EmaSwati not safe

REPORTS of marauding heavily armed and richly resourced balaclava-disguised force(s) enforcing nocturnal but illegal curfew on the citizenry across the nation seem to be gaining traction yet government, including its security apparatus, continues to deny knowledge – let alone sanctioning these secretive operations – of what already is an open secret which, paradoxically, calls into question its leadership credentials in the face of its inability to guarantee the safety of emaSwati. Yet to date government has not come out to condemn, as it did attacks on and the murders of members of the security forces by the so-called underground solidarity forces, the illegal curfews being enforced on the citizenry by the shadowy heavily armed group(s).

Just how possible is it for private militia(s) to force the nation into an illegal curfew without the knowledge, collusion, approval or authority of government? The odds of this happening are heavily weighed against the government backed by a body of some damning evidence.

Operations

For starters, the military-styled operations involve foreign registered double cab vans leased by government and predominantly used by the security establishment. This shadowy military force is richly resourced with military-style automatic weapons and have, at their disposal, the use of drone(s), according to eyewitnesses and some victims of their assaults and torture. While police and the army are both dismissive of these operations, one eyewitness, who survived the brutal assault and torture at the hands of this shadowy force, claimed that when he proceeded to open a case at the police station he was turned away after being informed that these secretive operations under the cloak of darkness had been sanctioned from above.

As I see it, another damning evidence is the profiles of those who have been the targets of these operations and survived to tell of their ordeals. Notably the victims are known political activists affiliated to some of the political groups advocating for multiparty democracy, the very nemesis of the Tinkhundla political hegemony.

Eliminate

One does not need to be part of the intelligence community or a genius to deduce what is happening here; it is political cleansing that is meant to either eliminate, spread fear and panic within the ranks of proponents of multiparty democracy to ensure that in the unlikely event the State is finally pressured into convening a national dialogue – which it is pretending to be in support of without as much as displaying the political commitment to make it happen – it would have sanitised the political environment to its advantage by neutralising its detractors. Dissenting voices would have been permanently silenced and the stage tailor-made an exclusive preserve of and dominated by the stomach-politics driven supporters of the system to prostrate themselves and sing for their supper with praises of the ruinous system while demonising multiparty democracy and its proponents as demonic and enemies of the State. Drivers of this strategy hope socio-political stability would be returned and emaSwati would live happily ever after.

Except events may not roll-out according to this script. The unintended consequences of this apparent war of attrition to finish-off or neutralise proponents of multiparty democracy could, in fact, be sowing the seeds of revolution. For the reality is that the majority of those involved in the struggle have nothing to lose except their lives that have been rendered worthless and useless by the State.

Added to this, among this constituency are survivors, families, relatives and friends of those who perished at the instance of the State during and post the June, 2021, protests. Thus what the State has strategised as a solution to quell the demands for political reforms could, in fact, trigger a conflagration bigger than anything this country has ever experienced in its history.

This theory is rooted in government’s continued excuses for not convening a national dialogue; first, it was because of Incwala and, thereafter, the political climate was not conducive. The fact is government and the leadership were on shaky and uncertain ground to allow the national dialogue to happen without feeling threatened. Power, given its intoxicating nature, is not easily relinquished especially voluntarily without some form of resistance until and unless the holder is mortally weakened. In addition, formations like Mangololo and, recently, the group that does not want the national dialogue, did not just happen. They are part of a grand strategy to change the narrative apropos the need for a national dialogue as unnecessary and undesirable by emaSwati, end of story.

Shortly after the newest kids on the political block opposed to a national dialogue emerged – distributing T-shirts branded ‘we don’t want dialogue’ plus E100 incentive – Mangololo came alive by threatening court action against anyone calling for dialogue. There is a convergence of ideas which by no stretch of imagination was coincidental.

Dialogue

It is part of a grand stratagem. Intriguingly, Mangololo’s latest stand on the subject of a national dialogue is in contradiction to that of government, which has publicly committed itself to dialogue yet minus the political wherewithal to make it happen, leaving even SADC with egg on its face. It is all meant to put wool over our eyes ostensibly because government has time and again displayed a loathsome posture that suggests that the people are intellectual dwarfs incapable of thinking and analysis. As can be expected, government denied sponsoring the latest stuntmen opposed to dialogue just as it did in the case of Mangololo. But like Mangololo, the no dialogue camp appears to be well funded too, as ably demonstrated by the distribution of free T-shirts plus E100 to the public. Does that not sound and look familiar?

Government compartmentalised the activities of the solidarity forces targeting members of the security forces under the umbrella of terrorism, which leads to the question of what do we, since government has claimed ignorance of their existence, categorise the operations of the shadowy militia(s) targeting pro-multiparty activists, the State’s political nemesis.