There is a secret plan in Swaziland / eSwatini to
set up a National
Intelligence Agency, an investigative website has
reported.
The new body would report directly to King Mswati
III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, the Swaziland News
said.
The former National
Commissioner of Police and present senator Isaac Magagula is said to be
spearheading the move.
The new body would work
closely with the police and correctional services in Swaziland which make up
the kingdom’s present civilian security services, the Swaziland News reported.
The website reported
Government Spokesperson Percy Simelane saying it was normal for countries
within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to have national
intelligence agencies. He added he had not been told of any developments in
Swaziland.
The website reported that
‘sources within the security forces’ told it that in November 2018 Senator
Edgar Hillary sought an appointment with the new Prime Minister Ambrose
Mandvulo Dlamini to convince him to establish the NIA ‘and that he [Edgar
Hillary] was the rightful person to head it’.
No details of the
objectives of the new NIA have come to light. In other countries, intelligence
agencies are run by the government (often in secret) to collect information in
support of national security and military objectives.
One of the most famous
intelligence agencies was South Africa’s Bureau of
State Security (BOSS) which operated during the apartheid years.
There is a long history of
police spying in Swaziland. Police routinely video legal public demonstrations
and protest marches. They then use the information to deprive people of college
scholarships, jobs in the army, police, and correctional services or promotions
in government departments, the Swaziland
News reported in July 2018.
In September 2017 the
Sunday edition of the Swazi Observer
newspaper reported police in Swaziland disguised themselves as news reporters
at a march of public servants in Mbabane.
It called it ‘spying’ and
said it had happened before at other public demonstrations, ‘They [police] are
always plain clothed and carry traditional journalistic tools including cameras
and notebooks,’ the newspaper reported.
It added police took video
and still photographs of marchers. The newspaper speculated that these might be
used to later track down and intimidate participants. The march was legal. A
police spokesman said they were not spying because the march took place in a
public place.
In June 2017 some senior
politicians in Swaziland reported fears their phones were being tapped.
One also thought his car might be bugged.
In July 2013 it was
reported that police in Swaziland were spying on the kingdom’s members of
parliament. One officer disguised in plain clothes was
thrown out of a workshop for MPs and one MP reported his phone had been
bugged. Ntondozi MP Peter Ngwenya told the House of Assembly at the time
that MPs lived in fear because there was constant police presence, in
particular from officers in the Intelligence Unit.
In Swaziland, political
parties are banned from taking part in elections and King Mswati rues as an
absolute monarch. Pro-democracy campaigners are routinely prosecuted under the Suppression
of Terrorism Act and the Sedition
and Subversive Activities Act.
See also
Top
Swazi Politicians’ ‘Phones Bugged’
State
Police Spy On Swazi MPs
Police
Spies Infiltrate Media
Swaziland
‘Becoming Military State’
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/swaziland-becoming-military-state.html
