GOVT BLED THE ECONOMY

Government has found itself entangled in and being tripped by its self-made web of deceit and conspiracy theories about lurking mercenaries at every nook and cranny of the kingdom, reminiscent of the paranoia by then apartheid South Africa over then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) communists overrunning and gaining a foothold in the region that was carefully and painstakingly crafted by the Afrikaner leadership propaganda machinery, riding on the then raging Cold War between the West and East, to garner international support for its total onslaught against liberation movements and black South Africans while diverting attention from the atrocities it was committing.

Perhaps spun by its South African public relations firm, Vuma Reputation Management, government has followed a similar path, blaming the shutdown of the internet on pro-democracy protesters, whom it accused of having destroyed the relevant infrastructure. This apparent lie follows hotly on the heels of another huge lie, that mercenaries, not its security forces, were responsible for mowing down with bullets many unarmed and defenseless emaSwati in the height of the pro-democracy protests that have irreversibly burst the bubble of the erroneous narrative of the kingdom being a paragon of all things beautiful and positive, including being a peaceful and stable haven. But that too was all a myth because the peace so often boasted about at every available opportunity by the leadership was silence inculcated by fear, the weapon of choice of the obtaining polity enforced through torture, imprisonment, persecution and occasionally unexplained deaths at the hands of the police that ultimately triggered the current volatile situation.

As I see it, spinning a web of deceit and conspiracy theories might have worked in the short to medium term for the Afrikaners if their support by the US, UK and some of their allies is anything to go by, but this was not sustainable in the long term. It was always a matter of time before South Africa was rid of the evil of apartheid and liberated. But never could one have imagined that there would come a time when similar subterfuge would become useful for an Eswatini Government to cover up its atrocities and lately irrational shutdown of the internet.  

Government

While there is a mounting body of evidence incriminating the security forces for the murder of defenceless and unarmed emaSwati, government has not produced anything, except empty allegations and accusations, by way of substantive and concrete evidence. We would have hoped that by now it would have arrested or showed us remains of mercenaries gunned down during firefights with its security cluster. The reason for this is simple, there never were mercenaries but emaSwati children were gunned down by what should have been their protectors. And someone - not just a random person but someone of rank - must have given the order who is as guilty of the crimes against humanity as are the soldiers who pulled the trigger. In fact it would have been easier for government to source foreign troops from similar authoritarian regimes, such as Equatorial Guinea given the subsisting cosy bilateral relations attested to by the fact that at one stage Eswatini was training that country’s police, than poorly resourced pro-democracy supporters.

It is regrettable that the pro-democracy protests descended to looting and destruction of property, but we ought not forget that the protests happened because government had banned the delivery of petitions at Tinkhundla centres while the police had declared war on petitioners. Before then there had been order and no violence in all the Tinkhundla centres where petitions had already been delivered. Additionally, the concomitant looting and destruction of property during the resultant pro-democracy protests cannot be said was justification to kill emaSwati – that was completely disproportionate force and, indeed, pre-meditated murder.

Memorial

As I see it, government is on the ropes whichever way one looks at events leading to the commissioning of the crimes against humanity, beginning way back during the memorial of Thabani Nkonyeni, whose death is blamed on the police for lighting the fuse, when they disrupted proceedings by firing teargas and baton-charging defenceless and peaceful mourners. Then in the midst of everything else government came up with the internet lie, yet again blaming protesters for destroying the relevant infrastructure. But as usual lies have a short lifespan because the truth eventually came out to claim its pride of place when government eventually owned up to having ordered the shutdown. The question is would government have owned up to this poor decision making had it not been for a court case to force it to lift the shutdown. Your guess is as good as mine!

Also interesting is the fact that government conveniently forgot to calculate the economic losses occasioned by its shutdown of the internet when it was quantifying the pro-democracy protests disruptions, damages and losses. Why, government even forgot that since the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020, many businesses have since then opted to operate virtually, which made the internet integral to their operations. Consequently, the E3 billion losses attributed to the protests is most probably paltry to the economic losses occasioned by government’s reckless and self-preserving decision to shut down the internet.

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