A GOVT OF CONTRADICTIONS

Government and the State’s ongoing public relations blitz fronted by Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini who until recently had been markedly quiescent, his deputy Themba Masuku and of course the Press Secretary and spokesperson, Alpheous Nxumalo, is clearly calculated to project themselves – government and the State - as victims of the post June 2021 orgy of political violence while the pro-multiparty democracy lobby, which they have morphed into a thuggish and criminal element, as the villains. By now they probably believe this to be true.

 Until recently, whether by design or coincidence, the propaganda space belonged to Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku, with a little help from the chief propagandist, Alpheous Nxumalo, who milked it for all its worth. This often happened when the PM was away on external travel while the DPM was acting in the position to the extent that questions were being asked if the former was deliberately removing himself from the milieu brewed long before his appointment when the latter, while acting, banned the delivery of petitions at Tinkhundla centres that mothered the June 2021 pro-democracy protests.

 But before the latest PR blitz, the official narrative suggested that external forces were responsible for the kingdom’s political upheavals to destabilize the country to facilitate regime change. The ultimate objectives of these covert machinations, we were schooled, was the exploitation of the kingdom’s mineral wealth. Yet to date no one has brought forth empirical evidence of these machinations because they have no basis in fact save they were conjured up to obscure the hideous record of the obtaining hegemony and gain sympathy of the global community.

 Disconcerting is that these baseless accusations have found expression in what should be holy and revered spaces – prayer services. During the so-called national prayer marking the beginning of the year at Mandvulo Grand Hall – what a venue to worship and spend inordinate time talking earthly issues – the PM rudely rebutted an impassioned plea from the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, to prioritize dialogue to resolve the kingdom’s political impasse. In his response, the PM reasoned that what Zuma was suggesting was not necessary because it were just thugs and thieves that were killing people albeit government remained committed to a dialogue.

 The press quoted the PM as having responded: “I want to inform you president that it is just a few individuals who are saying they were not present when the current constitution was crafted and, therefore, they do not want it. We are not at war against one another but thugs have seized the opportunity and started killing innocent people. Our biggest worry is that what kind of precedent we would be setting if we allow people to kill each other if they want something changed in the constitution?” Was that response necessary under the circumstances especially given the occasion? Besides being uncouth, undiplomatic, disrespectful and ill-mannered the PM’s response was riddled with untruths, a currency that is central to government’s PR offensive of late. He should have simply thanked the older statesman for his fatherly advice and reassured him of the government’s commitment to dialogue, even if the latter was a lie. Factoring numerical values without illuminating anyone about the supporting science was illogical and a sign of desperation. I am not a thug but I support political reformation. 

 A narrative driven by factual inaccuracies, untruths and diabolical lies, such as that being constructed by the leadership as manifested by the PM’s recent statement to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Extraordinary Summit in Windhoek, Namibia, on the country’s political situation is a contradiction to the stated commitment to dialogue because it is denial of the reality on the ground. Without justifying the ensuing attacks and killings of members of the security cluster, government and the leadership are seemingly suffering from cognitive dissonance when confronted by facts. And the poignant fact being that it was government that started the bloodletting during which an unknown number of emaSwati were killed while hundreds were maimed and disabled. That is a fact that will not go away until the nation, especially families of the victims, find closure. That government and the leadership have not openly acknowledged and accepted responsibility does not mean this never happened and is unlikely to be erased by their PR offensive to project themselves as victims.

 Victims in this case are the people while government and the leadership are the perpetrators. Therefore, it is another untruth, as claimed by Nxumalo, that government never resorted to violence. In fact historically government’s weapon-of-choice has been violence whenever citizens, especially workers, exercised rights and freedoms to strike. Nxumalo seems to justify extra-judiciary killings by the State in pursuit of maintaining peace and law and order as legitimate and constitutional.

 Additionally, the PR offensive will not change the course of history. The truth shall always remain what it is, the truth. Part of that contemporary history is that the June 2021 pro-democracy protests were triggered when government deprived the people of their constitutional rights to deliver petitions to their elected representatives, members of parliament. Pretending otherwise will not change the train of events; banning of delivery of petitions leading to the June 2021 pro-democracy protests that in turn led to the massacre of protestors at the instance of the State.   

But the striking contradictions to the PM’s, indeed the DPM’s, war cry was His Majesty King Mswati III’s message of hope during the payer service that change will come. But how do we reconcile the Sovereign’s position with the continued sabre rattling by the PM and the DPM? And we ought not to forget that two MPs, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza (Hosea) and Mthandeni Dube (Ngwempisi), are languishing in jail for their political beliefs. This double speak is indeed confusing but not entirely new – it is a stock-in-trade of the obtaining political hegemony. Testimony to this are the many policy statements and pronouncements over the years that have never materialized to anything because they were window dressing. Had these nice-sounding policy statements been translated into action this country would be an economic powerhouse.

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