SWAZI EDITOR AND LAWYER JAILED

Swaziland human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu, the editor of the Nation magazine, have been jailed on remand for seven days on contempt of court charges.

The Chief Justice of Swaziland Michael Ramodibedi heard their cases in chambers away from the public. The men’s lawyer Mandla Mkhwanazi called the proceeding a ‘kangaroo court’.

The two men are accused of contempt of court for writing articles in the Nation, the only magazine of political commentary in Swaziland, 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.

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.

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

SWAZI LAWYER AND THE SEDITION LAW

When Thulani Maseko, Swaziland’s prominent human rights lawyer, appeared in court in leg-irons to apply for bail on a sedition charge, he said he wanted to go to trial because the charge was meant to ‘intimidate and silence me for advocating and promoting basic and fundamental human rights for citizens of Swaziland’.

He never spoke a truer word.

Maseko is accused of breaking the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act, 1938 (SSAA). According to the Swazi state, Maseko spoke about a failed attempt to blow up a bridge near one of the palaces of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, in which two alleged bombers died.

Maseko is alleged to have said, ‘MJ Dlamini and Jack Govender died for the liberation of this country. One day the Lozitha Bridge will be called MJ and Govender Bridge.’

Apparently it is this statement that the Swazi state says is sedition.

I think most objective people would dispute that it is sedition. A good working definition of ‘sedition’ is that it is an ‘illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government’.

Whatever you might think about Maseko’s statement it is hard to see it as an incitement to ‘overthrow the government’.

The problem for Maseko is that Swaziland’s SSAA has a much broader definition of sedition. It is not really about legislating against sedition; its intention is to silence all dissenting voices.

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in its handbook for media practitioners called the act ‘a draconian piece of legislation, the primary purpose of which is to provide for the suppression and punishment of sedition, that is criticism of the King and the Swaziland government’.

Here’s how section 3 of the SSAA defines a ‘seditious intention’. It is an intention to:

- bring the King into hatred or contempt, or to excite disaffection against the King, his heirs, his successors and the government of Swaziland;

- excite the citizens and inhabitants of Swaziland to ‘procure the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter in Swaziland as by law established’;

- bring the Swaziland justice administration system into hatred, contempt or disaffection;

- raise discontent amongst the citizens and inhabitants of Swaziland; or

- promote ‘feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Swaziland’.

Under that section just about any dissenting comment can be sedition if it raises ‘discontent amongst the citizens and inhabitants of Swaziland’.

It would seem that Maseko is guilty as charged under the act.

I’m no lawyer but I suspect that Maseko’s defence would be that the new Swaziland Constitution allows for freedom of speech (S24) and the constitution also states ‘if any law is inconsistent with this constitution that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void’ (S2).

Or put another way. The constitution overrules the SSAA – Maseko has no case to answer.

FEAR OF MORE SWAZILAND ARRESTS

More arrests are expected following the jailings of Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and Swaziland’s most prominent human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko.

PUDEMO says that warrants have been issued or are about to be issued on a number of its prominent members.

PUDEMO is banned in Swaziland and was branded a terrorist organisation by Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister. Members and supporters of PUDEMO face up to 25 years imprisonment under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

In a media statement PUDEMO has named eight individuals who it says are under imminent threat of arrest. The names include prominent trade unionists in Swaziland and youth leaders.

PUDEMO is calling on the international community to put more pressure on the Swazi regime.

‘The government of Swaziland is aware that they are swimming against the tide. They are losing the grip on the masses. They are applying scare tactics and intimidation. And they want to make sure that when political parties are unbanned, the movement of the people is totally disorganised and in shambles.’