TRIBUTE Prince Masitsela passes away at rare age of 92

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5,1&( Masitsela had an un mistakable voice. It was like rumbling thunder and impos sible to ignore. On this day in 19 , its rumbling and agitation was audible from beyond the firmly closed but pa tently ineffective door.

7hat Monday succeeded a weekend everyone at the Ministry of /ocal Ad ministration wished had never hap pened.

+is 5oyal +ighness had fallen victim of a fancy yarn from global scamsters, and had been scalded. +e was more than livid about it. As his career as Minister of /ocal Administration hung tortuously by a thin and badly frayed thread, they let us into his presence.

7he preceding weeks had belonged to snake oil salesmen. 7hey spun wonder ful yarns. Dangling the most wonderful promise to make a once in a lifetime dream come true for the kingdom.

7hey promised to bring no less than Mohamed Ali, the world’s greatest sportsman, for a demonstration match complete with an entertainment pack age of American musicians to die for. Somehow, it had all seemed feasible. 7he dream was headlined by South African master Mournalist Alf .humalo, an enterprising -ohannesburg Sunday 7imes photographer with an avid appe tite for self promotion. 7his was almost

0 years before the advent of the self ie camera.

PERFECTED

%y that )riday, Mbabane crawling with half of South

Africa who had come for the international show. 7he hotels were overflowing and people slept in the open at the

Mbabane &orona tion Park. 7he shop shelves were cleaned bare. 7here was no bread, no milk, no &oca

&ola, no beer, and, of course, no Mohammed

Ali. Swaziland had egg on its face, and everyone looked and pointed blame at the prince.

:hen we fi nally en tered his office, the prince was was with his right hand man, Peter %hengu and Director of Sports and &ulture, Ali 7hwala. +e tried to e[plain the night mare, then ordered that after we wrote his statement, we would present it for him to check before publication.

³7hat’s not done. Ngeke bavume belungu betfu….” protested a col league, &yril Dlamini, provoking a most belligerent rumbling, the sort that precedes lighting “Nitawubatjela nalabo belungu benu,” the prince fired back flaming at the audacity of pushback.

Such was my introduction to Prince Masitsela; a man who over the years we would call Ntabezikude.

SPECIAL

Prince Masitsela was special. +e shared his birthday with -esus &hrist in 19 0. +e was the second born in the Munior section of the eminent /aM gunundvu branch of .ing Sobhuza ll family. /obamba 5oyal 5es idence where Prince Masitsela was born and grew, had pride of place as the principal seat of power and the na tion’s administrative seat from 19 1 when .ing Sobhuza ll was installed, to his demise in 19 .

7here is little doubt that Prince Ma sitsela was a favoured son marked out for special prominence. +is comple[ ion was of the original dark hue that harkened straight from original African brand. A very healthy crop of hair that survived his full 9 years with that pe culiar emblematic forelock characteris tic of the ancient royal line.

Educated at =ombodze, the school that was built specifically for his fa ther to be the first Swazi Monarch to receive formal education, Prince Ma sitsela went on to Swazi National at Matsapha. At this school, .ing Sob huza was almost part of the faculty. +e maintained a youth regiment, Sikhon yane, that he groomed for leadership of a future independent Swaziland, imbuing in them a sense of culture and tradition and pride in a national iden tity. 7his crop was ready for govern ment in 1960. It’s first leader, Mfundza Sukati, the son of the Prime Minister of the time, /omadvokola, went on to lead the Swaziland deputation to the Second :orld :ar, and returned to be come the first Deputy Prime Minister. +is younger brother Msindazwe be came the first ambassador to the USA and United Nations.

AWARENESS

Prince Masitsela Moined government service and worked with the -udiciary and subsequently the postal services. A sense of national identity and political awareness enabled the prince to suc cessfully challenge racial segregation practices that Swaziland subliminally inherited from the South African apart heid system. In 1960 he became &lerk to the Swazi +igher &ourt of Appeal and Must before pre independence political activity, he assumed his first political office becoming his father’s labour affairs adviser to the .ing in &ouncil.

In 196 , .ing Sobhuza ll re sisted %ritish designs for political reforms that had ushered univer sal adult suffrage, and surprised everyone by forming a last min ute political party two months before the -une 196 legislative council elections. Prince Masit sela was one of the winning royal Imbokodvo’s top winners. 7he Im bokodvo went on to win by a landslide in the 196 elections.

Prince Masitsela was clearly his father’s favoured son, seen by his ap pointment into a Munior ministerial position to give him time to learn the ropes. Similarly appointed was Prince %hekimpi, who, along with Prince Ma sitsela, was Assistant Minister at the DPMs Office. Prince Masitsela rose to &abinet rank as Minister of /ocal

Administration in 19 , while Prince %hekimpi stayed assistant minister un til becoming PM in 19 .

Prince Masitsela spent his entire life in the public eye. +is charisma, sense of humour and wit made him a valuable inspiration for national dialogue.

Sagacious, the prince would often be ahead of his time. 7he unfolding new era of a fresh new .ing, Prince Masit sela was one of the leading voices for modest political reforms to modernise the country out of the 19 State of Emergency that froze constitutional ism.

UNGUARDED

Prince Masitsela often spoke his mind, with unguarded comments that would often unfurl public fury of na tional comment.

It was the prince who once observed of the higher status of royalty as the elect of god. 7hat µ&loser to *od’ state ment came back to snap on his heels in subsequent years.

At a Swazi National &ouncil meeting at the /udzidzini, Prince Masitsela’s e[asperation with certain sentiments elicited another national gem “Niyatihhamula nje,” suggesting debate for the sake of venting steam.

Prince Masitsela was e[emplary in his sense of respect and duty. As 5e gional Administrator for Manzini, the prince regularly hosted meetings of chiefs. :hen he addressed them as µmy fathers’ and µ+is MaMesty’s *uardians’, he e[uded a palpable sense of the es teem with which he held the institution that he represented. +e could be ortho do[, and also e[tremely unorthodo[. )or the better part of 0 years, Prince Masitsela was among the national lead ers mobilising the response against +I9. %y 006, the evidence suggested that circumcision is almost the silver bullet for +I9 prevention, which re quired that men take the cut. 7he furore that met the suggestion was chorus.

Some chiefs especially resisted the cut, arguing that it would interfere with the one symbol of genuine Swaziness. +ow, they asked, would a Swazi wear his gourd after circumcision. It was a nonsense argument that Prince Masit sela cut short. :hen the debate was opened at a meeting in Manzini, the prince ordered the room cleared of the ill qualified, and in the presence of men, shifted his loin skins left to show chiefs he was circumcised but still proudly wore his gourd.

7he people of Africa are most con centrated in two countries. Ethiopia the second most populous African nation, and the giant, Nigeria. As minister of /ocal Administration, Prince Masit sela visited both. As +is MaMesty .ing Sobhuza ll’s envoy, Prince Masitsela carried a special message to +is Im perial MaMesty +aile Selassie. Selassie was a highly respected global icon, a member of the Solomonic dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I, believed to be the son of .ing Solo mon and Makeda the 4ueen of Sheba. +aile Selassie was undefeated pride of Africa and a beacon of hope and pride who was an inspiration for the entire Af rican race. +e was almost untouchable in African mythology, having resisted colonialism and thrown Italy out of Africa. )i[ated in his culture and pres tige, Selassie was unaware of a natural disaster, the 19 drought that brought famine and people suffering; and was too slow to notice change when people were politicised into national rebellion that ended his dynasty in 19 .

WEALTH

%uoyed by oil wealth, Nigerians were at their Prime in 19 . :hen Nige rians put on a show, they e[cel. Such a show they put up for the )estival of African Arts and &ulture. /agos has so many people that even in the rain, there would be more people lining a street than the entire 19 population of Swa ziland. Prince Masitsela in an official escorted flag bearing limousine forded through throngs of cheering people waving happily. It was a sight to make anyone drunk. As +is 5oyal +ighness waved back on his side of the window, he turned to acknowledge cheers on the other side of the street, only to find that his assistant, Peter %hengu was also waving ceremoniously.

/egend says the rumbling thunder broke through the cheers “Yehlisa sandla %hengu, abasho kuwe.”

Such was the reach of the reputation of a prince who was blessed to live and enMoy his life to the full. As a person and stature, he symbolised the best of roy alty. +is emblematic cars spoke of his awareness of self and fortune from years of toil and business.

7he wealth of every nation is its peo ple. Prince Masitsela was such a valu able presence that when he responded to the call of his maker this week, death deleted much of what we could have kept. +e is possibly one of the few peo ple who understood the substance and significance of the current national tur bulence for what it might be. 9ignettes of political commentators suggest that he was in the political wilderness of outlier views. One day, a biography will be written of such an illustrious man, and much may be learnt.

(Courtesy pics) Prince Masitsela during one of his trips in his early days. (INSET) Prince Masitsela back in the days.