Times Of Swaziland: KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONSTITUTION

KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONSTITUTION
================================================================================
By vusi Kunene on 21/03/2019 08:24:00


I would like to congratulate the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on the role
it played in making sure that the children of Ekufikeni enjoy their rights like
every citizen.
The community must also be commended for taking up the initiative and making
sure that the children are assisted. This is what the country needs for it to
move forward. But this matter also got me thinking about the parents of the
children. I do not know how educated the father is but the mother is seemingly
someone who is not well educated. But their education is not a justification for
them to deprive their children a better life.
Most of our parents never went to school but had a vision to allow us to attend
school and paid our school fees. It is even better now because parents do not
pay for primary education.
In my opinion, though, the problem is lack of knowledge of the Constitution by
people of this country. Whether this is fortuitous or by design, I do not know.
But to me it is by design. I say so because the very fact that the institution
that is constitutionally expected to capacitate the people on their rights is
not funded to carry out this task.
According to the Paris Principle, our Human Rights Commission should be funded
to fully exercise this function. But by the design of our government it is not,
thus making people ignorant of the Constitution. Therefore, we cannot blame the
Vilakatis of Ekufikeni because they were never told by anyone about the rights
of their children. I am sure they have never heard of freedom of religion.
This, however, is not to fully exonerate the commission because it has also not
acted in a way to help capacitate people, especially the leadership of the
commission. I am yet to see a report filed by the commission with the different
United Nations bodies on the violations carried out in the country and this is
worrying.
Ignorance
Ignorance of the Constitution may be worse with Vilakatis but they are not the
only ones. Even our parliamentarians are struggling to follow the Constitution.
This can be adduced from some of the submissions they make in Parliament. Or
rather they are not able to apply the provisions of the Constitution to the way
we conduct our daily lives.
Whose duty is it to make sure that they are well versed with it if it is not the
Human Rights Commission? Yes they are supposed to read the Constitution but the
commission has a duty to educate people on their rights. Surely the commission
can have funds to educate parliamentarians or combine with NGOs to educate the
parliamentarians at least before they start their work.
It is embarrassing to hear our parliamentarians making submissions that are
discriminatory. Discrimination is one of the behaviours that are prohibited in
the Bill of Rights and parliamentarians should be fully aware of that. I was
very disappointed, and I mention it again, to hear them mentioning that our
female parliamentarians should cover their heads while their male counterparts
are not ordered to do so.
To say people should be dressed presentably would have been good enough than to
then say, because they are women, they should cover their heads. If women in
Parliament are forced to do such, what should we expect from people like those
at Ekufikeni? Let me mention now that I have a filial attachment with Ekufikeni.
Our Constitution, through the Bill of Rights, mentions that all children in this
country should access primary education for free and the DPM has assisted the
children to enjoy this right. But I have read in the newspapers that Senator
Cleopas Dlamini submitted that some children in the country should now be
discriminated. I do not think that a person who is in Senate and aware of the
Bill of Rights would have the audacity to say such.
To say that some children should be deprived of primary education because they
are born from privileged families is not the right way to go. Why should they be
discriminated against over their birthright?
From my knowledge, discrimination is the treatment of an individual or a group
based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category in
a way that is worse than the way people are treated.
So for the senator to say certain children should be denied free primary
education because they are from certain families is not good. This tells me that
there is a problem and some education needs to be done because clearly, people
are not aware of the provisions of the Constitution.