The Swaziland
News, an online newspaper, has called for an investigation
following a report that a former government minister and members of an elite
group linked to the Swazi Royal Family attempted to poison its political
commentator Mfomfo Nkambule after he wrote articles critical of
absolute monarch King Mswati III.
Nkambule, himself a former government minister, reported he was targeted
at a braai. The Swaziland
News reported
details of the allegation and those said to be involved. A former government
minister and a billionaire businessman were among them, the newspaper alleged.
Swaziland News Managing Editor Zweli Martin
Dlamini said the matter needed to be investigated. ‘That’s how they operate,
they invite you for lunch or a braai and kill you while smiling. It very unfortunate
that in this country you can be killed just for having a different political
opinion,’ he told his own newspaper.
Nkambule had recently written a series of articles for the Swaziland
News criticising the political system in Swaziland / eSwatini. King Mswati
rules as an absolute monarch and political parties are banned from taking part
in elections. The King appoints the government. Groups that advocate for democracy
are outlawed by the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
In a
recent article for the Swaziland News Nkambule wrote, ‘He [the King]
has given us the status of servants in this country. As servants, we do not
have any right whatsoever. We have no right to vote, no right to form political
parties, no right to form a government of our choice, no power to legislate and
to appropriate resources. We need a referendum on the King!’
He added, ‘The King has failed us as a people, and we are no longer
proud of him as our King.’
He wrote, ‘The Swazi King should not practice deceit, dishonesty,
corruption, nepotism, dictatorship, greed, hatred, prejudice, extortion and all
the bad things that happen under the sun.’
Nkambule has been a critic of the political system in Swaziland and the
role of the monarch for many years.
He attracted international attention in 2008 and 2009
for outspoken articles he wrote each week in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.
Nkhambule specialised in criticising Swazi Royalty and
the traditionalists who supported the King.
Nkhambule, who had formerly been Health and Social
Welfare Minister appointed by the King, was hauled in by Swaziland’s state
police and threatened with
torture if he continued to criticise the King.
He was later
dropped from his traditional
regiment, threatened with banishment
from his homeland, and his family
was threatened because he refused to be silenced.
In January 2009,
he told the Times
he had been taken in by state police. ‘They questioned me over the articles I
have been writing. I was also warned that the articles were now taking a
subversive slant and cautioned me that I was now skating on thin ice.’
The Times reported,
‘He said they impressed upon him that the articles were no longer just a column
but were starting to hit on the authorities and could incite people to revolt
against the head of state [the King] and this was beginning to pose a security
threat.’
‘Nkhambule said the officers informed him that as much
as the country had a new constitution, there were still laws that could be used
against him, which were enacted before independence and they had very serious
consequences.’
In April 2009, the Times
dropped
his column without notice.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Swaziland chapter reported at the time that the Times’ Managing Editor
Martin Dlamini denied he was under any pressure from state authorities. Dlamini
said Nkhambule’s column had simply been affected by the routine changes the
newspaper was making with regards to content.
The ban on Nkhambule came in the same week that the Times
was
forced to make an abject apology to King Mswati after
publishing an essentially correct report that he had purchased up to 20
armoured cars for the use of himself and his wives.
See also
‘Times’
drops Swaziland dissident
Swaziland
dissident attacks king
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