Kenworthy News Media
Former student leader and
human rights activist Musa Ngubeni was
convicted of contravening Swaziland’s Explosives Act of 1961 by magistrate Joe
Gumedze on Tuesday (14 May 2019).
He was whisked away to
prison after the conviction and is expected to appear in court on 21 May for
sentencing, writes Kenworthy News Media.
Musa Ngubeni was arrested
together with student leader Maxwell Dlamini in 2011 and charged with
contravening the Explosives Act. They were both arrested during protests
against absolute monarch King Mswati III’s government.
According to Ngubeni and
Maxwell Dlamini they were subjected to torture during their interrogation.
‘I was tied to a bench with
my face looking upwards and they suffocated me with the black plastic bag with
a huge police officer on my stomach. They [Swazi police] asked me where the
guns were and who was going to come to Swaziland to overthrow the king. They
did that over and over again till I collapsed. They told me that they will kill
me for causing trouble in the country,’ Dlamini said at the time.
Amnesty International
mentioned Musa Ngubeni and Maxwell Dlamini in their 2012 and 2013
reports. Amongst other things, Amnesty said that they were held
incommunicado without access to a lawyer or contact with their families, that
they were denied legal access while in police custody and during their hearing
at the magistrate’s Court, and that they were subsequently released in remand
custody and placed under oppressive bail conditions.
They were both released on
bail in 2012 under strict bail conditions, including having to report to the
police four times a week. Their trial resumed in 2014, where Dlamini was
acquitted.
Ngubeni and Dlamini both
insisted that the charges against them were fabricated and political, and that
the state had stalled their case for three years due to lack of evidence.
A mysterious brown shoe
box, that was allegedly found near Ngubeni’s home in Mbikwakhe when he was
arrested in 2011 and was supposed to have contained explosives, detonators and
wires, was never produced in court.
Initially a witness for the
prosecution had claimed that the box was too dangerous to bring to court. Later
the box was claimed to have exploded after a South African bomb expert had
tried to assemble it.
The trial has been
described as a farce by Swaziland’s democratic movement. Amongst other things
because testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were untruthful and
contradicted each other, because the pair were interrogated by what appeared to
be hired South African Police investigators without the presence of Ngubeni’s
and Dlamini’s lawyers, and because Ngubeni and Dlamini appeared in court on
occasion without legal representation.
‘Ngubeni’s conviction comes
at a time where the Swazi monarchy is tightening its grip on power, as
political parties remain banned since 1973. Political dissidents are either
jailed, tortured or exiled,’ says former President of youth organization
SWAYOCO, Bheki Dlamini.
Freedom House rates
Swaziland as one of the least free countries in the world, on par with the
Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Arab Emirates.
‘Safeguards against
arbitrary arrest and detention, such as time limits on detention without
charge, are not always respected in practice. Lengthy pretrial detention is
common,’ the organization wrote in their latest report on Swaziland.
Musa Ngubeni was
chairperson of the student representative council at the University of
Swaziland in 2008/09. He graduated with a bachelor of laws in 2010, after which
he worked for the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice.
He was presently finishing
his Master’s degree in Law at the University of South Africa.
See also
Profile
of Musa Ngubeni
‘Lack
of evidence in bomb case’
'Police
will kill terror suspect'
Court
case against activists a ‘farce’
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