Prince
Mahlaba, a senior member of the Swazi Royal
Family who called for journalists who opposed King Mswati III to be killed, has
died.
Mahlaba was
a stanch opponent of democracy in Swaziland / eSwatini where King Mswati rules
as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
In 2010, he
received international condemnation when he said, ‘Journalists
who write bad things about the country will die.’ He made his threat at a Smart
Partnership meeting.
A Times
of Swaziland report
at the time quoted Prince Mahlaba saying, ‘I want
to warn the media to bury things that have the potential of undermining the
country, rather than publish all and everything even when such reports are
harmful to the country’s international image.’
His threat became an international
scandal. The Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) rallied behind the
Swazi media and condemned Mahlaba. Internet sites from every continent carried
news criticising the prince and by extension the whole undemocratic regime in
Swaziland.
The South
Africa National Editors' Forum (Sanef) said
Mahlaba’s accusations against journalists and about how they operated ‘were
outrageous and contemptuously rejected, but the threat to kill journalists who
wrote critically about the governance and leadership of the country was
extremely menacing, designed to intimidate journalists and their publications.’
Prince Mahlaba was an important member
of Liqoqo, the group of traditionalists who advise the King, and was appointed
to the Swaziland Senate by the King. He was also famed for his opposition to
the Swaziland
Constitution that came into place in 2006.
In 2009, the
Times of Swaziland reported
Prince Mahlaba stormed out of a meeting of Liqoqo describing the Swazi
Constitution as ‘rubbish’ because it took powers away from the King. The
newspaper said he reportedly believed the constitution granted people rights to
do as they pleased.
Prince Mahlaba, a soldier by background,
complained to Liqoqo that the constitution took all powers from the King and
vested them upon judges of the High Court.
According to a report in the Times
Sunday, Prince Mahlaba also believed the constitution ‘grants people
absolute rights to misbehave in the name of freedom of expression and get away
with it’.
Called to comment on these allegations
he said the constitution was crafted for the educated elite, saying he was
uneducated, hence the constitution was not meant for him.
In July 2010, Alec Lushaba,
editor of the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King
Mswati himself, asked the King at a press conference if he agreed with comments
made previously by Prince Masitsela (another senior member of the Swazi Royal
Family) that Swaziland needed to review its current political status if it
wanted to meet its stated aim of becoming a ‘first world’ country.
According to a report in the Times
of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom (23 July
2010), the question sparked an angry intervention from Prince Mahlaba.
Prince Mahlaba denounced Lushaba as
‘not Swazi enough’ to know what he was talking about. Prince Mahlaba claimed
that the Swazi people were all behind the present system of government and did
not want change.
When Prince Mahlaba allowed the King to
answer the question, King Mswati said prospects of reviewing the kingdom’s
political system were closed.
The Times reported that Lushaba
told the King that political dissenters were also Swazi people and should be
called so they could tell the King what their problems were.
King Mswati, who has banned political
parties in Swaziland and branded groups who are in opposition to him
terrorists, said dissenters would not be entertained.
Prince Mahlaba, who was born in 1948, died
in South Africa. The cause of death has not been
made public.
See also
Swazi
prince blamed for loan delay
CPJ
attacks ‘death threat’ prince
