KaLiba disruption: Lawyer Sicelo responds to DPM
MBABANE - Despite holding a different view about the country’s system of government, Lawyer Sicelo Mngomezulu denies being the brains behind the civic voter education disruption at KaLiba in Hosea.
7he Elections and %oundaries Com mission E%C is conducting civic voter education in preparation for the 2023 National Elections. Officers who were conduct the exercise received a rude welcome at .a/iba under Hosea Constituency, which ended in one per son being shot.
On :ednesday 0arch 22, 2023, dur ing the 'eputy 3rime 0inister’s '30 Office annual budget and 2023 202 budget debate, the '30, 7hemba 0asuku, told senators that the person who was behind the disruption of elec tions was the very same person who promised slaughter a cow for maidens who would not attend the 5eed 'ance Ceremony August, last year.
Noteworthy, the '30 did not men tion any name, but it is on record that Eswatini born lawyer who now resides in South Africa, Sicelo 0ngome]ulu, was said to have promised maidens from Hosea Constituency, who would not attend the annual 5eed 'ance Cer emony a cow to feast on last year. 7his saw government moving an application to have him declared an undesirable and prohibited immigrant. In the matter that is still pending in court, 0ngome]ulu who resides in the 5epublic of South Africa, filed his opposing papers, where he denied to have encouraged anyone to boycott 8mhlanga.
In an interview, the lawyer said if the '30 was referring to him as the person behind the disruption of the civic voter education exercise, he was making wild allegations because he had never been involved in any of the chaos.
“I have not been involved with the dis ruption of any civic education exercise. 7he 7inkhundla System’s undemocratic elections are of no interest to me. I’m a humanitarian I assist emaSwati, whenever I can on socio economic matters, not in violating laws of the land,´ he said.
7he lawyer said he had no idea why would a government official would make such allegations against him. He said he strongly felt that the allegations were speculative.
Elections
He further shared that his view was that the elections in the country repre sented an archaic and blatantly undem ocratic system of governance. He said he was of the view that any election exercise must be in a multi party system, premised on a credible Constitution, one which must be an outcome of a dialogue between the government of the day and the mass democratic movement.
“7he dialogue and a new constitutional order must of course come before any
election,” he said.
2n the other hand, 0asuku said it was sad to learn that there were people more especially those who claimed to understand the law as they were trained professionals, who still referred to the governing system of the country undemocratic.
³7his learned fellows as he is called in this profession describes our system as un democratic. It is sad to hear this from a li6wati trained lawyer, who also describes the government of the king dom as a regime and not ad ministration. /et me remind him again that the people he illegally claims to be rep resenting were elected by ema6wati, e[ercising their individual rights to vote for people of their choice. 6uch can¶t happen in undemocrat ic societies,” he said.
0asuku said incarcerat ed 0embers of 3arliament 03s , 0thandeni 'ube and 0dudu]i %acede 0a bu]a, were elected to be in the +ouse of Assembly. ³0ngome]ulu is insulting the electorate that e[ercised their constitutional right to vote in our system,” he said.
7he '30 said by calling the elections undemocratic, he was insulting all the 03s who were elected in accordance with the country¶s &onstitution.
³+e is also insulting the institutions that participate as observers during our elections. 7he other word he doesn¶t understand is regime. I invite him to check this word in his dictionary or *oogle it. 7he word regime is used by brainwashed people. /et this guy learn how to think independently,” he said.
7he '30 went on to say ³ ³6ome +osea residents later discov ered that while you told them to boycott the 5eed 'ance in the country, you were seen attending and supporting a similar event in your country. +ow can you e[plain this double standard.” he said. 0asuku said 0ngome]ulu did not have to be physically present to disrupt the civic voter education which is part of the national elections. ³-ust like you tried to disrupt the 5eed 'ance by spending our scholarship money, you sent money to pay those who caused the disruption at the (%& voter education in +osea as well as beating up the police,” he alleged.Discovered