Swazi Media Commentary: Dlamini William

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Tuesday, 2 June 2020

Swaziland policeman shoots boy, 15, playing football during coronavirus lockdown

A 15-year-old boy was shot and wounded by police in Swaziland (eSwatini) when he played football with friends on open ground during the coronavirus lockdown.

A lone policeman approached a group of boys playing football on a dusty field near Gege.

The Times of eSwatini reported their game was being watched by two adults. It said the police officer allegedly fired his weapon to disperse the spectators.

‘The startled youngsters are said to have trampled on each other as they ran away, while one of the boys aged 15 reportedly sustained a serious injury after he got shot during the skirmish.

‘The youngster was struck by a bullet in his left arm while running away from the police officer.’ He was detained in hospital.

Police are investigating the shooting.

Swaziland has been on a partial lockdown because of coronavirus (COVID-19) since 27 March 2020. Gatherings of more than 20 people are banned and people are urged to keep a distance of one metre from one another.

The Swazi police and other security forces have been criticised for their brutality during the lockdown.

National Police Commissioner William Dlamini acknowledged the problem during a press briefing on 24 April when he said, ‘We assure the nation that all security officers have been reminded that their duty is to assist, not abuse.’

There had been a number of reports of police, army and correctional service personnel beating people during lockdown.

In April security forces reportedly whipped a destitute woman in Eteni when she was on the streets desperately trying to get food for her three children.

Mbabane lawyer Sabelo ‘Mngo’ Mngomezulu was left with broken ribs after soldiers assaulted him, two women were whipped with sticks by police and a man was hospitalised after police beat him about the head with a baton.

An 85-year-old woman collapsed and died when security forces raided her home because they thought she was selling alcohol.

Armed military police officers also forced members of the public to do press-ups when they were found at a bus rank in Manzini during the coronavirus lockdown.

Some businesses had claimed they had been asked to pay bribes to police and army in order to remain open.

On 15 April Swazi Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini endorsed police beating people during the lockdown. He told a press briefing, ‘If you are found to be violating these regulations, the law will definitely take its course, we won’t compromise on this. Maybe those who were assaulted were found to be on the wrong side of the law by breaking the regulations put in place by government. We would like to encourage members of the public to abide by these regulations, there shouldn’t a need for the law enforcement to force you to respect these regulations.’

See also

More reports of police and army violence against civilians as Swaziland coronavirus lockdown continues

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/more-reports-of-police-and-army.html

Swaziland armed police, army intimidate people to obey coronavirus lockdown. Woman, 85, dies

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/swaziland-armed-police-army-intimidate.html

Swaziland security forces whip destitute woman searching for food during coronavirus lockdown

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2020/04/swaziland-security-forces-whip.html

Saturday, 2 May 2020

Teacher held by Swaziland police as free speech clampdown intensifies

A teacher was arrested and threatened by Swaziland (eSwatini) police because of comments he made on social media, in the latest in a continuing clampdown on free speech in the kingdom.

Majahembuso Dlamini, 35, a teacher at Nhlangano was arrested by army and para-military police on Saturday morning (2 May 2020). He was taken to the local police station.

In a statement his trade union the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) said they were ‘armed to the teeth’. Police had been searching for Dlamini since Thursday when he posted comments on WhatsApp about a road accident that day that claimed the lives of 11 police officers and a truck driver.

SNAT reported Dlamini said that at the police station he was sworn at and threatened. He believed only the unexpected arrival at the station of the Regional Commander saved him. ‘I had been told I’ll spend the rest of the night in their holding cells where I was to be taught a lesson,’ he said.


Majahembuso Dlamini

SNAT officials attended the police station. Secretary-General Sikelela Dlamini said, ‘We demanded that they provide evidence to substantiate the essence of their conduct and they failed. We can’t have a situation whereby state security agents are a law unto themselves, intimidating our members as they do.’

In its statement SNAT said, ‘It is reported that upon releasing him, a word of caution was sent to the teacher by the cops as they intimated that more Swazis are yet to face wrath of the cops.’

Swaziland has seen an unprecedented clampdown on free speech on websites and social media in recent weeks. On Thursday the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Swaziland to ‘stop intimidating and harassing local journalists for reporting critically about King Mswati III’. It added they should allow to write freely without the threat of treason charges.

The call came after police raided the home of Eugene Dube, the editor and publisher of the privately-owned news website Swati Newsweek, and seized his three mobile phones, a laptop, and work documents.

Dube was taken to the same police station as Majahembuso Dlamini, Nhlangano, where they interrogated him about articles he published about King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as an absolute monarch.

Also, on 24 April 24, a police officer in Matsapha went to the home of Mfomfo Nkhambule, a Swati Newsweek reporter who wrote one of the articles that Dube was questioned about. They took him to a local police station and interrogated him for two hours.

Dube told CPJ that police were unable to find Mthobisi Ntjangase, the reporter who had written the other article about the king.

The journalists said they were questioned about an 8 April opinion piece by Nkhambule, entitled “King Reckless on Swazis’ Health,” which accused the government of failing to adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an 14 April article by Ntjangase, based on an interview with Ncamiso Ngcamphalala the president of the Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland, a new political group, who said that ‘removing the king is possible’.

Ngcamphala was himself arrested by Swaziland police on Saturday (2 May 2020), according to reports on social media. At the time of compiling this report no further details were available.

After his release, police warned Dube that their investigation was still ongoing and said they would return if he continued to criticize the king. Dube said that they kept his devices for further investigation.

Police commissioner William Dlamini on 24 April threatened that authorities would come down hard on journalists who wrote negatively about Mswati III and said the law would take its course, the privately-owned weekly publication Independent News reported.

In a statement sent to CPJ, government spokesperson Sabelo Dlamini alleged that Dube operated an unregistered media outlet and denied that the journalists were being persecuted for criticizing the king.

Friday, 31 January 2020

Swaziland police chief threatens social media users with wrath of the law if they criticise King

Police in the absolute monarchy of Swaziland (eSwatini) are to hunt down and arrest people who criticise King Mswati on social media.

The National Commissioner of Police William Dlamini said the law would deal with them harshly.

He made the announcement in a written statement published in media across Swaziland on Friday (31 January 2020).

The eSwatini Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported, ‘He stated that the police service was hot on their trail and they will see to it that the perpetrators of the cybercrime ultimately face the wrath and might of the law.’

Human rights are severely curtailed in Swaziland. Freedom House scored Swaziland 16 out of a possible 100 points in its Freedom in the World 2019 report. It concluded that Swaziland was ‘not free’.

There is very little media freedom in Swaziland, where one of the only two daily newspapers is owned by King Mswati. All broadcast news is controlled by the government, whose members are handpicked by the King.

Democracy campaigners use social media sites such as Facebook to draw attention to human rights abuses.

Dlamini said there were ‘highly insolent and morality devoid characters disseminating seditious, slanderous and very insultive statements about the country’s authorities via social media’.

He added, ‘The intent and motive of these statements is seemingly to vilify and pour scorn on the country’s authorities, which we find completely unacceptable and an insult to the entire nation.’

The Swaziland News, an online newspaper, reported, the National Commissioner announced that they had launched a high-level investigation that would uncover those behind these ‘vitriolic and damaging statements’ so they could be dealt with according to the law. ‘He said they have noted that these individuals were in a mission to plant a seed of disorder and anarchy in the Nation.’

This is not the first time the Swazi state has threatened social media users.

In March 2018, Swaziland’s then Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini hinted his government might try to restrict access to social media, but he told Senators there was nothing police could do ‘at the moment’ about the posts.

The Swazi Observer reported at the time, ‘The premier said it was unfortunate that social media was a very complex phenomenon, which no single person or organisation could control.’

The Swazi Government has a history of hostility to social media. In 2011, Prime Minister Dlamini said it was important to keep information published on Facebook away from the Swazi people. ‘If such stories from these websites then make it to the newspapers and radios, then the public at large will start to think there is some truth in the story yet it was just malicious gossip,’ the Times of Swaziland reported him saying at the time.

He was commenting after information about a cabinet minister had appeared on social media.

The Swazi Observer also reported at the time, ‘Dlamini said government did not have any measures to control the internet but relied on the support of the media which assists by shying away from information published or sourced from the internet.’

In the run up to April 2011 a group used Facebook to try to drum up support for an ‘uprising’ for democracy in the kingdom. The Government threatened the online activists with prosecution.

In May 2011, the Times of Swaziland reported Swaziland had specially ‘trained officers’ to track down people who used Facebook to criticise the Swazi Government. Nathaniel Mahluza, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, said the government was worried by what the newspaper called ‘unsavoury comments’ about the kingdom being published on the internet.

In March 2012, Swaziland’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze said he would use the law against people who criticised Swaziland on the internet. He told the Swazi Senate that he would use what he called ‘international laws’ to bring the internet critics to task. He was reacting to concerns from Senators that the internet sites showed ‘disrespect’ to the King.

Academic research published in 2013 suggested that people in Swaziland used the Internet to communicate with one another and share information and ideas about the campaign for democracy, bypassing the Swazi mainstream media which was heavily censored. They debated and shared information about activities designed to bring attention to the human rights abuses in the kingdom.

The research suggested, ‘It is clear that social media sites have extended the public sphere to offer opportunities for a wider range of people both in the country and outside it, to produce, distribute and exchange information and commentary about the kingdom – especially in the context of the need for political change. People speak in their own voices and are not mediated in the way mainstream media are in Swaziland.’

National Commissioner of Police William Dlamini

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