SWAZI STATE STANDS HUMILIATED

The Swazi state stands humiliated today as its attempt to jail Swaziland’s most prominent democrat leader Mario Masuku was foiled by a judge only hours after his trail started.

Masuku, president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), had been in jail on remand for 10 months since November 2008 after his arrest for allegedly making statements at a May Day rally to incite people to terrorism.

The state’s evidence against Masuku was so poor that the trial that was expected to last several days lasted no more than five hours.

High Court Judge Mbutfo Mamba halted the trial after being presented with ‘poor quality of evidence’ by the prosecution led by Swaziland’s Director of Public Prosecutions Mumcy Dlamini.

The High Court was faced with incoherent statements by witnesses and what even the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, called ‘a series of dramatic errors’.

According to the Observer, five witnesses had presented their evidence before Judge Mamba halted the trial, including police superintendent Mike Zwane, the officer in charge of investigating Masuku.

Evidence brought to the court by the first witness Sithembiso Shongwe was dismissed because it was irrelevant.

Judge Mamba ruled that the evidence was inadmissible because Shongwe kept telling the court about activities planned by PUDEMO in meetings that were held in South Africa.

It turned out that Shongwe was himself in custody on an undisclosed charge and was escorted from the court in leg irons after he gave his evidence. Shongwe claimed to have been trained by the PUDEMO military wing, Umbane. He said Umbane’s main objectives were to engage in guerrilla warfare so that the government could be forced to the negotiating table and allow democracy in Swaziland

The case descended into farce when one witness, owing to poor sight, spent about two minutes trying to spot Mario Masuku in court.

The Times of Swaziland reported Kwanele Dlamini, from Siteki, was asked to identify Masuku from the people in court and requested to move out of the witness stand to try and spot him. Dlamini then went around the court room, looking and inspecting at all the people who were present in court, trying to find Masuku. He was even misled by some of the people in court by jeering and shouting that he was not present, but the determined Dlamini looked at almost everyone before spotting Masuku seated at the accused dock.

During cross examination, according to the Observer, another witness Banele Dlamini made jumbled statements and kept on contradicting himself during cross examination. When advocate Norman Kades asked probing questions on Masuku’s utterances, he said he could not possibly remember everything because the accused had made a long speech.

Advocate Kades observed that the witnesses had conveniently remembered aspects about Masuku’s utterances on terrorism which would seem to favour the interests of the crown. Mbambiseni Maseko who was also brought before the court as a witness also contradicted himself.

Masuku had been charged with contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA) after he uttered statements to the effect that PUDEMO would continue with the bombing of vital government structures in Swaziland last year at the funeral of the late Musa Dlamini who was killed during a bomb blast at Lozitha bridge.

The state, uncertain it could force a conviction under the STA had an alternative charge under the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938.

FEARS AFTER SWAZI DEMOCRAT FREED

The following is from the PUDEMO News site, 21 September 2009

Mario Masuku is free

The trial of [PUDEMO President] Mario Masuku ended today about 5 hours after it had begun.

The Court could see through the three false witnesses and called the whole thing off while all had expected the hearing to last at least four days.

Jubilant PUDEMO members went to greet their President at the Matsapha Prison, where Mario Masuku had been kept. Now there are reports that Wandile Dludlu,President of PUDEMO’s youth wing SWAYOCO, has been harassed and tortured while waiting to see the release of Mario Masuku.

Source

SWAZI DEMOCRAT MASUKU FREED

News is just coming out of Swaziland tonight (21 September 2009) that Mario Masuku, the president of the banned People’s United Democratic Party (PUDEMO), has been released from jail. He was attending the first day of his trial on a charge of sedition, when within hours he was acquitted. Masuku, probably the best known of the Swazi democrats had been in prison on remand for ten months since November 2008.

The following is a statement issued by PUDEMO

STATEMENT ON THE RELEASE OF PUDEMO PRESIDENT – MARIO MASUKU – 21 September 2009

The Release

The Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) wishes to formally inform its members, allies and friends both at home and abroad of the acquittal and release of its President Comrade Mario Masuku a few hours ago. He had been charged for allegedly making ‘seditious statements and supporting terrorism.’ He had been in detention since November 2008.

Since his detention and subsequent banning of PUDEMO, Masuku and his organization have remain resilient and refused to be intimidated by the oppressive and archaic tactics of the state. In court, the state failed to provide evidence and information to sustain the fabricated charge, hence Justice Mbutfo Mamba dismissed the case and granted Comrade Masuku his freedom.

Support and solidarity

PUDEMO wishes to express its appreciation for the unwavering support and solidarity displayed by our friends and allies both at home and abroad. They played an instrumental role in adding more pressure on the royal regime to release Comrade Masuku. We know this was only a battle and the war still continues until the total liberation of the oppressed people of Swaziland is released. We have no doubt that you will still be fighting on our side even beyond this trial, for we now need to channel our energies towards ensuring that the royal regime is taken down brick by brick until its foundation is destroyed!

The Legal Team

We mentioned last week that as PUDEMO, we are very pleased with our legal team. This is a team of lawyers who have always fought fearlessly for the rights of the people. We wish to thank them for their excellent work and until Swazis are liberated they must know the challenge is still there and hope more lawyers will realize this and join the fight for the liberation of the politically oppressed and abused masses of our country.

The Masuku Family

Throughout the challenge, the Masuku family has remained in support of Comrade Masuku and has never turned around to curse PUDEMO. This is because the family completely understands PUDEMO’s mission of liberating the oppressed people of Swaziland. We salute Mrs Masuku for her resilence in the face of hostile and challenging circumstances that she was subjected to. But like a true fighter, she has remained strong and focused together with the entire extended Masuku family.

The Wayforward

The release of our President does not mean the people of Swaziland are now free. PUDEMO remains committed to ensure the fully liberation and transformation of our people is realized as it is clearly explained in our document The Roadmap to a Democratic Swaziland adopted in our 6 National Congress in Matsulu in the year 2006. Work therefore shall continue inspite of the dangers, threats, intimidation, kidnappings, assaults, torture, random raids, etc constantly meted out by the oppressive regime on our members. We therefore, shall continue to fight side by side with all our democracy loving friends and allies until final victory!

Amandla!

National Spokesperson –Zakhele Mabuza

Deputy President – Sikhumbuzo Phakathi

SWAZI DEMOCRAT DEFIANT IN COURT

Swazi democrat Mario Masuku was defiant in court yesterday when he heard his trial on a charge of sedition will be heard next month.

A ‘pre trial’ hearing at the Swaziland High Court yesterday (7 August 2009) heard that Masuku, president of the banned People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) would plead not guilty to a charge that he incited people to commit terrorism in a speech last November.

Masuku has been in jail on remand for 265 days so far.

Also appearing for a pre trial hearing was Amos Mbedzi, who is alleged to have been involved in a plot to bomb a bridge at Lozitha last September. He also intends to plead not guilty.

Both men were defiant in court yesterday. Messages describing their defiance were sent ‘live’ from the court by supporters via text messages and the Facebook social network.

Today, the Swazi News, (a stablemate of the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper) reports that Masuku ‘is still as defiant and determined as ever’.

The newspaper reports that both Masuku and Mbedzi ‘seemed happy as they belted out smiles, cracked jokes and at one time, Mbedzi even attempted to do the customary toyi-toyi while chained in leg irons’.

Mbedzi appeared in court with scars and a badly damaged eye, injuries alleged to have been caused when a bomb he was helping to plant exploded prematurely.

More than 100 people attended the court, many of them from the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO).

According to the Swazi News, ‘So defiant was the PUDEMO chief that after all the court processes, and while being taken to the Matsapha Correctional Services, he shouted to the people who had come to see him “Amandla” sending his followers, who had attempted to barricade the road that was going to be used to ferry Masuku away, to wild excitement. The SWAYOCO members then burst into songs about PUDEMO and Mario’