UNTIL FRIDAY THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT TALKING - MAKHUBU

MBABANE -“Until Friday, this country was not talking. Everything was muted while we suffered bad leadership.”
This is a statement shared by The Nation Magazine Editor Bheki Makhubu following the statements he made during the Eswatini Editors Forum breakfast meeting that was held at Mountain View Hotel last Friday. During his submission, Makhubu told Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini that he is the worst. This happened after the PM had given a response that had an unpleasant tone directed at Times of Eswatini Managing Editor (ME) Martin Dlamini. The PM’s unpleasant tone came in the form of him saying that questions posed by the ME were just opinions, yet most of them were issues of public interest and touched on service delivery. Also, some of the questions were focused on issues that have been raised in other forums, including Parliament and Sibaya. Martin first acknowledged the PM for presenting the Government Policy Statement and then posed his questions.

Confidence

Among other things, the ME expressed his loss of confidence in the arrests currently taking place within the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), stating that only the ‘small fry’ was being arrested, not the ‘big fish’. Also, he said he had no confidence in the Judiciary itself, since cases dragged on for too long. He then asked if the PM would make it a priority that the Judiciary issues are sorted. The ME said the PM’s government is creating high expectations, especially reading from the Policy Statement and that the country is from an era where the nation gathered at the Sibaya and demanded that actions needed to be louder than words. Also, the ME said there was an expectation from a promise of excellence in terms of service delivery, but that he is extremely disappointed by the implementation. The ME asked to know how far government has gone in terms of solving the drug shortage in public hospitals and whether those who were found to have contributed to the challenge had been taken to task.

When it was time for the PM to respond to the ME, he first asked to know which is better looking down upon oneself and believing they are useless or creating hope for the country and pointing her towards the right direction. “In fact, I am very disappointed, I must say. Maybe, that will come towards the end of my response. It is extraordinarily important that all of us when we come out of this place, come out jubilant and excited that government has good intentions.

Documentation

“In fact, if you look at the old strategies that people have in most organisations, it is just a documentation of what has been done, what needs to be done, whether you sleep or wake up, whether there is a useless leader or not, it has to be done. Is that what you expect us to do? No. We want our plans to be ambitious,” he said. He said in any case, the plans he spoke of are not a thumbsuck but are a mandate from concerns raised by the people at Sibaya. “If you think that creates high expectations, too bad. That is our mandate and we will pursue it, otherwise, we will have to sleep and not come to the office.”

Regarding the issue of the ACC arresting only the ‘small fry’, the PM said that was just an opinion. The PM then accused the Times Group of Newspapers of always focusing on the negative and that he did not expect anything positive from them. “I am saying this because I mean, you have to get what you give me. In terms of arrests, if you think the ACC is not doing its job, it is your own opinion, it is negative. Disappointed by the lack of a proper plan for schools, it is your own opinion, take it,” said the PM. In a statement, Makhubu said after the June unrest, the King condemned the violence that had occurred in the country during the two years from 2021. He said he was on record as a liSwati who had also stood against the violence. According to Makhubu, the King said we must talk to one another as emaSwati and not fight and said that several times.

Command

“I took on the command on Friday and spoke out about the kind of leadership we have in the country.  Most importantly though, I got the whole country to carry out the King’s command. We are talking, debating robustly and disagreeing ferociously about the issue at hand. People on both sides of the debate have their blood pressures (BPs) hitting the roof, but there is no violence,” Makhubu said. He stated that this is how a nation is built, as people must talk.  Furthermore, he mentioned that until last Friday, this country was allegedly not talking.

Makhubu mentioned that everything was allegedly muted while they suffered bad leadership.  Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Campaign for Free Expression, Anton Harber said they were extremely concerned by the PM’s alleged intolerant attitude to the media and his lack of appreciation for critical and independent opinions.  Harber alleged that the PM fails to recognise that it is the journalist’s role to ask tough questions, even when it is uncomfortable.  “It would be a major mistake for the PM to withdraw from such meetings as a result. Eswatini needs more dialogue, discussion and information flow, not less,” he said. He stated that dealing with the media is not optional for politicians but it is part of their basic democratic duty. According to Harber, there needs to be mutual respect from each side, for the different and important roles both politicians and journalists play.

Human rights lawyer criticises govt’s decision on Editors Forum
MBABANE -  Human Rights Lawyer Sipho Gumedze has criticised government’s decision to cease quarterly engagements with the Editors Forum, calling it ‘an immature move”.
According to Gumedze, the decision was made hastily and out of anger, undermining the importance of open dialogue between the government and the media.  He emphasised the need for continued engagement to ensure transparency and accountability. Government took a decision to no longer engage with the Editors Forum on a quarterly basis throughout the year as was previously done; government said that it will now host monthly media conferences.
The new strategy, according to Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, will be structured in such a way that the Prime Minister (PM), Russell Mmiso Dlamini, will brief the media on national issues and the work of government plus respond to questions of public interest. This time around, according to Nxumalo, it will be up to the media houses to decide who they send to be part of the conferences. The latest developments come after an incident, which occurred during the breakfast meeting held on Friday, where The Nation Magazine Editor Bheki Makhubu took on the PM and accused him of being hostile towards the media. Nxumalo said this is with a view to continuing to promote transparency, integrity, accountability and openness between the government and the nation. “Government also wishes to provide clarity that the now defunct ‘Editors Forum’, was actually an initiative of the Office of the Prime Minister, not the other way round as it seems suggested on some social media platforms,” he said. In reaction, Gumedze said government has an obligation to inform the public.

Component

He said the media is a critical component of any democratic State and if they say the country is a democratic State, then it has to deal with the media, involve it in the dissemination of information. “If government will rely on only State-owned media, it runs the risk of having the entities as classified by other nations as a propaganda machinery,” Gumedze said.
According to Gumedze, there is absolutely no way journalists employed by government can provide critical analysis of whatever government is saying. He stated that their mandate, responsibility and duty is to the government. “Their responsibility is not to the people, yet independent media, its duty is to the people,” he said. Adding, he alleged that the government’s decision was made in anger and he does not know if the anger was justified or not. 

On the same note, the Eswatini National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) Secretary General (SG), Ntombi Mhlongo said the most unfortunate part is that, at this point, they do not know how the media conferences are going to be structured. Mhlongo said even though they were promised that each media house could send their representatives, the truth is they do not know how the media conferences will be structured, or whether they will be able to pose any questions to the PM.  According to Mhlongo, the fear they have at this point is that maybe there are some questions they will not be able to ask or things might not be the same as the Editors Forum meetings.

She stated that this brought fear and curiosity because, during the breakfast meetings, there was freedom to ask questions. “This showed the freedom of expression that government is committed to promoting in the country. We do not know where we stand as far as freedom of expression is concerned. As the media, we do not know how far our freedom reaches. There is fear that, what if in the monthly media conferences, we are not able to ask the critical questions we want answers to? Mhlongo questioned. Adding, she said, maybe government rushed to announce the end in the breakfast meetings without engaging deeply on the matter.Mhlongo stated that at times when one does not agree on a matter, there is a need to discuss and correct whatever issues that have arisen. “In life, there are times when one decides in the heat of the moment, yet the truth of the matter is, one has to take a breather and analyse the matter.  

Statement

Government was too quick to decide on the way forward. Government did not give itself time to analyse how they could do things better,” she said. According to Mhlongo, they believe that government should have called the Editors Forum and engaged with them, to come up with a solution. “The fact that immediately after whatever happened, there is a press statement, it raises a lot of questions,” she said. Meanwhile, the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Journalism Lecturer, Dr Maxwell Mthembu, said whether government changes the structure of these meetings is not important but what is important is that the media will still continue to ask questions.  He said he does not have any problem as long as the media will get an audience and ask the relevant questions.

According to Dr Mthembu, it does not matter who attends the media conferences, but they need people who will ask questions that touch on people.He explained that government should account for the people and it is the media’s responsibility to represent the people and questions on behalf of the people.“Whether the editor’s form has been stopped is immaterial. What matters is that the media should ask questions. It is the media’s responsibility to ask questions on the powers that be,” Dr Mthembu said.

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