and fibre but
added fat, salt and sugar, which makes them both less filling and more
fattening, and that is for one’s health,” he added. Yang advised for lifestyle
changes to avoid serious health problems that could develop, especially the
adoption of lack of exercise. “In order to increase the life expectancy, which
is at about 60 years of age in the country, we need to take care of our
bodies,” he said.
Coming to the MoU, he said he hoped it
would serve as an important opportunity to improve Emaswati’s health. “We hope
that the students will grow into stewards of the country’s health system
through exposure to Biolab,” he said.
Biolab’s Executive Director, Sibusiso
Hlatjwayo, said they were pleased with the agreement as they wanted to be part
of the solution to the country’s problems. “This business was born during
COVID-19 when we realised that there was a huge gap in the public health system
that needed to be filled and has only grown from then,” he said. Hlatjwayo
explained that they have learnt a lot since then, as they used to take samples
to South Africa but then realised the risks in health security.
“We are committed to improving the
health system through deliberate investments because we are cognisant of the
fact that the biggest gap in African healthcare is in diagnostics,” he added.
The executive director said Biolab
genuinely valued partnerships because they understood that healthcare was an
ecosystem. “We get calls from parents everyday complaining about how their
children with expertise in our field are idle at home because of unemployment,
so we are more than happy to have youngsters under our internship programme,”
he added.
To read more of this report, click
here.
http://new.observer.org.sz/details.php?id=20972
Opinion
by Zweli Martin Dlamini, Swaziland News, 20 August 2023
Without the establishment of a Gender
Equality Law that seeks to regulate among others, the appointment and/or
employment of women into decision making positions, efforts to empower women
will remain a dream.
Despite the call by the country’s
authorities, vigorous campaigns by the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office,
women rights organizations and United Nations (UN) agencies among others, only
a few women were nominated to participate in the ongoing Tinkhundla elections.
The Gender Equality Law could have guided
Electoral Officers and voters to ensure that if ten (10) nominees are required,
five (5) are women and five(5) are men.
Indeed, the Gender Equality Law should
also be adopted by political parties trade unions, when electing their National
Executive Committee (NEC) members.
The law will also guide churches when
electing Committees including traditional structures (iMiphakatsi).
The calls for democracy seeks to, among
others, end patriarchy and democratize all institutions for equal participation
of both men and women, to enhance social and economic development.
It’s a pity the women who were elected
into Parliament never advocate for gender equality including the establishment
of the Gender Equality Law, only a few including former Ludzeludze Member of
Parliament (MP) Nonhlanhla Dlamini raised such issues.
Patriarchy is not only undermining
political vibrancy in this country but, it continues to subject and brand women
as outcast whose future and development of skills should be at the mercy of
men.
Judge Qinisile Mabuza once issued a
judgement that ‘freed’ women from the cultural oppression, women were
previously required to seek permission from men when registering their
properties.
Even though the Government appealed that
judgement but, it was a very eye-opening judgement delivered by the Honorable
Judge.
In this regard, the Gender Equality Law
will guide all institutions in the country, women rights organizations should
also be able to use the same law and challenge companies who violate gender
equality principles.
As it stands, we are relying on company
policies.
Gender equality should not only be a
corporate governance issue but, a national regulated development project
through a clear legal framework.
See also
Everything You Need to Know About
Women’s Rights in Eswatini
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/womens-rights-in-eswatini/
Thulani Maseko’s
absence weakens eSwatini’s struggle for democracy
By
Peter Fabricius, ISS Today, 18 August 2023
Seven months
after his murder, it is evident how much the absence of political activist and
human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko has weakened Eswatini’s chances of a genuine
transition to democracy.
Maseko, who
headed the Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF), a coalition of opposition political
parties and civil society activists, was shot dead in his home near Manzini in
January. The murder remains unsolved, but it is now becoming clearer that
absolute monarch King Mswati benefits most from it.
Maseko was a
rare unifier amidst a fragmented political opposition. He convened the MSF as a
voice of those Swazi democrats demanding that Mswati launch a real, independent
and substantive national political dialogue to chart a path to democracy.
Mswati had
grudgingly agreed to the dialogue under pressure from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC). After years of neglect, SADC was forced to sit up
and take note of what was happening in the kingdom. There were unprecedented
levels of violent rioting in mid-2021, to which the Swazi
security forces responded with excessive violence, killing scores of
protesters.
Since Maseko’s
death, the Multi-Stakeholder Forum has struggled to maintain its force and
cohesion
After probing
missions to Eswatini by SADC ministers and officials, South African President
Cyril Ramaphosa, then chair of SADC’s security organ, met Mswati in Eswatini in
November 2021. He persuaded him to launch a national political dialogue to
address the democratic deficit that SADC correctly deemed to lie at the root of
the instability.
But Mswati has
been stalling since, and has also been trying to
contain the dialogue by framing it within the tight constraints of ‘Sibaya’ –
the traditional engagement of the king with his people. The MSF rejected Sibaya
as a vehicle for political dialogue. It said the practice was a monologue where
the king talked down to his ‘subjects’ – sitting on a throne in the royal kraal
while they all sat on the ground and listened.
Since Maseko’s
death though, the MSF has struggled to maintain its force and cohesion, a local
analyst told ISS Today. He said no one with Maseko’s ‘gravitas’ had
stepped in to fill his shoes, and the MSF was in danger of disintegrating.
That would suit
Mswati, as he is apparently playing the divide-and-rule game. Last month
he dissolved Parliament and announced that
elections would be held on 29 September and that he would hold another Sibaya
after that on the future. That has been taken as a reference to the national
dialogue agreed with SADC.
Maseko’s murder
remains unsolved, but absolute monarch Mswati is benefitting most from it
But these
elections will be held under the prevailing system where candidates can stand
only as individuals, not representing political parties, which remain banned.
Most democratic activists – including the banned political party, the People’s
United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) – believe that sequence is wrong. The
national dialogue should take place first, partly because the non-party
political system should be on the negotiating table.
But three
political parties, the Swazi Democratic Party, Inhlava and Swaziland Liberation
Movement, walked out of an MSF meeting in July. They
complained that they had been threatened with ‘divorce’ from the MSF by the
main political party PUDEMO because they insisted on contesting the 29
September election.
Although the
three have apparently not announced their formal withdrawal from the MSF, a
local analyst said he feared this was ‘the beginning of the end for the MSF.’
He lamented the lack of a ‘voice of reason’ – like Maseko’s – to hold it
together.
The global civil
society alliance Civicus noted last month that the election was
going ahead ‘without any constructive dialogue or reform. The chances of
reform-minded potential MPs winning significant representation are slimmer than
ever.’ It noted how MPs Mthandeni Dube and Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza had been convicted of terrorism and murder in June,
simply because they called for political reform and a constitutional monarchy
during the 2021 protests.
To
read more of this report, click here
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/thulani-masekos-absence-weakens-eswatinis-struggle-for-democracy
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