PUTTING HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST!

I read with mounting interest, which later turned to despair, last week’s weekend edition of the Swazi News newspaper, where Mr Sabelo Masuku, the incumbent Chairman of the Human Rights Commission was profiled on the work he and his team does for this very important, but largely inconspicuous organisation, that is, in the eyes of the grassroot people.

In spite of the mammoth problems facing his organisation in fulfilling their mandate, I feel him and his team’s efforts in seeing to it that they intervene on behalf of the abused, as well as the harassed and violated, should be applauded and recognised.

In a country where the issue of human rights is at times despised in spite of the availability of provisions in our so-called Constitution to defend such, the work of Masuku and his dedicated team should in all intents and purposes, be getting the necessary, full support and recognition it deserves.

I stand to be corrected, but I daresay, few of the rank and files in our marginalised society know of the existence of such an important entity.
The fundamental human rights of emaSwati are at times being brazenly and blatantly violated by civil authority, employers, the rich who own businesses and farms; foreign nationals especially those from the East and sadly, even by some rogue elements in the security agencies, especially the police, who brutalise suspects, which end up in some eventually losing their precious lives, but to some of our compatriots, it is so worrying that they are not privy as to where they can report of such cases.

functions

Those of our people, who had the misfortune of being brutalized especially by our law enforcement agencies, report such incidences to the much implicated agencies without finding any redress or whatsoever because of the obvious.

It was disheartening to learn that Masuku and his team began the work of the Commission in 2009 with only part-time commissioners, with no secretariat and no operational staff for about six years in running, only managing with a skeletal staff until around 2015.

Looking at the key functions of commission, for example, investigating complaints, providing legal expertise, raising awareness, training; conducting research on human rights, monitoring and reporting on human rights violations; as well as ensuring that the contentious integrity issues are adhered to through asset declaration and implementation of the Leadership Code of Conduct as provided in our Constitution,  Masuku’s unit should be a fully staffed, funded and a well-oiled, running organisation, to say the least.

The issue of human rights is a very serious and important one which is universally recognised, with many democratic countries around the world taking it seriously and allocating sizeable budgets for such organisations to run autonomously, with professionally qualified staff - not to run on a shoestring budget.

impunity

It is really commendable for Masuku and his thinly staffed organization that since inception, they have dealt with a backlog of around 279 cases, whilst at the same time dealing with new cases.

The abhorrent issue of evictions, for example, without compensation amongst other challenges, is stretching their limited capacities and/or availed resources in a country where the rich who are moneyed, evict the poor with impunity.

As one of the passionate proponents of human rights in the country, I am deeply concerned about the low-profile raising of awareness of the work of the organisation to the general public, because as I alluded to earlier on, many emaSwati’s rights are being violated willy-nilly and most have no idea where to report such violations.

As a columnist, some aggrieved emaSwati have called me in the past to enquire where they can report cases of brutality especially those perpetrated on them by some rogue elements in our security agencies.
My passionate plea to Mr Masuku - our very own ‘Public Protector’ - and his organisation, is that, please conduct a concerted, civic education in all the regions of the country to educate the populace on their rights as enshrined in our Constitution and encourage them to approach your organisation for help whenever their fundamental human rights are violated.

In closing, may I proudly pronounce that, in spite of the hurdles facing the Human Rights Commission, bravo!, gentlemen and/or ladies, for working your socks off and tirelessly in not only seeing to it that justice is seen to be done - but is done, in spite of the shoestring budget and of course, the lack of political will from some of the arms of government to have your mandate fulfilled.

Alex Nxumalo 76058449

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