KING’S NEWSPAPER GIVES LGBTI SUPPORT

In an unprecedented and unexpected move in Swaziland, one of King Mswati III’s newspapers has published a supplement that offered support for LGBTI people. 

Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is fiercely traditional. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people are discriminated against in all walks of life and their relationships and acts are outlawed. 

The Sunday Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, devoted much of its SCENE supplement, aimed at young adults, to the topic last week (22 April 2018). 

Nokwanda Sibandze, who edited the supplement wrote, ‘SCENE set out, as usual, to find people who are proud and open about being gay or even being lesbians. And to our misfortune, most of them could not speak out on the issue as they had their reservations on why they are not comfortable enough to share their story with the rest of the country.  

‘I would honestly say this was one of the hardest and saddest issues I had to do as people in the LGBT[I] community shared why they were not comfortable to share their story.  

‘Some said they have been bullied just because of their sexual orientation while others simply said they are not accepted by their family members so they would not be able to be part of the issue.’ 

Sibandze added, ‘Some were brave enough to share their story and pictures as well. Melusi Simelane, who is an activist for the rights of people in the LGBT[I] community, shared his story and views on the issue. Melusi is also a world traveller who attends meetings and global seminars that speak on rights of LGBT[I] people in the world. He is the communications officer at Rock of Hope and continually strives and fights for the rights of his peers in the country.

‘We also talked to Luyanda Mndzebele a young man who is proudly gay. He says it is not fair that they have to be accepted when everyone else is said to be living right. 

‘We also discuss same sex parenting. As many same sex couples wish and also look forward to having their own children in the future.’

The supplement is unusual because generally LGBTI people are vilified in Swaziland and subjected to abuse in their daily lives and from police and medical workers. 

Pitty Dludlu, a member of the LGBTI community, told the annual Joshua Mzizi Memorial Lecture held in Ezulwini in December 2017 they faced a number of issues that included access to health care without the stigma and prejudice.

The Observer on Saturday reported at the time, ‘Dludlu further decried the service they are subjected to in the hands of the police and health care workers as the worse abusers of the LGBTI community. The abusive situation is worse at the bus terminal station to the LGBTI community. 

‘Other challenges are that they are denied scholarship due to their sexual orientation. Dludlu further pointed that “qualified transgender community are unemployed as they are told point blank that there is no need to proceed with an interview once they see their sexual orientation and told embarrassingly that they don’t hire such people”’. 

In a review of human rights in Swaziland for 2017, just published, the US State Department noted, ‘While colonial-era legislation against sodomy remains on the books, no penalties are specified, and there were no arrests. The government asserted that same-sex relationships and acts were illegal but did not prosecute any cases during the year. 

‘Societal discrimination against LGBTI persons was prevalent, and LGBTI persons generally concealed their sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTI persons who were open regarding their sexual orientation and relationships faced censure and exclusion from the chiefdom-based patronage system, which could result in eviction from one’s home. 

‘Chiefs, pastors, and government officials criticized same-sex sexual conduct as neither morally Swazi nor Christian. LGBTI advocacy organizations had trouble registering with the government. One such organization, House of Pride, was under the umbrella of another organization that dealt with HIV/AIDS. It was difficult to determine the extent of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity because victims were not likely to come forward, and most LGBTI persons were not open regarding their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

‘On July 23, a third-year University of Swaziland student committed suicide, reportedly because he found himself isolated after his family rejected him due to his sexual orientation.’

There is a long history of discrimination against LGBTI people in Swaziland. In May 2016, Rock of Hope, which campaigns for LGBTI equality in Swaziland, reported to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review on Swaziland that laws, social stigma and prejudice prevented LGBTI organisations from operating freely.

The report, presented jointly with three South African-based organisations, stated, in Swaziland sexual health rights of LGBTI were not protected and there was inequality in the access to health care.

The report added, ‘LGBTIs are discriminated and condemned openly by society. This is manifest in negative statements uttered by influential people in society e.g., religious, traditional and political leaders. Traditionalists and conservative Christians view LGBTIs as against Swazi tradition and religion. There have been several incidents where traditionalists and religious leaders have issued negative statements about lesbians. 

 

‘Human rights abuses and violations against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex population continue to go undocumented, unreported, unprosecuted and not addressed.’

It added, ‘There is no legislation recognizing LGBTIs or protecting the right to a non-heterosexual orientation and gender identity and as a result LGBTI cannot be open about their orientation or gender identity for fear of rejection and discrimination.’

HOOP (House of Our Pride), a support group for LGBTI people, reported to the United Nation in 2011, ‘It is a common scene for LGBTI to be verbally insulted by by-passers in public places. [There is] defamatory name calling and people yelling out to see a LGBTI person’s reproductive part are some of the issues facing LGBTI in Swaziland.’

See also

LESBIAN AND GAY MURDERS IN SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/03/lesbian-and-gay-murders-in-swaziland.html 

SWAZI MINISTER LIES TO UN ON GAYS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/swazi-minister-lies-to-un-on-gays.html

GAY PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/gay-prejudice-rife-in-swaziland.html

COMMUNITY POLICE BANISH GAY MEN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/community-police-banish-gay-men.html

NO RIGHTS FOR GAYS: JUSTICE MINISTER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-rights-for-gays-justice-minister.html

PRESS VILIFIED OVER LESBIAN’S DEATH

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/press-vilified-over-lesbians-death.html

EX-MP SUES FOR ‘JAIL ASSAULT’

A former member of the Swaziland parliament is suing the kingdom’s jail services, alleging he was assaulted while an inmate at a correctional facility.

Charles Myeza says officers at the Bhalekane Correctional Centre squeezed his private parts and smacked his buttocks.

He is not the first former inmate at Bhalekane to allege to have been assaulted in this way.

Myeza has filed a claim at the Swazi High Court and with another former inmate is seeking E600,000 (US$44,000) damages.

The Sunday Observer newspaper (22 October 2017) in Swaziland revealed some of the contents of Myeza’s letter of demand against His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS), seven correctional facility employees, the  Commissioner General  Mzuthini Ntshangase, the National Commissioner of Police Isaac Magagula and the Swaziland Government.

It concerns an alleged incident at Bhalekane on 12 July 2017 at about10-11pm by law enforcement officials who raided dormitories.

The letter reads, ‘As such the client was stripped naked, smacked on the buttocks and had his genitals squeezed by officers, in furtherance of a common purpose to violate the right to dignity. 

‘Such wrongful conduct was conducted by the officers acting in the furtherance of a common purpose with the commissioner of the Correctional Services and acting within the scope of their employment herein, the conduct herein attracts vicarious liabilities herein.’ 

Myeza is not the only former inmate at Bhalekane to allege being sexually abused by warders. In August 2017 the Sunday Observer reported three former inmates alleged they were stripped and had their genitals groped. One said a warder pulled the pubic hair on his testicles. 

Warders were searching inmates for illegal drugs, the newspaper said.

One former inmate told the newspaper he had been kicked in the head by one of the officers. ‘He kept on banging my defenceless head on the ground with his soccer boot. I begged for mercy and he told me that I do not deserve mercy since I was there (jail) to pay for the crimes I committed,’ he said. 

In July 2017, the newspaper reported an entire dormitory of prisoners was ordered to strip naked during a drug search.

The newspaper reported, ‘The officers proceeded to search their dorms for narcotics (dagga) and money.  “They were wearing surgical gloves, ordered us to strip naked and face the wall as they wanted to do a strip search and they wanted things like dagga, cigarettes and money; which we thought was normal,” he said. “However they then started to smack us on our buttocks,” [a former inmate] said, adding how this was closely followed by the use of fists.

‘“I had my private parts squeezed like one does when milking a cow,” he said.’

The HMCS has denied all the allegations. 

See also

JAILERS ‘SEX ASSAULT’ ON MALE INMATES

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/jailers-sex-assault-on-male-inmates.html

 

PRISONERS STRIPPED NAKED, ASSAULTED

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/prisoners-stripped-naked-assaulted.html

KING’S PAPER QUESTIONS ABILITY OF JUDGE

A Swaziland newspaper has reported criticisms of the competence of a judge at a time when one editor and a writer are in jail awaiting contempt of court charges for criticising the kingdom’s judiciary. 

The Sunday Observer reported criticisms that Mpendulo Simelane, aged 39, who was appointed to the High Court bench in February 2014, was not properly qualified to be a High Court judge.

The Observer is in effect owned by King Mswati III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The King chooses the judges in his kingdom and the article could be seen as an indirect criticism of the King’s decision.

Welcome Dlamini wrote in the Observer under the headline Mpendulo Simelane: Is he fit to Judge? ‘However, his [Simelane’s] appointment has been met with a lot of misgivings by the legal fraternity which feels he is not yet ripe for the position. The Sunday Observer has it in authority that even some of the judges are not happy with Mpendulo Simelane being appointed to be part of them.’

He added, ‘An impeccable source within the judiciary said it was well known that Simelane’s appointment had not gone down well with his colleagues even though there was nothing they could do about it.

‘“Some of the judges feel he does not yet qualify to be a judge. As a judge, you have to write judgments that will stand their ground throughout the world. Judgments are important because they become a point of reference for other countries. Is Simelane fit to write such judgments? Some of the judges don’t think so,” said the source.’

‘Further, said the source: “The judges would have preferred that the post should have been advertised because there are a lot of lawyers and magistrates who are senior and have the necessary qualifications to be appointed judges. With Simelane, he did not compete with anyone for the position. It was sort of a reward.” 

‘Constitutionally, a person has to meet one of three requirements in order to be appointed judge of the kingdom’s High Court. That person should either have been “a legal practitioner, barrister or advocate of not less than ten years practice in Swaziland or any part of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland”.

‘Or, that person should have served as “a judge of a superior court of unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in any part of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland for a period of not less than five years”.

‘Alternatively, that individual should have either been a legal practitioner, barrister or advocate and a judge of a superior court as stated above for a combined period of such practice and service of not less than ten years.

‘Judge Mpendulo Simelane, according to another source within the legal fraternity, does not meet any of these requirements.

‘“Yes, he was admitted as an attorney 10 years ago but he served for only five years before he was appointed registrar of the High Court and that position cannot be classified as being a legal practitioner,” said the source.’

The publication by the Observer of direct questions about the competence of a judge comes two weeks after Bheki Makhubu, the editor of the Nation magazine and human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko were arrested and charged with writing and publishing articles critical of Swaziland Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. 

The two men have been remanded in custody awaiting trial.

Their arrest has led to an outcry across the world with many human rights organisations calling for their immediate release. Amnesty International has named both men ‘prisoners of conscience.’

 

Earlier this year, the Sunday Observer was forced to publish an abject apology after it published a criticism of the judiciary. In its apology the newspaper said. ‘[It] is not the intention of the Swazi Observer and its newspapers to disregard the independence of the judiciary, but to be seen to assisting it uphold the rule of law in the country’.

See also

CALLS TO RELEASE CRITICS GROWS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/calls-to-release-jailed-critics-grow.html

 

AMNESTY ATTACKS SWAZI JUSTICE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/amnesty-attacks-swazi-justice.html

 

EDITOR APPEARS IN COURT IN LEG IRONS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/03/editor-appears-in-court-in-leg-irons.html

EDITOR CHARGED WITH CRITICISING JUDGE

A human rights lawyer and the editor of Swaziland’s only political comment magazine have been charged with contempt of court.

 

Lawyer Thulani Maseko and Nation editor Bheki Makhubu were alleged to have written separate articles in the magazine criticising the circumstances surrounding the case of Chief Government Vehicle Inspector, Bhantshana Gwebu. Gwebu had been arrested and charged with contempt of court after he arrested a driver of High Court Judge Esther Ota. Gwebu spent nine days at the Sidwashini Correctional facility before he was released on E15,000 (US$1,500) bail.

The arrests highlight the difficulty media have in commenting on current events in Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Makhubu was also convicted in April 2013, along with the Nation magazine publishers, Swaziland Independent Publishers, of ‘scandalising the court’ after two articles criticising the judiciary were published in 2009 and 2010. Makhubu and the publisher were fined a total of E400,000 (US$40,000) by the Swaziland High Court, of which half had to be paid within three days or Makhubu would immediately be sent to jail for two years.  Both Makhubu and the publisher have appealed the conviction.

The Sunday Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, ran an apology for its own coverage of the Gwebu case, but its editor was not arrested.

The apology said, ‘… it is not the intention of the Swazi Observer and its newspapers to disregard the independence of the judiciary, but to be seen to assisting it to uphold the rule of law in the country’.

See also

SWAZI GOVT HUMILIATED IN HIGH COURT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/swazi-govt-humiliated-in-high-court.html

 

JUDGE ATTACKS SWAZI PRESS FREEDOM

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/top-judge-attacks-press-freedom.html