Masuku, who is President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), appeared in court on remand yesterday. After the hearing Masuku’s lawyer Thulani Maseko announced that the new charge had been laid against Masuku.
This is the third charge Masuku has faced since he was arrested the day after Swaziland’s illegally appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini declared PUDEMO (and three other political formations) to be a ‘terrorist’ organisation. This meant that any member or supporter of PUDEMO could be charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
When they first arrested him, police charged Masuku with possessing information about how to make explosives. When they found no evidence to support this, the police changed the charge to supporting terrorism by making a public statement at a funeral. Now, according to a report in the Times of Swaziland today(9 December 2008), the police are claiming that the remarks made by Masuku amount to sedition.
In a further development supporters of Masuku who wanted to petition the Swazi High Court yesterday to allow people to visit him in prison were thwarted because no judges were available to hear the case.
Masuku is due to appear in court again next Monday.
On all occasions the police were ignoring Swaziland’s Constitution which allows for freedom of speech, freedom of the media and freedom of association.
The most recent outrage happened last Wednesday (3 December 2008). The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) reports that ‘state police stormed a MISA training workshop for media personnel and threatened to disrupt it if they were not allowed to monitor it.’
The two-day workshop on media management was held in Matsapha, outside Manzini, the second city facilitated by the Southern African Institute for Media Entrepreneurship Development, from Botswana, in partnership with the MISA Swaziland chapter.
According to MISA, ‘Plainclothes security officers arrived and demanded to be allowed to monitor the discussions. MISA Swaziland’s Information Officer, Michael Motsa, who was on the ground, explained to the police that the workshop was open only to media personnel who included editors and marketing managers.
‘Motsa further explained that the workshop was neither political nor infringed any statute law of Swaziland as it was educational and aimed at only equipping the participants with managerial and marketing skills for their media houses. He said he saw no reason why it should be monitored by the police.’
After a 10-minute discussion, the police backed down and left promising to come back if their seniors insisted on them sitting in during the workshop. However, they did not return for the rest of the day.
The workshop, which was not advertised, involved a few media senior personnel and it was arranged through email and telephone contacts. In a statement, MISA Swaziland National Director, Comfort Mabuza, expressed shock at the police action to threaten a professional training workshop. He said this underscored the government’s frustration at the growing dissenting voices on the ground such that they can even regard lobby groups like MISA as threats to state security.
Supporters of the Swaziland pro-democracy leader arrested on a terrorism charge are to petition the Swazi High Court to be allowed to visit him in jail.
Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) was arrested the day after PUDEMO was declared to be a ‘terrorist’ organisation by Swaziland’s illegally appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini.
The Voice of America radio station is reporting today (8 December 2008) that Masuku is due to appear in court today for a remand hearing. Supporters of PUDEMO are going to try to get the court to rule that people be allowed to visit Masuku while he is in jail. Until now the prison authorities have restricted visitors, including church leaders and a foreign diplomat.
Mphandlana Shongwe, a founding member of PUDEMO, told VOA that Masuku would be appearing on remand for the third time. ‘And also there will be an urgent application to allow us, members of his organization to see the president behind bars because as of now it is only his close family members and lawyers that are allowed to see him. The rest of the people that he is leading are not allowed to see him, including diplomats,’ he said.
VOA reports that Swaziland’ new Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has warned foreign diplomats not to get involved with the people he has branded ‘terrorists’.
Shongwe also said church members were not allowed to visit Masuku. ‘These members from different denominations tried to visit the president to give him a spiritual encouragement, but they were turned down by the prison authorities. The reason given for that was that everybody who associates himself with members of this banned organization is indirectly or directly supporting terrorism. So they were viewed as people support terrorism.’
Shongwe denied that PUDEMO is a terrorist organization. On the contrary, he said PUDEMO is fighting for democracy.
‘First of all not only my organization, but most of the organizations in this country are calling for a constitutional multi-party democracy where our king will be protected from the daily politics by having him as a ceremonial leader. On top of that, the government has passed a law called Terrorism Act that resulted in the banning of about four organizations. Our president has been locked up for having spoken words in a funeral, and he is purported to have supported terrorism,’ Shongwe said.
He said many organizations and individuals worldwide have joined in the call for Masuku's release from prison.
‘Quite a number of people are directly communicating with the head of state, the king, that our president should be released.’
Click below to hear an interview with Mphandlana Shongwe broadcast by Voice of America.
Twice as many HIV-positive people in Swaziland are in need of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs than previously thought.
This has highlighted the inadequacy of the Swazi Government in dealing with this health crisis.
According to a report from the news agency IRIN/ PlusNews,the United Nations AIDS organisation UNAIDSsays the number of people in Swaziland needing ARVs has almost doubled from 34,000 to 62,000. In a kingdom where 26 percent of sexually active adults are HIV positive, the new numbers will require the health ministry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the AIDS sector to devise new strategies to rapidly scale up treatment, IRIN/PlusNews reports..
Dr Velephi Okello, the ARV therapy coordinator at Swaziland's National AIDS Programme (SNAP), said that the new figure presented a significant challenge to a resource-limited nation like Swaziland.
Hannie Dlamini, founder of the Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation (SASO),the kingdom's first group for people living with HIV AIDS, said even at the current level of about 30,000 people on ARVs, the government's treatment programme appeared to be under strain.
‘There is a shortage of ARVs from time to time, from bottlenecks in the distribution system. People's schedules for taking the drugs are thrown off, and this can make the drugs ineffective for them.’
According to Dlamini and local press reports, the government hospital in Mbabane, the capital city's main ARV distribution point, periodically runs out of the drugs.
Last year, 8,000 people – almost a quarter of all patients on ARVs - dropped out of the treatment programme. A health ministry survey found that occasional drug shortages were not the only reason; a lack of health facilities distributing the drugs and inadequate adherence counselling were also obstacles to staying on treatment.
‘Distance to hospitals was given as the main reason people became defaulters [stopped taking their drugs]. They either couldn't get to the ARV distribution centres at hospitals in the towns, or they didn't have money for transport,’ said Okello.
Health officials estimate that by 2009 more than 200,000 people, almost a quarter of the Swaziland population, will be HIV positive and require monitoring; of the 16,700 new HIV infections anticipated in 2009, around 3,000 will be children.
An international petition to protest against the arrest of Swaziland pro-democracy activist Mario Masuku has been launched on the Internet.
Masuku, who is the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), was arrested the day after Swaziland’s illegally appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini branded four political formations (including PUDEMO)as terrorist organisations.
Under a new Suppression ofTerrorism Act being a member or supporter of a ‘terrorist’ organisation could get you up to 25 years of jail time.
The petition reads:
‘Mario Masuku is the President of the Peoples’ United Democratic Movement - Insika Yenkhululeko YeMaswati - of Swaziland. For 25 years this organisation has been banned in Swaziland because political parties are illegal. PUDEMO has called for multi-party democracy since its formation, it believes a government should be of the people and for the people.
‘After 25 years of struggle the royal family (the Dlamini clan of king Mswati III) has now forced government to label this organisation "terrorist" and Mario Masuku has been detained without charge since Saturday November 15th.
‘We of Swaziland and the international community call for the immediate release of Mario Masuku. We urge the government of Swaziland to begin sincere negotiations with civil society, political organisations, and unions so that all in the nation can prosper and reach their potential. We are shocked that the king has declared war on the people of Swaziland. We do attribute the escalating violence to his decision to use force rather than dialogue.’
