WHO QUALIFIES TO BE IN EXILE, WHY?

Never laugh at the people who are in exile, and do not ever say or attempt to say you shall never be in exile.

Who am I to judge them? I can be in exile as well. I know that the only possible time I can go into exile is when, for instance, ‘one political party’ is in power. This is possible because the party’s public relations officer (PRO) can influence the Executive to send me to jail for divergent personal thinking. Divergent thinking is simply a thought process used to penetrate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.

The PRO, I know, can send me to Matsapha Maximum Prison for embracing this kind of a thought process. For me to evade this arrest, I and my family can make plans to hide in Egypt. Israelis have been in exile four times.  Exile denotes a situation in which a person is forced to leave his or her country or home for a foreign country. This is a dictionary definition.
However, politically, it may mean a permanent or long-term removal from one's native place, usually as a punishment imposed by government or other superior power. I am aware that there are different types of exile, which may include emotional exile; exile from the body, exile from culture and political exile.

Feature

In our context, let us refer to political exile, which has been a common feature in Eswatini politics.  Those who live in exile feel unwelcome in their native countries. Let me put it this way. There are things they have done or said which probably forced them to leave the country. The mind-boggling question is why are they feeling unwelcome in their home countries? What have they done? Contextualising the matter, some local political activists are not in exile.

They are visible in the political space expressing themselves without the fear of reprisal, in the form of apprehension or arrest. Vocal activists who are in the country include Wandile Dludlu, the Deputy President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), Penuel Malinga, the Secretary General of PUDEMO and Maxwell Dlamini, the Deputy Secretary General of PUDEMO. I would have done injustice to political consciousness and the country’s intelligentsia if I were to exclude Peter Mphandlana Shongwe from the list of political activists who are in the country.

He is a long-serving advocate for multiparty democracy and founding member of PUDEMO. Arguably, Mphandlana has never been in exile. I stand to be corrected.He has done a lot, did so many things during the time when it was tougher to even utter one negative word against Tinkhundla. Others who are free to express themselves are Sakhile ‘Awviva’ Nxumalo, the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), Sibongile Mazibuko, the President of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), Sivumelwano Nyembe, an intellectual and current Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Swaziland Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF), Thandaza Silolo, PRO for SWALIMO (Swaziland Liberation Movement).

I suppose that Velaphi Mamba, a Harvard University scholar and current Treasurer General for PUDEMO is also not in exile.Mamba embraces tradition and culture, and is notably vocal about issues concerning the Mamba kingship. Thank you Ntfulini. Actually, the list of political activists who are not in exile is endless. Sibongile was even not afraid of the late ex-Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabus Dlamini whom she nicknamed ‘Spakatane.’

Activists

These political activists are exercising their constitutional right to freedom of expression. This is a human right, which is observed by the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), SADC and other global blocs. I doubt that any police officer, at the present time, can arrest anyone who says Multiparty Democracy must replace Tinkhundla System of Government. I would be an irresponsible liSwati and unethical journalist if I were to fail to flag this violation of human rights. I do not think we still have police who can effect arrest on a political activist who explains to emaSwati why he or she feels that Multiparty Democracy is the way to go in contemporary politics.

In May 2024, Wandile Dludlu was firm and very firm in his address during the Workers Day held at Prince of Wales in Mbabane. In front of Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini, the deputy president of PUDEMO minced no words and he is unapologetic about what he said there. Dludlu and many others who are very critical of the country’s governance move freely in the country. Therefore, I have a question. May I ask? Thank you very much for affording me the opportunity to ask this question. What is it that those who are in exile did or said which is different from what is being said oftentimes or done by political activists who are not in exile?

In 2022, my cousin Mlungisi Makhanya, the President of PUDEMO, addressed the issue of exile. In a Question and Answer Session on Twitter, which the Times of Eswatini covered, Makhanya was asked if he had indeed said that political leaders who were in exile were cowards because they feared prison. This was in relation to his speech during 2022 May Day Celebrations. Makhanya argued that his utterances were misunderstood. He explained that some political leaders had pointed out in one of the Political Party Assembly (PPA) discussions that they were not prepared for jai because two former MPs in Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were already languishing in prison.

Based on this reason, my cousin said he then submitted that there was a need for leaders who would not fear imprisonment. He pointed out in his explanation that the political setting in the country used prison to intimidate political leaders, adding that, in any event, when one was to take the leadership in the political struggle, he or she should embrace arrests.
Pretty sure, we can all then realise that the issue of exile is critical. At some point, we can say it raises more questions than answers, especially when we have political activists engaging in sensitive stuff who are still in the country.

Would I say I am politically persecuted if I were to bomb the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, for instance, and cross the border to South Africa to hide there? There is no democratic State anywhere in the world that cannot respond to demolition of public property. The USA prosecution responded to insurrections at Hospital Hill and South Africa also responded to the destruction of property and looting of shops in KwaZulu-Natal by some people who sympathised with ex-President Jacob Zuma. Whether the arrests were politically motivated or not, the South African and USA police alongside their prosecutions took action against what they perceived as insurrections.

Support

In November 2023, a South African court sentenced a former security guard to 12 years in prison for instigating deadly riots in support of ex-President Zuma. Mdumiseni Zuma was the first person to be convicted of the 2021 unrest triggered by the former president’s arrest. Mdumiseni, who is not related to the former president, shared a video inciting people to loot and burn a mall. Mind you, even the London-headquartered BBC carried this report in its edition of November 29, 2023. At least 350 people died in the unrest, the worst to hit South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Jacob Zuma in 2018, described the violence as an ‘attempted insurrection’. 

Some of the ex-president's supporters were angry that he had been imprisoned for contempt after refusing to cooperate with an inquiry into widespread corruption during his time in office.
The riots began in Zuma's political stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal, before spreading to the economic heartland of Gauteng.If crime is not an issue, the two South African men who are implicated in the murder of Kienan Jarryd Forbes, known as AKA, are in exile in Eswatini. AKA was shot dead in Durban on February 10, 2023. Perhaps, they will also argue that the killing of AKA was politically motivated. Politics does not permit people to commit murder or any crime.

I know one person who is in exile. This person committed crime in his private capacity but claims to be in exile because government persecutes him. What do we say of this gentleman?
The guy has three cases pending in court. Politics aside and this goes out to journalists. No person on this earth should be allowed to mix journalism with crime.Therefore, some people cannot claim to be in exile when they are found to have committed crime in their “private capacity.” For instance, I cannot claim that government persecutes me for being a brave journalist when I intentionally incite emaSwati to kill each other, even if I were to hide in the USA.

Documents

On June 23, 2024, the US Department of State reported that Julian Assange (52), the Founder of WikiLeaks, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Chelsea Manning, at that time a USA Army Intelligence Analyst, to unlawfully obtain and disclose classified documents relating to the national defence. Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. I feel pity for him. The US prosecution stated that after obtaining classified national defence information from Manning, the top journalist disclosed this information on WikiLeaks.

I am yet to weigh in on the lessons from Assange’s arrest and sentencing. This is a journalistic issue which we must discuss honestly and thoroughly. But, I can mention that Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England. He had taken refuge in the Embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that had since been dropped. He was then extradited to the USA to face the conspiracy charges. I attended the world conference in investigative journalism held in Sweden last year and more than 2 000 journalists said nothing about Assange’s arrest and prosecution. On a parting shot, let me look at the Interpol Constitution.

Article 3 of the Constitution of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) reads: “It is strictly forbidden for the organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.” Interpol, Headquartered in Lyon, France, facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. It is the world's largest international police organisation, with seven regional bureaus worldwide and a national central bureau in all 195 member States.

In its repository of practice, which unpacked Article 3, Interpol states that its position on the application of this constitutional provision concerning politicians or former politicians has evolved over the years. It is said that Resolution AGN/53/RES/7 (1984) distinguished between offences committed by such individuals in connection with their political activities, on the one hand and offences committed in their ‘private capacity.’ Who is in exile then? Watch out!

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