SWAZI DEMOCRAT ON 12 APRIL 1973

This is Musa Hlophe, coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), writing in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland.

Monday [12 April 2010] saw the 37th anniversary of the declaration of the infamous 1973 decree by King Sobhuza II.

It marked the sad day that he and his advisers panicked in the face of the reality that they were not universally loved or feared.

What was the cause of this panic?

Widespread uprisings on the streets?

A well-supported Marxist revolution?

A band of mercenaries, armed to the teeth, threatening our coal and diamond reserves?

Nope, not really. What had happened, as all students of history will know, was that at least one Swazi in eight had the audacity to use a democratic right and elected three members of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress to the second Swazi Parliament.

This meant the King’s Imbokodvo Party had its 100 per cent majority slashed to only 87.5 per cent.

There was nothing this opposition party could do to stop laws being passed. All it could do was to voice concern, show alternatives and respectfully but futilely, express dissent.

It seems that even the futile expression of a difference of opinion was enough to shut down completely the country’s democratic institutions. One source writing this week claimed that the 1973 decree came about because the country was becoming difficult to govern.

I think that was a deliberate error.

What the country was becoming was difficult to rule.

To read the full article, click here.

HONOUR FOR SWAZI RIGHTS LAWYER

A second Swaziland human rights activist has won an international award.

Thuli Makama, a lawyer, has been working for the rights of people in Swaziland not to be shot if they are seen to be breaking the law.

In particular, Makama has been working with poachers who are being shot at (and at least 20 have been killed or maimed) by game rangers, who have the approval of King Mswati III.

Makama, who is head of the Swazi environmental group Yonge Nawe, has won a prestigious award called the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work.

In September 2008 I reported on a campaign for justice for Swazi man Musa Gamedz who was hunted down and executed in broad daylight because he was suspected of poaching on Big Game Parks.

A documentary by Journeyman Pictures Journeyman Pictures called Killing the Poachers revealed that King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had given a royal warrant that allowed a chief ranger to shoot and if necessary kill people suspected of poaching. Under the Royal Warrant, the killer would not be prosecuted as long as he could show that the poacher was armed and drew a weapon first.

The award for Makama has attracted international attention to the lack of human rights in Swaziland. She told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), suspected poachers should be arrested and ‘taken through the due process of law’.

‘There are many illegal acts that should not mean you are tried, sentenced and executed at the scene.’

Makama is the second Swazi human rights activist to receive an international award in recent weeks. Last month (March 2010), Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), received the Swaziland Democracy Watch (SWADEWA) Democracy Prize 2010, from a group in Denmark.

PROOF OF NO FREEDOM IN SWAZILAND

The following is a media statement from the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) following the police action on Saturday that saw a meeting to launch the SDC cancelled after police illegally held SDC leaders.

Another Attack on the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC)!

Press Release - 19 April 2010

The weekend actions of the royal Swazi police is a further demonstration that freedom of assembly and expression in Swaziland does not exist. These actions are a further indictment of the widely held myth that Swaziland is a peaceful, democratic and caring society ruled by a benevolent royal family.

Despite a court order obtained by the Swaziland chapter of the SDC granting them permission to continue with the public launch of the Campaign inside Swaziland, the royal police clamped down; arresting and detaining two of the coordinators of the Campaign, raiding the home of a third member of the Campaign coordinating team preventing him from attending the launch, preventing the attendance of the PUDEMO President, Cde Mario Masuku, and frightening off supporters of the Campaign. This action follows the royal police clampdown of the 12th April commemorations which marked the 37th anniversary of the banning of political parties in Swaziland.

The SDC condemns the actions of the Swazi regime that prevented the peaceful launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign’s Swazi chapter.

We also commend our comrades efforts inside Swaziland. We will continue to support your preparedness to unite and challenge the repression and the wastefulness of the royal elite through the Swaziland Democracy Campaign!

We will not allow a repressive regime to frustrate us in our struggle for liberation, justice and democracy in Swaziland! We will continue to mount pressure on all fronts until Swaziland is free!

An urgent joint meeting of both chapters of the SDC is being planned to chart out a way forward.

Aluta continua!

Phambile Swaziland Democracy Campaign!

SWAZI POLICE BAR DEMOCRAT MASUKU

Mario Masuku, President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), was stopped by police from attending a legally-convened meeting in Swaziland yesterday (17 April 2010).

He was among activists trying to attend a meeting of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign.

As I reported yesterday, two of the meeting’s organisers were taken in by police before the meeting started and the meeting was abandoned.

Masuku, a prominent progressive in Swaziland, last month received a democracy award from a Danish organisation. He is also known throughout the world after he was held in prison for 10 months on remand on a terrorism charge only for a judge to throw out the case hours into a trial that was expected to last several days.

The judge criticised the Swaziland Government for the way it brought a case that had no merit.

According to a report in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, police were yesterday waiting for Masuku at the Boscoe Centre, Manzini, the venue of the meeting.

The Times reports, ‘By 10am, police officers had been deployed at the centre and had an instruction not to allow Masuku to be part of the meeting.

‘When Masuku was about to enter into the hall, one of the police officers identified as Inspector Magwe stopped Masuku and told him he had been instructed to stop him from attending the meeting.

‘By then, the rest of the activists were already inside the hall singing political songs while waiting for Masuku to enter.

‘After a few minutes Vincent Ncongwane, the Swaziland United Democracy Front (SUDF) Secretary General went out to check why Masuku was not joining them only to find that he was not allowed to enter the hall.

‘Masuku tried to argue with the police officers as he explained that he was attending the meeting in his personal capacity.

‘The police would hear none of it.

‘The PUDEMO President tried to walk towards the door but was quickly stopped by officers who told him that he would not be allowed to walk in.’

The Times reports all those who attended the meeting felt there was no use in continuing with the meeting when one of their members had been banned from attending it.

A decision to suspend the meeting was taken and it was agreed that the organisers would inform all the activists about the next meeting.