‘ Cry beloved country: Lafa elihle kakhulu’
CRY our beloved country!This quotation is a title of one book, which had been written by two South Africans the English version was written by one white South African man while the IsiZulu version was written by one black South African Zulu intellectual man who was a teacher. Both authors were crying out about what the white racist government had decided to do which was declaring and perfecting the apartheid system of separate development system ( or Bantustan). This system created poor black states, thereby forcing the majority of black people to be strangers in their own ancestral lands or their country in 1960. This forcedthem to move to towns and cities in which they could only work, using ‘ Dom Passes’.
Today my article focuses on the Sibaya and what it achieved or failed to achieve for the benefit of this nation. While I totally sympathise with my King for his disappointment in what took place around the country in the past weeks which was characterised by high levels of looting and destructions of businesses on the one hand and mass killings of our innocent citizens on the other hand who are allegedly said to have been killed by the army.
However, I am also in total agreement with my King when he said this all could have been avoided, had we followed our known practice of solving our conflicts which we do through discussions and healthy dialogues, rather than through violence as we have seen in the past weeks! On this, I actually salute my King and say” BAYETHE.! WENA WAPHAKATHI!!!”
SPECULATIONS
I also fully understand his frustrations which arose from speculations that he could have left his country while it was burning, for an unknown destination. On this, I fully sympathise with my King, and pray that he is able to soon forgive those who speculated and pushed these lies but instead, focus on the recovery of this nation.
However, this article is about addressing what happened at the Sibaya including the appointment of our new prime minister, as well as who he is. Much of my focus will be on what then followed, as we saw it in the media, both local and foreign.
In our local media, we saw many comments which were blaming the three members of Parliament who started the campaign about the need for electoral reforms in the country including amendment of the Constitution, so that the people can freely and directly elect their prime minister. There were also very embarrassing comments in Saturday’s print media, where some characters who even called themselves pastors or reverends, blamed these young people and accused them of wanting to remove the King’s powers to appoint a prime minister.
Surely, these must be people who truly do not believe in the Bible. For the Bible demands that rulers ( kings and queens and other rulers who are privileged to rule over others) are called by God to rule justly! And ruling justly means ruling in a way which places people’s interests first than those of the ruler.! See what
God Himself says about this. In 2nd Samuel 23: 3:’ God says this ” And the God of Israel said this ” The Rock of Israel spoke to me and said:” He who rules over men must be just ruling in the fear of God.” Can we say we have evidence that indeed, our rulers do actually rule us in the fear of God? Do we have any evidence of that claim?
The answer is a simple and a big:” N0!” Simply because they ( Pastors) never want to tell the truth which the rulers may not be happy with instead, they continue to mislead our rulers ( leaders), by telling them that in fact God accepts whatever they do just to get favours from these leaders. This is why Africa is now a failed continent, it is because the majority of its leaders chose to rule against God’s demands, something our country shall soon become if we do not listen to what these young MPs and the protesters are saying and demanding.
Then there are those of you who chose to talk to the foreign media, especially the electronic media in South Africa including the Al Jazeera, which I saw for the first time in our country, in its 10 years of existence. In fact both the BBC and Al- Jazeera portrayed our case as if it was quite similar to what was happening in South Africa itself as well as the troubles in Cuba, Haiti, and Ethiopia. Ours was even worse because, comments on the appointment of the new prime minister were that not only was his appointment unconstitutional, but that he himself was not the right person this is for this position because he divorced his wife simply because she was ” too religious and prayed too much.” They then asked this question:” What kind of a leader is he going to be if he does not believe in those who trust God and depend on Him through their prayers? And why must emaSwati trust him?”
Of course, I shall not repeat some of the accusations or allegations some people levelled against him and why the Swazi National Council recommended him to our King and not people such as MP Lutfo Dlamini. This is because I actually do not know the man and therefore know nothing about those allegations but what I can say to him, now that he is our Prime Minister, is this ” If your appointment was made by our God, through His advice and leadership to our King to choose you, then you must go in there and be true to our God and His people. Serve our Monarch with truth and honesty refuse to be controlled by the faceless cabals who are fast destroying our country and our institution of Monarchy! That you be humble enough and listen to the Cabinet you are Inhering because they have been there for close to three full years now, having developed a “Development Strategy “you shall have to support.
Note too that I am in full agreement with those who say that your appointment was not only unconstitutional, but also unfair because there was a popularly elected and well known member of parliament in the House, Lutfo Dlamini That although you did not chose yourself but were recommended by some faceless cabals who expect something from you now that you are the prime minister, you must think about Lutfo Dlamini and his potential role in Cabinet.
My advice to you is simply this: that you seriously consider Lutfo for the position of the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, a ministry he led so successfully fully complying with the demands from the ILO, and saving our country from economic sanctions. These were being imposed by the United States of America in 2000 after the faceless cabals and the late Prime Minister Dr. Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini had distorted the Industrial Relations Act of 2000 by criminalising the Unions ‘ rights to Mass Action a misconduct which earned this country its first condemnation by the ILO Annual Conference.
FEDERATION
It took Lutfo, working with the employers federation, to assist His Majesty to accept the corrections he had put through Parliament thereby getting President Clinton’s administration to withdraw the sanctions and get the country onto AGOA!! This was Lutfo Dlamini who saved our country. Therefore think about the fact that he is in parliament and we currently do not have a minister of Labour.
Then there are those who commented, as they left Sibaya on Friday. For instance there were those who said:” Removing the King’s Powers to appoint the Prime Minister is unwise.” Such a claim can only come from people who have never read the election observers’ reports over many years especially those from the Commonwealth for the 2003,2008 and 2013 elections. All these reports continued common thread or request from the Government that they are passionately calling on this nation and leadership, to urgently amend the Constitution such that it allows for emaSwati to be the ones who elect their government, including the prime minister thereby removing the Monarch from being seen as directly in control of all the three arms of government which is a form of dictatorship. These reports emphasize the fact that the current set up results in this country lacking an independent judiciary! That such a situation was serious and needed reform. Which then is why both the BBC and the AlJazeera had both described our king as:” Africa’s Last Absolute Monarch who controls the country’s wealth.” Do such remarks make our King to be seen as one who cares for his people? And can such a country be attractive to foreign direct investments? From my business knowledge and experience, the answer is a big ‘ N0!’
What is wrong here, is that there are people who want the world and our national leaders to demonise the stand by the three MPs who have called for political reforms not because they want to:” take away the powers of the King,” but because they have studied these reports, as well as the Constitution itself. Part111 provides for all the basic human rights, including that of freely electing their own government through their freely chosen political parties.
What we need to emphasize here is that these three young MPs have not, at any stage, committed an act which would be said to have been intended to undermine the powers of our King. Instead, they are simply calling for the implementation of all the reports of the elections observer teams, especially those from the Commonwealth. They are also calling for the amendments of the Constitution itself, so that it fully complies with all the Charters and International Conventions this country has ratified.
Let all the Charters and Conventions the king had long signed, be implemented so that the people can truly elect “a government of the people, by the people and for the people “, which is what true democracy means. This is what all these Charters say: from the Commonwealth one of 1993 in Zimbabwe, and the AU one which was ratified in Mozambique in 2003. Then they had also looked at the parliamentary provisions for raising the points they have so far raised, and the provisions are there and very clear. They have not violated any of these.!! Why then are they being accused of trying to undermine the King ‘ s powers? This can only be said by very evil men and women!! It is sad. Therefore why should they be accused of challenging the powers of the king?
Those of us who followed the drafting process of the Constitution, as well as its debate in Parliament, shall tell you that the final constitution we now have is not what the two Houses of Parliament had actually passed and then sent to the King for his signature. That in fact, Sections 67,68,79 were not what was passed in parliament but that they were Included by the faceless cabals ( illegally ) then deleted the following definitions: “party politics, politics, civic rights, civil society and about five others, among which were definitions of “politics, party politics,civic rights and civil society all of them at Nkhanini thereby resulting in both Houses of Parliament boycotting them when they were brought back to parliament to be passed into law! Therefore, the Constitution we now have is not legally the one which was passed by parliament in 2004 and that the illegal inclusion of those mentioned Sections actually rendered Part 111 of the Constitution useless, because they took away the legality of those human rights which this part guarantees.
It is therefore important that we get to know where things went wrong and that what the faceless cabals did with the Constitution is a kind of behaviour which is not only criminal but pure evil.
See what God says about justice and what the rulers must do to ensure that justice prevails and is enjoyed by the people they rule over: see Deuteronomy 16: 18, where it says:” You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord God shall give you according to your tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgments.” Do we ever see this from our leaders and the judges they appoint? I leave the answer to you.
In conclusion therefore allow me to propose a way forward, following the sad events we have gone through in the past weeks and still face some uncertainties. Following what His Majesty the King said about the need to talk about national concerns, that firstly Parliament must therefore find it urgent to consider the reports of the petitions which were already presented by the people to the 59 Tinkhundla centres, to be formally received from the Regional offices and be presented to Parliament so that the debate may formally begin and the necessary reforms be considered agreed upon and then implemented. If these must go to the people at Sibaya, let it be so, so that we can then be called in there to specifically debate the reforms the people shall have called for in their petitions.
Secondly, we let the Elections Commission present to Parliament all the Reports of the Elections Observer Teams over the years but especially Commonwealth Elections Observer Teams’ Reports of 2003, 2008 and 2013 so that parliament can begin to see the areas which require amending the Constitution so that it fully complies with the Charters and International Conventions the country has ratified since gaining its political Independence as well as those which have recently been signed by our King.
MONARCH
Lastly If we are to seriously protect our king from being referred to as:” ‘ Africa’s last absolute monarch’then we must begin to act honestly in whatever we do. Let us make sure that we surround him with men and women of integrity people who shall give him honest and true advice, so that he can be better understood by his people. Even if we are before our, king himself let us commit ourselves to talking truth to him: avoiding feeding him with what we think he would like to hear and doing so in the best interest of his nation. Let us assist him to genuinely win the loyalty of our educated youth who are currently far removed from him completely far away from him and instead supporting those who demand political reforms and regarding him as a dictator. He needs to accept that older people like ourselves are on our way out and that it is this youth he shall rule over in future - hence they need to have him seriously and honestly accept their presence and their vision of the future.
However should my King remain a prisoner of us the faceless cabals, whose days are actually now numbered and that we are only there for his money and nothing else but his money, then we must certainly cry out and say:” CRY OUR BELOVED COUNTRY!! LAFA ELIHLE, KAKHULU ”
This, because the youth shall have given up trusting their king and the institution of Monarch but instead,believing those who shall be promising them a better future which shall be without a Monarch!! Such shall be the sad day for this nation.!
PEACE!!
+ 26876048988. mhlophe@ me. com