MSF’S APPEAL TO GEINGOB; ADVISE KING TO RELEASE JAILED MPS

MANZINI – The Swaziland Multi-stakeholders Forum (MSF) has appealed to Hage Gottfried Geingob to ask His Majesty the King to release the two incarcerated MPs.

These are MP Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi and MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza of Hosea. In a statement, Thulani Maseko, the Chairperson of MSF said President Geingob, in his capacity as the current Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation to create a climate of genuine peace. He said the Namibian president should advise the King to create a climate of genuine peace by doing the following:

(1)     Withdrawing the army from the streets and communities and end the state of emergency.
(2)    A deliberate commitment to the process of dialogue and negotiation.
(3)     Release the Honourable Members of Parliament, Mthandeni Dube and Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and all other political prisoners;
(4)     Allow all exiles to safely and unconditionally return home;
(5)     Agree to set up an interim transitional authority;
(6)     A fixed time frame for the dialogue process.

The Namibian president was in the country on Friday to hold talks with His Majesty the King. MSF is a convergence of civil society organisations, businesses, trade unions, political parties, faith-based organisations, women’s organisations, youth organisations, etc. Maseko asked SADC to consider bringing a peacekeeping mission into the country during the period of the dialogue process. “We are relentless in our quest to finding a peaceful path to multi-party democracy in Swaziland in collaboration with SADC,” he said. He mentioned that Mass Democratic Movement, including the leadership of the Political Parties Assembly (PPA), have noted the official working visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini to hold consultations with His Majesty King Mswati III. He said the working visit was informed by the commitment of President Geingob to implement decisions of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

Implementation

He said they welcomed the move by the leaders of the SADC to allow the chairperson to conduct consultations with the King on the implementation of its decisions. “But the lingering question is: ‘how many of these consultations shall be held before SADC is decisive on the question of finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Swaziland (Eswatini)? “We, in the Mass Democratic Movement recall that it was around this time last year, on or around November 2, 2021 that His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his capacity as Chair of the Southern African Development Community Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, concluded a one-day working visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini.”

Pursuant

Pursuant to that ‘working visit’, Maseko said the nation and the world was informed and made to believe that His Majesty King Mswati III and the SADC leadership had agreed and resolved that the Kingdom of Eswatini would embark on a process that would work towards the establishment of a national dialogue forum. “To date it has been exactly twelve months since that resolution was made, and the King and the Swaziland (Eswatini) Government have taken no steps towards the setting up of the national dialogue forum,” lamented the MSF chairperson. "This is notwithstanding the fact that the SADC Organ presented to the King the draft framework on the process.”

Instead of the dialogue process taking shape, he said they had seen and experienced more closure and shrinking civic space at the instance of the government. The MSF chairperson said the result of the continued closure and shrinking of civic space has been the escalation of violence, with the King and government alleging that the political climate was not conducive for the process of engagement to start.

Violence

“It is our view as the pro-democracy movement that the only way the violence can be arrested is for the dialogue process to start. And the time is always right to do so. The contention by the King and government is fallacious, misdirected and misguided,” the chairman said. From the point of view of the mass democratic movement, he said this was an indication that the King was neither prepared nor willing to engage in an all-inclusive political process, so that the people could take charge of their destiny through a peacefully negotiated settlement.

Maseko said the State has continued to unleash not only the police but also the full strength of the army on an unarmed, innocent and defenseless civilian population that sought the democratisation of the country. He mentioned that there was absolutely no reason why the King did not set up a team that should meet with the leaders of political parties and other stakeholders for setting up the stage for the dialogue to start.The well-known human rights attorney said Parliament rightly pointed out that there should be a ‘dialogue before the dialogue’.

“We have called for ‘talks about talks’. The nation is united that the time for the dialogue has long come,” he said.
The chairperson said it was obvious that the King and government were deliberately stalling and frustrating the process, and, therefore, put the life of the nation at risk. ‘‘We cannot wait for Incwala,” he said.

Observe

Maseko insisted that as a people, they could not wait for the King to keep the country by waiting for him to observe the Incwala rituals. On another note, the MSF chairperson questioned the logic behind the usage of Incwala ceremony to delay the political dialogue process. He said they could not wait for Incwala. He pointed out that Incwala was of neither value nor benefit to the people. Instead, he said it was a private and family affair that had been imposed on the nation.

Last year, he said the King assured the then Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, Cyril Ramaphosa, that the dialogue process would happen after the annual Incwala. The chairman mentioned that the nation allowed the King and waited with hope that he meant well.   
“We now know, and the SADC now also knows that the King was delaying the process while creating and festering a climate of violence and a state of terror,’’ the MSF chairman complained. He then appealed to the current chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security to prevail on the King to create a climate of genuine peace. “We have no illusions that the process of dialogue and negotiation can happen with the King and government agreeing on it. We are equally clear that to date the King has shown no signs of willingness to commit to the process,” stated Maseko.

Alpheous reacts  

Alpheous Nxumalo, the Government Spokesperson, wondered why and how people would put a deadline on when a national dialogue could be convened. “I think that their obvious agitation has got nothing to do with the national dialogue or Incwala per se, but about the show of power and force which they somehow believe that they now wield overwhelmingly against the State,” Nxumalo said.  “Well, lest they forget, power remains a perception until it is tested,” he said. The government spokesperson said the national dialogue as envisioned could not be perceived and pursued as a phanda, phusha, play scheme. He said the Kingdom of Eswatini is a State intact because of a national Constitution that guided emaSwati as to what could be done by whom and how it could be done. He mentioned that usurping powers that did not belong to them was viewed world over as treasonous.

Percy’s statement

Percy Simelane, the Director of Communications at the King’s Office, said there was constitutionally only one national dialogue to be considered to be legal. He said any other baby or side-bar dialogue was null and void. Simelane mentioned that they were alive to the fact that some stakeholders wanted the dialogue to be rushed simply because they had succeeded in instilling fear among the citizenry. He said this state of affairs favoured them and not democracy. Democratically, Simelane said the people should freely define their destiny, adding that safety was, at the moment, missing in people’s lives. He said it was missing because some key stakeholders in the envisaged national dialogue threatened to kill them and torch properties belonging to anyone who was to speak against their political positions.

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