POLICE INVESTIGATE LESBIAN OFFICER

Police in Swaziland / Eswatini are investigating a woman officer who came out as a lesbian at the kingdom’s LGBTI Pride event.

Chief Police Information and Communication Officer Superintendent Khulani Mamba confirmed this to the Swazi News. ‘Deliberations are going on so I can only discuss it afterwards,’ Mamba said.

He said they were trying to determine whether police officers were allowed to attend LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) Pride events.

The newspaper reported on Saturday (7 July 2018), Mamba ‘went on to state that they had seen her pictures and interview in last weekend’s publications and clarified that she was participating in her own accord’.

Swaziland held its first LGBTI Pride parade the previous Saturday and many photographs appeared in Swaziland’s national newspapers.

Homosexual acts among men are illegal in Swaziland but there is no law restricting women’s activities.

In the run up to the LGBTI Pride the Swaziland police went on record to state it did not support the march. Separately, Mamba, the official spokesperson for the police and a self-proclaimed prophet, preached from the pulpit, ‘We say no to homosexuality, this country will not tolerate the LGBTI community.’ 

One of the kingdom’s best-known NGO rights activist groups the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) snubbed the Pride festival saying it was against Biblical teaching. 

Swaziland is a tiny landlocked kingdom with a population of about 1.1 million people, mostly living in rural communities. It is ruled by King Mswati III who is one of the world’s last absolute monarchs who reportedly described homosexuality as being ‘satanic.’

In the run up to the event, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, ran three articles calling LGBTI people ‘a curse’ and ‘evil’ and likening them to child sex molesters and people who had sex with animals.

The Swazi News reported that the woman police officer had ‘come out’ as a lesbian and publicly participated in the Pride event.

It reported  ‘Despite that she has come out, she requested that her identity be protected, not because she was afraid but because of her work, where it still has not been fully accepted.’

It added, ‘Her confidence during the interview can be said to be that of one who can withstand stigmatisation as many public service employees are afraid to declare their standing in society when it comes such issues.

‘The officer, when asked what advice she had for public servants who are part of the LGBTI community but are afraid to come out, said they should continue to live their lives and not be ashamed of who they are as God can be the only judge.’

The News reported her saying, ‘Some people who judge are hypocritical, because there are things that they do behind closed doors that we do not know.’

See also

KINGDOM’S FIRST LGBTI PRIDE TAKES PLACE

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/07/kingdoms-first-lgbti-pride-takes-place.html

 

LGBTI PRIDE GETS GLOBAL ATTENTION

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/07/lgbti-pride-gets-global-attention.html

POLICE SPOKESPERSON CONDEMNS LGBTI

The chief police spokesperson in Swaziland / Eswatini Superintendent Khulani Mamba has said that LGBTI people will not be tolerated in the kingdom and should not be given a platform.

He said, ‘We say no to homosexuality, this country will not tolerate the LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex] community,’ the Times of Swaziland reported on Wednesday (26 June 2018).

His comments came after the Swaziland Police gave permission for the first-ever LGBTI Pride event to take place in the kingdom on Saturday (30 June 2018).

Mamba made his comments from the pulpit in Ezulwini during annual prayer services on Sunday, the Times reported. It described Mamba as a ‘prophet’. It added he spoke in a personal capacity and not as a police superintendent.

Meanwhile, the Swazi Observer is standing by its report that contained hate speech, despite criticism. Over the past week it and its companion newspaper the Sunday Observer have published three prominent articles that called LGBTI people ‘a curse’ and ‘evil’ and likening them to child sex molesters and people who had sex with animals. 

The articles broke Article 13 of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists code of conduct which states, ‘Hate speech: ‘Journalists shall avoid by all means the publication of speech that might promote hatred, spite and conflict amongst the Swazi or any other nation.’

After the first article appeared on Thursday (21 June 2018) the Swaziland Human Rights Network UK condemned it saying, ‘the spirit and text of the article is homophobic and divisive and goes against the basics of journalistic ethics of accuracy and fair reporting. The article makes a false equivalence between the gay and lesbian community and paedophilia, bestiality and rape’.

In a statement published on its website it said, ‘The falsehoods raised in this article are not only homophobic but also indicative of a particularly desperate and divisive anti-gay and lesbian agenda by the Swazi Observer.’

Later, Goodwill Mathonsi the group’s coordinator wrote an email of complaint to the Observer editor Thulani Thwala saying it had broken four articles in the code of ethics, including hate speech.

Hate speech is a type of speech or writing which can do any of the following: deliberately offend, degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on their race, ethnicity, profession, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. It can be aimed at an individual; or racial, ethnic, religious or other group. Such speech generally seeks to condemn or dehumanize the individual or group; or express anger, hatred, violence or contempt toward them.

In his response, Thwala did not address the matter of hate speech. He wrote, ‘Rule number one of journalism to balance views was achieved. Since we live in a free country it is every person’s right to frown upon anything.’

He wrote, ‘I am certain you are aware that we cannot force people to see things the way we do no matter the circumstances. I cannot guarantee special treatment for any groupings.’

Swazi Media Commentary also sent an email of complaint to the editor of the Swazi Observer but received no reply.

The Observer does give special attention to one group: the monarchy. It is in effect owned by King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. In a report on press freedom in the kingdom the Media Institute of Southern Africa called the Observer a  ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’.

In January 2011 Alec Lushaba who today is editor of the Observer on Saturday wrote in the Weekend Observer about the newspaper’s values. He said, ‘We commit ourselves into respecting and observing the institution of the Monarchy by ensuring that all publications with regard to Their Majesties are factually, culturally and traditionally correct. The sensitivity of the institutions demands that all facts be checked or verified with the traditional structures and/or have been in direct consultation with Their Majesties.’

See also

‘OBSERVER’ STEPS UP LGBTI HATE CAMPAIGN

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/observer-steps-up-lgbti-hate-campaign.html

 

FIRST LGBTI PRIDE IN SWAZILAND

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/first-lgbti-pride-in-swaziland.html

PETTINESS OF THE KING’S RED CARPET

News that spread internationally that in Swaziland only King Mswati III should be afforded the honour of a red carpet at special events reminds us of another time the King wanted to assert his superiority over his subjects.

That time, according to a cable from the US Embassy in Swaziland, the King made his advisors sweat in 40-degree heat in a basement to demonstrate his power over them.

The issue of the red carpet emerged when it was reported that the red carpet at the Business Woman of the Year Awards ceremony this year (2015) was rolled away. The same happened at the Swaziland Inter Municipal Games Association (SIGA). The Times of Swaziland, the only independent newspaper in the kingdom, reported that the Swazi Police had ordered SIGA to remove the red carpet. Barnabas Dlamini, the Swazi Prime Minister, was at the event to give a speech.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a prodemocracy group banned in the kingdom, then reported the police ordered the ban on the instructions of King Mswati.

Later, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported the Swazi Police spokesperson Superintendent Khulani Mamba saying no police action was ordered. However, he said the red carpet might have been removed as is might be, ‘misconstrued in other quarters as equating himself to the Head of State [King]’.

He added, ‘A well-intended gesture may have unintended consequences and be read totally out of context.’

The Observer reported Mamba saying, ‘[N]o specific individual instructed the cops to remove the red carpet but was feeling of those who were waiting to welcome him that such good gesture may be lost in interpretation, hence the decision to remove it. 

“The Prime Minister had not ordered it, nor ordered its removal, but given his stature it was felt that such a gesture may be seen as setting him up against authorities.’

It is not surprising that the Prime Minister or any other of the King’s subjects would not want to upset him.

A cable from the US Embassy in Swaziland, made public by Wikileaks, gave a startling example of how the King behaves.

The US Embassy said King Mswati III was ‘not intellectually well developed’ and ‘is not a reader’. It also called him ‘imbalanced’.

The comments about the Swazi King came from Earl Irvine, the then US Ambassador to Swaziland, in February 2010. 

In a confidential cable to Washington released by Wikileaks, Irvine said King Mswati had a ‘lack of wisdom’.

Quoting an informant, Irvine wrote the king was ‘not a reader, and will not review documents left for him’.  [The informant] called the king ‘not intellectually well-developed,’ and contrasted the current sovereign’s scant educational background with Sobhuza II, who was educated at Lovedale College in South Africa alongside future leaders of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC).  

‘Essentially a bastard outsider to the royal family, King Mswati III was plucked from relative obscurity when members of the royal family could not come to an agreement on a successor to King Sobhuza II,’ the cable said.

‘After Mswati III was selected to be the next king, a posthumous marriage of Sobhuza II to Ntombi [the Queen Mother] was quickly arranged, according to our interlocutor.’

Irvine wrote, ‘Unlike in his early years, the King now identifies and pushes specific projects, and will look to replace ministers or employees who are unable to provide progress on those projects.’

Irvine quoted his informant calling King Mswati ‘imbalanced’. He gave an anecdote to illustrate this.   ‘The King, [the informant] said, invited about forty officials and advisors to a basement in one of his palaces, where they all sat on the floor to attend to him.  King Mswati III turned up the heater, which warmed the floor first, until the temperature in the room reached about 40 degrees Celsius, and told inconsequential stories to those gathered while they sweated, merely to show them he was in power.’

See also 

US FRANK ASSESSMENT OF SWAZI KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/us-frank-assessment-of-swazi-king.html

CJ WARRANT: ARE SWAZI POLICE SERIOUS?

It is hard to believe the police in Swaziland are serious in their intent to get the kingdom’s Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi to leave the house he has been holed up in for 11 days after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Ramodibedi who is in his luxury mansion in Mbabane with his wife and two adult children was allowed to send one of his sons out for food last Friday (24 April 2015) and it was reported that on Wednesday (28 April 2015) his maid delivered food to the family.

Ramodibedi, a native of Lesotho, reportedly faces 23 charges, including abuse of power. 

Two High Court Judges, Mpendulo Simelane and Jacobus Annandale, and the High Court Registrar, Fikile Nhlabatsi, have also been charged in connection with Ramodibedi’s case. They have appeared in court and been bailed.

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 Wednesday, ‘The movement, with ease, of some members of the CJ’s family in and out of his residence has left journalists wondering why the police were not using such opportunities to enter the house and arrest the CJ.’

Police Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Khulani Mamba told the newspaper they were still waiting for negotiations between, Lesotho and Swaziland, to be concluded.

It is not known who is negotiating and about what.

Police officers have been camping outside the CJ’s house since Friday 17 April 2015. They said they would arrest Ramodibedi as soon as he came out of the house. There has been no attempt to enter the house forcibly, despite the comings-and-goings of people from the house.

The lack of action by the police is unusual. They have a deserved reputation for smashing their way into the homes of pro-democracy activists, often without warrants. 

There is speculation within Swaziland and on social media about the reasoning for the delay in effecting the arrest warrant. On Sunday (26 April 2015), the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, speculated that Ramodibedi was waiting until King Mswati returned to Swaziland from a trip to the Bandung Conference for Asian and African countries. 

The newspaper reported, ‘The chief justice is said to have stated that the only person he trusts was His Majesty the King.’ 

The newspaper did not say so but it is assumed that Ramodibedi thinks King Mswati will cancel the arrest warrant.

It is true that King Mswati personally appointed and re-appointed Ramodibedi to the post of Chief Justice and that Ramodibedi has been a loyal and vocal supporter of the King. But, it is not so clear that Ramodibedi still enjoys the King’s favour. The King rules over the judiciary and the Swazi Government which he hand-picks and it is inconceivable that the arrest warrant would have been issued without his permission.

One speculation is that the Chief Justice will be allowed to leave his house at the dead of night and escape into neighbouring South Africa.

Many observers find it hard to imagine that Ramodibedi, a personal appointee of the King, will be allowed to be tried in a court of law. The main charges against him are of abuse of power, but international observers will note that the (for now) alleged abuses were made on behalf of and for the benefit of the King.

If the spotlight is allowed to shine on Ramodibedi, it will shine also on the King.

See also

CJ BID TO CANCEL OWN ARREST WARRANT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/04/cj-bid-to-cancel-own-arrest-warrant.html

 

CJ HAS HISTORY OF ABUSE OF POWER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/04/cj-has-history-of-abuse-of-power.html