Eswatini back on SADC Troika agenda
MBABANE – It remains to be seen if Eswatini will be represented by His Majesty the King in the forthcoming Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit to be held in South Africa.
The extraordinary summit of the security organ of SADC is scheduled for July 21, according to South African online media Daily Maverick.
It was confirmed that Eswatini was on the agenda during the forthcoming summit, but questions remained unanswered if the King would be in attendance.
However, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thuli Dladla said it was news to her that the King would attend the summit. “It is news to me,” she said when asked if His Majesty would be in attendance.
“It is true that I am not aware that the King will be in attendance. I only received the correspondence on Friday,” she said.
Dladla, however, did confirm that Eswatini was indeed on the agenda.
Director of Communications at the King’s Office Percy Simelane also directed questions to the minister.
Meanwhile, the Daily Maverick quoted the Department of International Relations and Security Cooperation announcing the summit on Thursday.
The South African online paper quoted sources who told the publication (Daily Maverick) that: “The main item would be the proposed national political dialogue in Eswatini. They said it had been unclear for some time if King Mswati and his government would attend, but that this had now been confirmed.”
RAMAPHOSA TO CHAIR SUMMIT
The summit will be chaired by President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, as South Africa currently chairs SADC’s security organ. The other two current members of the organ troika are Namibia and Botswana and so their presidents are also scheduled to attend.
SADC Troika, under the leadership of Ramaphosa, initially sent a team on a fact finding mission to the country in June last year, at the height of political turmoil in which the Human Rights reported 46 people were killed, shops were looted and several structures and trucks were burnt.
Later on, President Ramaphosa sent a special envoy in Jeff Hadebe who convened meetings with concerned parties. Towards the end of the year, Ramaphosa came in person and convened a meeting with His Majesty the King behind closed doors.
SADC had then compiled a report which was not made public.There have been other Troika meetings where the issue of Eswatini was not discussed but those of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other States. This has caused some proponents of change to lose confidence in SADC as a solution to the impasse.
The Daily Maverick quoted Thulani Maseko, a Human Rights Lawyer who chairs the Multi-Stakeholders Forum that has been coordinating political and civil society demands for a fully inclusive national political dialogue, welcoming the announcement of the SADC summit on Thursday. “It is good news that SADC is meeting. It is equally encouraging that the Eswatini Government has agreed to attend,” he said.
“The SADC facilitated process has to move forward. It cannot be held to ransom forever.” Maseko said SADC’s intervention was necessary to arrest the violence; where members of the police service were being targeted and the general political environment had become more volatile.
He hoped that SADC would persuade the King to agree on a dialogue process with firm timelines that could be shared with the leaders of the pro-democracy movement and on the need to create a political climate for talks to begin in earnest.