BREAKING THE CHAINS OF FEAR AND SILENCE!

“IT is necessary only for good men to do nothing for evil to triumph.” This timeless observation was offered by the great political philosopher Edmund Burke about 200 years ago. Burke’s quote is very much germane within the context of Swazi polity today, given that people have been subliminally programmed not to think and critically analyse but to obey and follow in a collective vow of silence.

Unfortunately the veil of manic silence extends beyond the natural realm of opportunistic grovellers, bootlickers and praise singers. It extends even to good men and women whose voices could be making all the difference in rescuing the Kingdom of eSwatini from the degenerative state and moral morass in which it is enmeshed today.

Essentially the good men (and women) Burke referred to, are silent and doing nothing as the kingdom teeters on the brink. This inaction and deafening manic silence is borne of fear of the leadership and of government.
I reflected on Burke’s immortal words last week when I read of a court application to stop the local government elections mounted by the Mbabane City Ratepayers and Developers Association. This act of bravado somewhat restored my faith in humanity, more specifically within these shores. The thrust of the association’s application, through a deposition by Reverend Solomon Nxumalo, is that the local government elections were unlawful and undemocratic as they were in contravention of the national Constitution.

The association’s argument is that the elections ought to be conducted in terms of the Elections and Boundaries Commission Act of 2013 and Elections Act of 2013, as against the Urban Government Act, which it argued was at variance with the national Constitution. Given that the matter is sub judice, coupled to the fact that I am illiterate on matters of jurisprudence, I shall avoid going into the merits or otherwise of the application but focus on its potential impact, if any, on the larger body politic of the nation.

Burke’s quote is germane to the case in point in that we, as a nation, are now accustomed to a culture of silence on all matters of national importance in which government is found to have refused or neglected to act in a particularly logical and moral way. This dates back to the era of the King’s Proclamation to the Nation of April 12, 1973 that was the death knell of the Westminster-styled independence constitution and subsequent criminalisation of human rights and liberties. No one, including the political parties that were immediately impacted by this development, challenged this apparent naked usurpation of power in court.

As I see it, while the Constitution enshrines a Bill of Rights in all its splendour, the exercise of the rights and freedoms contained therein remains elusive because the State has not moved from the position it adopted in 1973 when outlawing same. If anything, it has become more vicious by conjuring creative and innovative methodologies through which to suppress free speech, freedom of association and assembly, etc, hence the continued absence of multiparty democracy to date.

Cumulatively, government’s continued disdain for the constitution, indeed rule of law, is now legend. Never has this government, outside forked tongue double-speak, showed its commitment to the Constitution by living up to its letter. As we are all well aware, it took litigation by an association of former miners to force government to rollout free primary education that is provided for in the Constitution. To date, almost 12 years to the day the Constitution was promulgated, government has reneged on the much desired and necessary legal reform to bring all laws in conformity with the Constitution on the flimsy excuse of lacking financial resources when its profligacy precedes it. If anything this lack of political commitment to operationalise the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is reflective of a government that does not subscribe to the rule of law whatsoever.
This, therefore, begs the question of what would happen if Reverend Nxumalo and company were to win the case. The likelihood is that nothing would happen, the local government elections would proceed as scheduled irrespective. This position is informed by the current composition of the Legislature, which as it stands is contrary to the Constitution. The constitution (Section 95(1)(c)) prescribes the election of four female members specially elected from the four regions. However, this is provisioned on the general election failing to deliver at least 30 per cent female MPs of the total membership of Parliament (Section 86).
Since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2005, there have been two general elections neither of which delivered on the constitutional mandate. In a normal society that would put in question Parliament’s continued operation in enacting laws and performing its oversight role yet it is not properly constituted. There are other examples of government’s continued breach of the Constitution with no consequences whatsoever because of the silence of the voices of good men and women. The recent decision to exclude other religions but Christianity from the school syllabus is among these. It seems in this country the breach of the Constitution is now a new normal. 

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