LUTSANGO WANTS MOURNING GOWNS REMOVED FOR ELECTIONS

LOBAMBA – Lutsango wants women in mourning gowns to remove them during elections.

Lutsango is the women regiment. They said the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) should ensure that widows who were in mourning during the electoral year be permitted to remove their gowns to participate in the elections freely. Lutsango submitted that there was fear that widows were indirectly discriminated against in the electoral process, hence the proposal to the EBC to have them remove the mourning gowns, for those widows who had at least been in mourning gowns for six months during the electoral year, and be permitted to participate in the elections. The proposal by Lutsango LwakaNgwane, in collaboration with the department of gender and family issues on the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Voters Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was made during the stakeholder submissions in Parliament yesterday. The stakeholder submissions were hosted by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Portfolio Committee, chaired by Kwaluseni Member of Parliament (MP) Sibusiso Mabhanisi Dlamini.

Clause

Gender Coordinator in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Nomzamo Dlamini, submitted, on behalf of Lutsango, that the EBC should consider enacting a clause in the Elections Act that would see the widows being granted the permission, just like any other citizen, to participate in the elections at least after six months of mourning. “The way our society handles the issue of women in mourning gowns has seen most of them being discriminated against and not afforded a chance to participate in the elections. Our proposal is that women, who have been at least in mourning gowns for six months, should be allowed to participate in the elections,” she said. However, the proposal was met with a negative response from the members of the portfolio committee, who shared that such issues were well dealt with at family level.

The Chairman of the committee, MP Mabhanisi, shared that being in mourning gowns was a custom and they did not want to be seen participating in processes that would clash with the traditional custom. He said the best way to deal with this was to convene as family members and reach a consensus to permit the individual, if the family deemed it fit, to participate in the elections. “This is our custom as a country and we should respect it. It is not ideal for a legislation to be seen clashing with traditional customs but some things require that people engage at family level and make decisions collectively as a family unit,” he submitted.

Nkomiyahlaba MP Welcome Shongwe said he supported the idea of widows participating in the elections, but he was also cognisant of the fact that the law should not be seen clashing with the country’s traditions and customs. He submitted that in yesteryears, women in mourning gowns would sometimes go as far as four years while in mourning, but as the country moved towards modern times, many things were changing so much that some widows, in some families, were only given six months to wear the mourning gowns. He too was of the idea that such should be agreements made at family level and needed not to be enacted in the form of legislation.

Another proposal forwarded by Lutsango was to allow the use of neutral spaces as voting centres such as schools, sports facilities and others, to allow free participation of widows.
Gilgal MP Kenneth Sandla Fakudze emphasised on the use of neutral spaces so as to make it accessible to everyone wishing to participate in the elections. He also highlighted the issue of women having so many limitations in the society, making an example that they were not allowed to speak while standing in some of the imiphakatsi yet men were allowed to do so.
“How would one project themselves well and get their point across while sitting down in an umphakatsi setting? Eswatini is signatory to some of the conventions that promote women rights and we should be seen conforming to these conventions holistically, not partially,” he submitted. Worth mentioning is that Section 85(1) of the Constitution depicts that subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every liSwati or person ordinarily resident in Eswatini has a right to vote at any election of members of the House or members of the bucopho.

Other general comments from Lutsango were that they requested for feasible access to national documents and public information such as gazettes and the national Constitution. They also requested for consideration of the canvassing and the campaigning period, as this contributed to women under participation in the electoral process and in addition resulting in fewer winning elections. This led to the debate that there was a need to review the Constitution as some of the clauses needed to be looked into, to keep up with the current times as revealed by Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane. Section 87(5) of the Constitution depicts that at the primary level, there shall be no canvassing for votes as persons are nominated (that is, invited to serve) on the basis of their being known to that community.

Zwane said as much as the canvassing for votes was a provision in the Constitution, it was high time the Constitution was reviewed because there was a lot that needed to be scrutinised.
Lutsango also touched on Section 6 of the Elections Act, where they needed further explanation on the clause that speaks to elected president and elected Speaker, stating that this could pause the risk of misinterpretation and prejudice. Their contention was that previously, there was a Speaker who was elected by the MPs but his time in office was short-lived without a clear explanation on it. The chairman of the committee highlighted that the matter was once discussed and the consensus was that the president and the Speaker should be introduced to the head of State even before they assume office.

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