Zweli Martin Dlamini, the editor of the Swaziland
News, has fled Swaziland (eSwatini) for the second time after being arrested
and tortured by police who accused him of sedition.
Dlamini told South Africa Broadcasting Corporation’s
(SABC) Media Monitor
programme on Sunday (8 March 2020) police raided his home after he published articles
in the online newspaper that were critical of King Mswati III, who rules
Swaziland as an absolute monarch.
Dlamini said police raided his home at about 5.30 am
with a search warrant and took away his laptop and electronic gadgets. He said
they took a photograph of his four-year-old son and asked which preschool he
attended.
Dlamini was then taken to Mbabane police station where
20 officers were waiting for him. They questioned him about an article he wrote
in the newspaper headlined ‘King
Mswati’s speech is actually a lie from the throne’ which criticised the
King’s speech at the opening of parliament on 31 January 2020. They also
questioned him over an article: ‘Buganu: Who gave
the King power to call our wives for a sex ceremony.’
Dlamini said in his interview, ‘They [police] said now
that I am before them I must forget about my rights.’
Zweli Martin Dlamini
He added, ‘They then suffocated me with a plastic bag.
They tied me up.’
He was released after about eight hours. He told SABC
he left Swaziland to get a medical check-up following the police assault. He
said he did not feel safe to return to the kingdom.
He said he thought King Mswati had a hand in his
arrest and the King had pressurised police to deal with him over his articles.
On 7 February
2020, The Swaziland News reported Dlamini was being harassed and receiving death threats from King Mswati’s first born
daughter Princess Sikhanyiso, who is the Minister of Information Communication and
Technology.
Dlamini
had previously fled to South Africa in fear of his life in 2018. He had
received death threats from a local businessman and his newspaper Swaziland
Shopping was shut down by the Swazi government.
See also
Exiled
editor Zweli Martin Dlamini to return to Swaziland
‘Editor
flees after death threat’
Swazi
Government forces newspaper to close
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