‘SWAZIS ARE LAZY, LOVE SEX’

MBABANE – Former Prime Minister Sotsha Dlamini, who died more than a week ago, was widely respected in the police service.

In fact, many of the officers he worked with, who are now senior in their own right, still remember him with reverence. They recall the lessons they learned from him as he investigated serious criminal cases.
It can actually be said that the former PM, who died on February 7, 2017 at the age of 76, earned more respect as a career police officer than as the head of government.

Many of the senior police officers, who were junior in the 1970s and early 1980s, believe the late former PM has not been accorded even half the recognition he deserves.
At the time of his death, Sotsha was retired and spent most of his time at his home in Lushikishini, Mankayane.  This is where he was expected to be buried today,  after a memorial service held in his honour yesterday.
He was prime minister between 1986 and 1989. Worth noting is that he was appointed head of government in the same year His Majesty the King ascended to the throne.

His Majesty’s coronation as Head of State and Ingwenyama of Swaziland was in April 1986. Five years earlier, in 1981, a woman was arrested and charged with writing a poem that was later described by the High Court as ‘scurrilous doggerel in the worst possible taste.’

The description, which meant the poem was insultive, scandalous or slanderous, was given by then Chief Justice (CJ) Charles Nathan, who presided over the matter of the State (Rex) versus Dianah Shub.
Shub was then director of a firm known as Shield Chemical Company. The accused woman was charged with two counts for contravening the then Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938. She was found to have written a poem that referred to the alleged thieving habits of Swazis.

The writing suggested that Swazis were ill-bred, arrogant, anti-White, poor at sport, unclean and bad payers.
It also alleged that they were cowards, poor farmers and poor drivers, among many other insults. It insinuated that their favourite pastime was making babies. As a result, the court issued a directive to the media not to publish the poem as such.

However, the derogatory poem – all 62 lines of it – was included as an annexure. Titled ‘ Ode to a Swazi,’ the poem began with the words: ‘S stands for Swazi; a nation unknown.’
One of the lines read: ‘To trust a Swazi is like loving a snake.’

About Swazi women, Shub had written: ‘On Friday nights, go to the Spa. You’ll find them waiting for a car. There, they have their pick of men. When the job is over, they have left their mark. Disease is the name, which they sell in the dark.’

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