DE-CAMPAIGNING POSTERS: LAW WILL TAKE ITS COURSE - EBC

MBABANE – Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) says the arm of the law will catch up with those misusing the commission’s logo on posters de-campaigning current politicians.  

This was said by EBC Communications Officer Mbonisi Bhembe when reacting to circulating posters on social media, some of which have the logo of the commission.  “We are already taking action on this matter and we believe the IT (Information Technology) experts will track down the people behind this and they will face the law,” said Bhembe.

Posters

There have been several posters being circulated on social media platforms, designed with some Cabinet minister’s pictures, EBC logo and an inscription portraying the politicians in bad light and that they should not be voted back into Parliament. The posters were first shared on a particular Facebook page named ‘SWALIMO Family.’ They had some inscriptions which also included a slogan by the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) of its elections campaign. The slogan is; ‘Ungakhetsi njengayitolo’. The affected ministers included Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, Minister of Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi. In both the posters, the logo of EBC was used.

In response to this, Bhembe said it was very shocking and disturbing to learn that the de-campaigning strategy had escalated to the point where the commission’s logo was misused. He said it was very disturbing that there were people investing in evil acts to such extremes where they were not only insulting people but also used the commission’s logo. Bhembe said it was illegal to use the commission’s protected intellectual property, further condemning the act in the strongest terms. He said using the logo of the commission on such posters which were insulting others was portraying the organisation in a wrong way. He explained that if such was seen by people outside the country, they would now view the commission as having endorsed such, yet it was supposed to uphold legal standards and remain impartial.

Bhembe noted that such acts were illegal. He said as a commission, they would spring into action and deal with this. He said they would liaise with the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) to find the person or people behind this, also noting that the individual(s) perpetuating this were contravening the Computer Crime and Cybercrime Act, 2022. He said they would also look at other crimes that the perpetrators may be charged with. Bhembe explained that there was the Computer Crime and Cybercrime Act, 2022, which was meant to criminalise offences committed against and through the usage of computer systems and electronic communications network; to provide for investigation and collection of evidence for computer and network-related crimes and provide for the admission of electronic evidence for such offences.

He said the above law was there to deal with people who were committing crimes through the electronic communications networks like Facebook to defame others. Besides the posters with Cabinet ministers, there were other posts on the same Facebook page against some Members of Parliament (MP). When sought for comment, the Cabinet ministers simply said they had no time to entertain such. Minister Buthelezi said there were many posts on Facebook of this nature, hence he had no comment on such at all. Minister Ngcamphalala also said he had no time to respond to such posts as they did not bother him at all. Ngcamphalala said he was aware where such talks that were written on the posters were coming from but he would not bother himself about this. The minister said the words on the poster were said by a former MP but either way he was not bothered by this. The minister, who is also Sigwe MP, also expressed bewilderment that former MP Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane spoke about him in his ‘family meeting’ because as far as he remembered, he never wronged Simelane.

Confused

Ngcamphalala said he was confused on why Simelane even bothered to talk about Sigwe people and their inkhundla. When sought for comment, Simelane said he chose to confine himself to what he said about Ngcamphalala. “I spoke about him because he is the one who said the regime does not need the reforms that the people were demanding. When we told them in Parliament (about the reforms), he said we are sell-outs, and your paper captured this,” he said. Simelane, who is also the president of SWALIMO, said Ngcamphalala once likened all those who were calling for change as animals on social media. The former MP said in his Facebook address, he was teaching the people to vote-out all MPs whose hands were dripping with the blood of the people who were shot during the unrest.  He said the minister was on record saying any MP calling for political reforms was a sell-out.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: