Is Alpheous now a politician?

FEARS of many emaSwati of being intimidated by the presence of police during the civic and voter education – political indoctrination to some – conducted by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) in preparation for the forthcoming parliamentary elections have become a reality to one Bheki Masilela of Lomahasha Inkhundla after he was visited and interrogated by the police at his workplace over his comments in the press about shortcomings of a similar civic and voter education exercise in his constituency. Apparently, Masilela ventilated his frustrations in our sister publication, Eswatini News, over the conduct of the EBC, specifically for conducting the civic and voter education exercise at the inkhundla centre instead of at umphakatsi as per the regulations.

Furthermore, Masilela had bemoaned the fact that, despite the 2018 recommendation by the EBC for the constituency to have three bucopho instead of the current two, this had still not been implemented.

He also generally protested what he termed neglect of his constituency, in particular uMkhangala area, which he said was missing out on development since it was remote and the bucopho who was supposed to be serving them lived very far from his community.

Resouces

This innocent exercise of freedom of speech and expression has landed Masilela in trouble with the police to the extent that they expended public resources by proceeding to his workplace to question him about his exercise, through the press, of this fundamental human right.

Significantly, a number of participants had felt intimidated to freely express themselves by the presence of police officers during the EBC civic and voter education across the nation. This was in the aftermath of the killings, by the security forces, of an as yet unconfirmed number of political activists during and post the June 2021 pro-multiparty protests, which a Human Rights Commission inspection report put at 46 pending a fully blown investigation that has still not been deemed necessary. In the wake of Masilela’s experiences, this would appear that these fears have been validated. The Masilela incident is not isolated because it is reminiscent to what happened to one elderly Mkhaliphi for speaking the truth to power during Sibaya.

He was, thereafter, reportedly hounded by the police who periodically visited his home, assaulted and tortured him without charging him with any crime, an experience that was said to have traumatised his wife to her early grave.

Cases

As I see it, the action of the police in the Masilela, Mkhaliphi and possibly many other unreported cases, make them appendages of the Tinkhundla political system and, therefore, a weapon of choice at the disposal of government and the leadership to deal with critics of the political system other than an autonomous law enforcement agency.

That is why no investigations into the massacres during and post the June 2021 protests have been sanctioned by the powers that be ostensibly because they were at their behest. To date government has remained silent – claiming ignorance – about the nocturnal operations of bands of highly armed and well-resourced vigilantes enforcing an illegal curfew on citizens.

Yet just at about the same time of the Masilela episode, Government Press Secretary Alpheous Nxumalo – I have often wondered if he still retains the position/title of Reverend given his frosty relationship with the truth – was in defence of his political masters over accusations of violations of human rights in the face of processes by the American Congress to slap them with targeted sanctions. To him and his masters, the killings during and post June 2021 protests never happened and, therefore, are not ‘political fact and reality’. That emaSwati have been denied the exercise of their fundamental human rights, notably freedom of speech, is also not ‘political fact and reality’. What of the empirical evidence of the leashing of the media from reporting freely, a challenge belaboured and acknowledged during the May 3 World Press Freedom commemoration by journalists and other stakeholders.

Ironically the Judiciary has been party to the systemic silencing of the media as attested to by the imposition of punitive fines in defamation cases brought against the press. A diabolical judgment infringing on press freedom was the silencing of this newspaper from publishing articles on the undercurrents surrounding the initial licencing of the Farmers Bank by the Central Bank of Eswatini. This Judiciary-imposed ignominious ban deprived the public, including stakeholders, of vital information on what informed the approval of the licence while also undermining transparency and accountability, cornerstones of good governance. Why should a licencing process be secretive?

As I see it, Nxumalo and his ilk have connived to author and promote an erroneous and false narrative that those calling for political reforms in this kingdom are ‘seeking to overthrow the obtaining political system of the Kingdom of Eswatini, through the use of violence, destruction, intimidation, revolution’. This narrative has been twisted to justify the State-sanctioned extrajudicial mass killing of protestors during and post the June 2021 protests when those perpetrating violence and destruction of property should have been charged and brought before the courts for a fair trial.

The fact is that the June 2021 protests were a culmination of decades-long demands for the restoration of the independence political dispensation that guaranteed fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Resolution

In the face of all these, the question remains unanswered to date is if the office of the Government Press Secretary is now political. The incumbent has previously dabbled in the functions, operations and performance of elected Members of Parliament (MPs).

Now he wants to meet Senator Christopher Coons, a politician and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the US Congress, who co-authored a resolution calling for targeted sanctions against individuals who have grossly violated human rights in this kingdom. This evidently falls within the purview of politicians and outside of Nxumalo’s functions and office. Or has government given him carte blanche?