TERRORISM ACT USED AGAINST PRO-DEMOCRACY PEOPLE - LAWYER

MANZINI – “The Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 is used against people in the pro-democracy movement, says a human rights lawyer.”

Human Rights Lawyer Mzwandile Masuku, who is the son of deceased former President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) Mario Masuku, said this when addressing attendees of the Oslo Freedom Forum 2023. The Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is an internationally recognised conference for democracy and human rights, which began as a group of roughly 200 individuals, who gathered in the Norwegian capital in 2009, to celebrate the survivors of Communism and Nazism. On Wednesday, Masuku informed the attendees that while the Suppression of Terrorism Act was allegedly used as a target for dissenting voices, the lawyers who represented the people charged under this Act were accused of promoting terrorism. He said because of this, they (lawyers) tended to be intimidated.

Assassination

“One of my colleagues survived an assassination attack and Maseko did not. For the first time in a while, I’ve not worried while walking around in Oslo of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) following me or monitoring my movements with white unmarked South African registered cars,” he said. The human rights lawyer claimed that the late Human Rights Lawyer, Thulani Maseko, was one of the lawyers who challenged the presence of the military personnel in schools, the shutdown of the internet and the arrest of minors. “What is happening in my country could have been avoided as now there are parallel attacks happening,” he alleged. He said this could have been avoided by listening to the peaceful protesters. Mzwandile said Eswatini was a small country calling for intervention, but the pleas became background noise.  The lawyer claimed that the intervention of the Western countries had assisted in the release of Maseko when he was imprisoned in 2014. He appealed for the same to be applied even now instead of the ‘lukewarm’ posture that was seemingly adopted by many diplomats. Mzwandile said Maseko, a long time mentor and partner, was gunned down in front of his wife and children. He said he could not get the voice of Tanele (wife) when informing him that Maseko was cold. The human rights lawyer informed the gathering that Tanele described to him an assignment executed by a skilled assassin.

Wondered

He said when he received the news of Maseko’s demise while he was with his family, he subsequently prayed that ‘if this (execution) should happen, it should happen away from their families’. Subsequent to this, he claimed to have wondered who was next as there were talks of an assassination list for the pro-democracy movement. Alpheous Nxumalo, the Government Spokesperson, said Mzwandile needed to be reminded that he who alleges must prove his allegations. “As government, we are far from being deterred by such false narratives whose sole purpose is to deliberately delay, derail and divert investigations into the murder of Mr Maseko and many other emaSwati, including members of the national security services, a chief and ordinary citizens of the country,” Nxumalo said.

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