POLICE RAID FILM CRITICAL OF KING

Swaziland police broke up a screening of a documentary critical of King Mswati III and detained the owner of the studio.

Swazi police, acting without a warrant or court order, broke up the screening of The King and the People at a studio at the Christian Media Centre in Manzini.

The screening had been organised by the Swaziland United Democratic Front, an organisation campaigning for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

About 50 people had gathered to watch the documentary when police arrived and closed down the screening. They detained the owner of the studio and questioned him for about three hours, according to reports from Swaziland.

The King and the People, made by Simon Bright, is a recently-released documentary that investigates the present situation in Swaziland. It has been shown across the world.

In a preview of the movie, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) said, ‘The film shines a light on a crisis forgotten or misunderstood by many and unravels the reality of the existence, in the 21st century, of a governing system that is based on royal supremacy, greed, power and zero tolerance to fundamental human rights.’

Percy Zvomuya, who reviewed the documentary for OSISA, said, ‘In the movie, there are gritty, frenetic close-up shots of activists on strikes and state thugs beating them up. The grit is placed side by side with the rather drowsy shots of talking heads: an academic, a teacher, an activist and a politician deconstructing the crisis.’

He added, ‘But connecting all of this is a sad story of a country (or half a country?) presided over by an elite that controls the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, business and the media. A scene in which the king is seen having 'consultations' with his subjects gives new meaning to the phrase “bootlicking”.’

The breaking up of the public gathering is not the first of its kind in Swaziland. In April 2013 armed police physically stopped people from entering a public meeting at a restaurant that was called to discuss the undemocratic nature of the impending national election. Police said it ‘presented a threat to national security’.

In March 2013, riot police with batons halted a prayer meeting in Manzini because it had been organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), an unregistered organisation in the kingdom.  

In February 2013 about 60 armed police broke up another prayer meeting, this time at the Our Lady of Assumption Catholic cathedral in Manzini.  Police said the prayer was a political meeting, organised to disrupt the election that was later held in September.

See also

POLICE SAY PRAYERS WERE POLITICAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/police-say-prayers-were-political_823.html

RIOT POLICE FORCE HALT TO PRAYER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/riot-police-force-halt-to-prayer.html

POLICE BLOCK PUBLIC MEETING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/armed-police-block-public-meeting.html

FILM SHOWS DARK SIDE OF SWAZILAND

New film shows dark side of Swaziland, but also light at the end of the tunnel

Kenworthy News Media, November 13, 2013

SOURCE

 

The newly released film “The King and the People”, directed by Zimmedia owner Simon Bright, gives an historic insight into the tiny absolute kingdom of Swaziland, and it shows the brutal nature of the regime that runs the country, as well as the pervasive corruption, lack of media and other freedoms, poverty and inequality, writes Kenworthy News Media.

But the film also shows the growing hope of a more democratic and equal society that is epitomized by the country’s democratic movement, unions and civil society. 

Absolute monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland, a personal trustee of a national fund of ten billion dollars who has a personal fortune of 100 million dollars, is one of the richest leaders in Africa but rules a country where two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, many on food aid.

“You want to feed your family, but you can’t – there’s no money and no jobs,” as a woman in Swaziland’s rural areas says in the film.

“These gross inequalities are the result of a political system in crisis,” the film concludes – a political system where political parties are banned and manifestations of opposition to the regime brutally repressed, where farmers can be evicted without compensation on the whim of the king, and where few outside the royal family and their supporters benefit from Swaziland’s agricultural and mineral wealth.

Historically, however, many Swazis have been reluctant to openly oppose the monarchy. “We have been born out of a society that encourages you not to challenge, not to question, keep quit, don’t be problematic. Then you will survive” as Swaziland United Democratic Front Coordinator Wandile Dludlu says in the film. “At the hands of an oppressor the best weapon is the mind of the oppressed.”

But there is a sense of change driven by the growing desire for a democratic form of government, the film says. Demonstrations and strikes continue and calls for democracy and socio-economic justice are driven by trade unions, progressive political parties and civil society. People everywhere are demanding change.

“People are now willing to speak out. People are talking about the system of governance, of this year’s elections and the need to open up for a multi-party dispensation and the activeness of political parties,” says Lomcebo Dlamini from the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations.

The film will premiere in Denmark (having already premiered in several other countries) on November 17 at Africa Contact’s offices in Copenhagen, where PUDEMO President Mario Masuku will speak about the political situation in Swaziland. Read more here (in Danish)  or here (English Google translation).