Nkhambule who gained international attention with his comments about Swaziland’s ruling elites, and in particular King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, used a speech at a World Press Freedom Day gathering to draw attention to the way the press are cowed by the king.
He said, ‘It is assumed that the interests of the king are the interests of the Swazi people. Everybody else in Swaziland is a messenger (PM, cabinet, MPs, Committees, Parastatals and their Boards).’
He said the king and the leadership of Swaziland works on the guiding principle that ‘a Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die’. This is done to maintain the current political set-up, he said
He went on, ‘the king is the only one who exercises choice in this kingdom in as far as the utilization of the country’s resources is concerned’.
He said media practitioners who bring this to the attention of the reader or listener are rebuked in a covert manner for being irresponsible.
‘In the case of Swaziland, the attention of the media should be on government (especially for anything bad) and other committees appointed by the king and not or never on the king, who has all the power and money in Swaziland to facilitate the transfer of power to an informed majority, so that it is able to address its concerns without fear or favour.’
He went on, ‘When the king decides, for reasons best known to himself, to put the constitution aside in order to meet certain objectives that are known to himself, the masses should not be told that His Majesty is in the wrong, but it should be Minister so and so or, that particular committee has ill-advised the king.’
He said when the king unconstitutionally appoints a prime minister (as he did with Barnabas Dlamini, the present PM) members of the press are not allowed to bring this to the attention of the people.
Instead journalistswrite about church, football, school children and sex, and not about what Swaziland needs to do as a nation to help itself.
He said, ‘Anybody writing to inspire Swazis to believe in themselves is a danger to the leadership because we should all look up to the king even for things that we can do much better than the king.’
MC, Hon Minister, Media practitioners, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman.
On this day, members of communities that have been conscientised about the important role of the media and those that are media practitioners under favourable conditions as well as those that practice under dangerous conditions come together, to reflect on their achievements and challenges they have faced in the past 12 months. I am aware that in our midst are those who occasionally benefit from this profession. Naturally, those that belong to this profession have a duty to inform, educate the masses and influence decision makers to arrive at a just decision on any matter of interest to the public.
When I was given the opportunity to write on any matter that would be of interest to the public with a view to generate a healthy debate on a weekly basis, I had some difficulty in making up my mind because I was quite aware of a number of issues which I felt needed a lot of government attention. Most of these were sectional problems (not of interest to the general public). I remember picking up the issue of untrained Swazis who had been lured into Sugar cane farming by the Swazi government with a view to help Swazis fight poverty.
These farmers were having big problems with the financiers. The intended outcome of my analysis was to bring to the attention of the Swazi people the fact that their government was not of any help in addressing some of their concerns (if not all of their concerns). It was my belief that when government’s lack of appropriate action, to the concerns of the people of Swaziland, was exposed, the people in government would be under some sort of pressure to bring their heads together and come up with some form of intervention.
Instead it was the Swazi Bank’s management that felt the heat and the bank, instead of engaging government about a possible intervention, approached me about the damage my analysis was doing to the bank’s reputation which it had worked hard to rebuild. I had to go back to the drawing board to think carefully how to get the desirable outcome. Fortunately for me the Lord intervened. I realized I had to talk to every Swazi not just a section of the population. The revelation given to me was to bring to the attention of Swazis why we (Swazi people) were having great difficulty in addressing the socio-economic challenges.
It had been made clear to me that what was lacking was the orderly transfer of power from the King to an informed majority. In this country it is the king who has all the power to allocate the resources of this country (money, time and people) in a way that best serves his interests. It is assumed that the interests of the King are the interests of the Swazi people. Everybody else in Swaziland is a messenger (PM, cabinet, MPs, Committees, Parastatals and their Boards).
Having realized the enormous task at hand to share my revelation with the masses, I had to convey the message with consistency, with the intention of getting Swazis to put their heads together and do something about it so that they could help themselves. The leadership is working on a guiding principle being: A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die. This is done to maintain the current political set-up. Those whose profession is to inform, educate and influence the masses to make informed decisions should neither write nor speak on air what Swazis need to do in order to tackle the source of the challenges facing this country because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die.
When the HIV/AIDS pandemic pounced on the Swazi people, the leadership of this country did not know what to do but was quite aware that the people were looking up to it for solution. Instead of coming with a visible way, demonstrating commitment to fight the scourge, it could only come up with a slogan “I HIV/AIDS yindzaba yetfu sonkhe” (HIV is our matter) because A Swazi should live in ignorance and I ignorance he should die.
Whilst the King is the only one who exercises choice in this Kingdom in as far as the utilization of the country’s resources is concerned, the people of Swaziland have to make gross mistakes with their lives for survival because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die. The leadership of this country orders the Swazi people to hold elections without being taught what a general election is all about because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die.
The media practitioner who uses his/her pen to bring to the attention of the reader or listener is rebuked in a covert manner for being irresponsible because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die. In the case of Swaziland, the attention of the media should be on government (especially for anything bad) and other committees appointed by the King and not or never on the King, who has all the power and money in Swaziland to facilitate the transfer of power to an informed majority, so that it is able to address its concerns without fear or favour.
The criticism of ministers and government is often tolerated because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die. When the King decides, for reasons best known to himself, to put the constitution aside in order to meet certain objectives that are known to himself, the masses should not be told that His Majesty is in the wrong, but it should be Minister so and so or, that particular committee has ill-advised the king, because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die.
When the King pushes a man into parliament and recalls another one for his chosen Prime minister, in complete violation of the constitution, members of the press are not to bring this to the attention of the people of Swaziland because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die.
Media practitioners should write about church, football, school children, sex, MPs etc not about what we need to do as a nation to help ourselves and our children. Anybody writing to inspire Swazis to believe in themselves is a danger to the leadership because we should all look up to the King even for things that we can do much better than the King. I have often heard people saying those who like to keep power to themselves use the same manual for tactics. Leaders are often at war with the press most oftenly for publishing the truth at the wrong time (when they are in power) especially when it comes to poor utilization of resources.
Had it not been for the Times of Swaziland we would not have been aware of the purchase of cars direct from Deutchland, celebration’s costs, but again as Swazis we are not expected to see the link between these expenditures and the failure of His Majesty’s government to provide free primary education because A Swazi should live in ignorance and in ignorance he should die.
I was not aware of the arsenals that the leadership had at its disposal until I took up this call to educate, inform and influence the masses. Now I know that other than the Intelligence branch there are chiefs, princes and princesses, regiments, employers (private and public) and many more, all at the leadership’s disposal. It can only be through truthful information dissemination that people get inspired to make calls for free press , political and economic transformation. There is no substitute for a free press. It is a pre-requisite for a better and safer Swaziland. Without a free press we shall have to use other methods like Town criers to keep the masses informed so as to take appropriate action. As you read this article the space I used to have in the local press has been removed without any explanation because “might is right” in this Kingdom.
Sunday 3 May is World Press Freedom Day, a Unesco supported annual event to draw attention to the role of news media in democratic societies.
The day is also used as an opportunity to highlight media freedom violations across the world. There will be a number of events in Africa to mark the day.
In Swaziland it is an opportunity to reflect on how media freedom has been under attack during the past year. Here are some of the major low lights in Swaziland since May 2008. You might like to get a hot drink before you read on: it’s a very long list. Click on the links for more details.
Swazi senators get select committee to charge newspapers with contempt of parliament after reports appear of a fight in public between two senators. Link
Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister, told the Swazi House of Assembly that his government supports free speech, ‘But where such speech corrupts or incites violence or civil disorder, our government will act to stop it.’ Link
Former Swazi cabinet minister Mfomfo Nkhambule, who writes a weekly column for the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, is threatened by police, and expelled from his local regiment for writing articles deemed by the ruling elite to be critical of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Link
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland chapter reports that Swaziland’s media freedom is under attack like never before. It issued 15 ‘alerts’ about violations of media freedom in the first two months of this year (2009). Usually, MISA doesn’t expect to issue 15 alerts in a whole year. The violations were mainly around harassment of journalists, censorship, intimidation and assault of media persons. Link
The US State Department in its annual Country Report on Swaziland reported that during the past year the Swaziland attorney general and the prime minister warned journalists and diplomats against making statements that could be interpreted as seditious. It noted that journalists were threatened, harassed, assaulted, and detained during the year. Link
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) places Swaziland in 147th place in the world when it comes to freedom of the press. Swaziland Government spokesperson Macanjana Motsa tries to rubbish the report in the same week that the illegally-appointed prime minister Barnabas Dlamini told journalists that if they criticise King Mswati III’s recent speech to parliament they will face sedition charges. Link
A journalist was harassed and barred from reporting the speech of King Mswati III at the opening of the Swaziland Parliament because she is a woman. Link 1Link 2
Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed prime minister tells Swazi journalists they have nothing to fear from him and they will enjoy media freedom while he is PM. But, as Newswatch India noted, ‘in the same breath, the prime minister banned the media from writing about political parties which the government does not recognise. These parties include the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) whose leader, Mario Masuku, is currently in jail for allegedly supporting terrorism.’ Link
Two new magazines published in Swaziland are threatened with closure because they have not been registered by the government. Link
The Swazi Government wants to extend its censorship of the media to the Internet. Already newspapers and broadcast media are subject to censorship (and self-censorship) by government and other organs of the ruling elite. Now the Swaziland Attorney General Majahenkhaba Dlamini is looking to get a website from the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) closed down. Link
The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, in an editorial comment says, ‘Constitution or no constitution, the days of the little freedom of speech we have left in this country are numbered,’ after its columnistMfomfo Nkhambule was told to watch his mouth. Police say his writing is now bordering on Subversive acts. In short, he has been warned against expressing his opinion on how this country ought to be governed. Link
A Swazi journalist was attacked and cut with a knife by a man who was angry about something that had been written about him in a newspaper. Link
Swaziland police are accused of torturing and detaining two television reporters. The journalists, who work for Swaziland’s only independent television station Channel S, say they were arrested by police while they were following a story about a crime syndicate. Link
Journalists covering a traditional ceremony in Swaziland were harassed, banned and had their equipment confiscated by the police while trying to cover the event. Link
Swazi state police storm a workshop organised for media personnel by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and threatened to disrupt it if they were not allowed to monitor it. Link
Freedom advocates ARTICLE 19 report serious concerns about the way the Swazi Government is restricting freedom of expression in Swaziland following the introduction of the Suppression of Terrorism Act. It says Swazi journalists, political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested. Link
People in Swaziland are banned from talking about King Mswati III and the war he has declared against his own people. Jim Gama, who is known as the ‘traditional’ prime minister and has more influence over Swaziland than the real PM, issued an edict to say that the king’s subjects must not refer to the king’s speech ever again. The speech in question was made when King Mswati III illegally-appointed Barnabas Dlamini as prime minister. Introducing Dlamini to his subjects, the king told Dlamini to get the terrorists and all who support them. Link
Reporters Without Borders condemns the Swazi attorney general’s ‘threatening remarks to journalists on 17 November 2008. He said journalists who criticise the government could be arrested under a new anti-terrorism law that has just been used to crack down on opposition groups.’ Link
Swaziland’s attorney general, Majahenkhaba Dlamini, tells journalists, ‘If you appear to be supporting terrorists in your reporting, woe unto you.’ He says journalists who are critical of the government ‘would be viewed as supporting “terrorists” and arrested’. Link
Swazi government officials heavily censored journalists as they prepared to interview King Mswati III on his return from a trip abroad. Journalists were told what to ask and that each journalist would be allowed only one question. This came amid anticipation that the king was going to be asked about government's extravagant spending on the country's 40/40 celebrationsheld in September 2008. Link 1Link 2 Link 3
More than 90 percent of people in the kingdom say they want the state-controlled monopoly of radio in Swaziland abolished. They want to have radio stations that are independent of government, but under the control of ordinary people. They also want radio to present impartial news and not concentrate on news about the Swazi Government or King Mswati III. Link
Research published by the Media Institute of Southern Africa into censorship and self-censorship of the media in Swaziland concludes that according to journalists and editors the biggest problem with censorship in Swaziland was the position taken by King Mswati III. Journalists are afraid to upset him for fear of retribution. Link 1Link 2
Journalists in Swaziland were illegally stopped from reporting on the kingdom’s national election. News emerged of widespread intimidation and harassment of reporters as they tried to cover the election registration process that ended in July 2008. Link
Swaziland’s traditional prime minister Jim Gama calls for a Swazi journalist to face serious punishment or even death for writing an article that was ‘disrespectful’ to King Mswati III. He said the report about the financial cost to the kingdom of holding a three-day ‘people’s parliament’ had been ‘very disrespectful to royalty and the king’. Link
