LONDON, Jul 26 (IPS) – Two politicians have simply been sentenced to lengthy jail phrases in Swaziland. Their crime? Name for democracy.
Mthandeni Dube and Bacede Mabuza, each members of parliament on the time, had been arrested in July 2021 for collaborating within the wave of pro-democracy protests that swept the southern African nation. A 3rd MP, Mduduzi Simelane, nonetheless has an arrest warrant out for him after going into hiding.
Dube and Mabuza have been detained since their arrest and have reportedly been bodily assaulted, denied medical therapy and denied entry to attorneys whereas in custody. Final 12 months they had been discovered responsible of homicide, sedition and terrorism. Now they know their destiny: Mabuza was sentenced to 25 years in jail and Dube to 18 years in jail.
Dube and Mabuza are political prisoners. They haven’t any hope of a good trial and their legal convictions haven’t any foundation in actuality. Swaziland’s legal justice system obeys the orders of the nation’s dictator, King Mswati III, Africa’s final absolute monarch. Mswati has dominated his kingdom with an iron fist for almost 4 many years. Below the structure, Mswati is above the legislation, appoints the prime minister and cupboard and might veto all laws. He additionally appoints and controls judges, who are sometimes deployed to criminalize those that problem his energy.
Dube and Mabuza plan to enchantment, however know their probabilities of success are slim.
Steady assault
Professional-democracy protests in 2021 pose the best menace but to Mswati’s unchecked energy. His response was brutal. Safety forces opened hearth on protesters, killing no less than 46 folks. Leaked movies confirmed that it was Mswati who directed safety forces to shoot and kill folks and ordered the arrest of pro-democracy lawmakers.
Whereas peaceable protesters like Dube and Mabuza have been convicted, in distinction, nobody has confronted justice for state-sanctioned killings. The risks going through pro-democracy activists haven’t receded. In January 2023, Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer and main pro-democracy campaigner, was shot lifeless in entrance of his household. Along with main a community of main teams calling for a peaceable transition to democracy, he’s additionally a lawyer for the 2 lawmakers.
Simply hours earlier than he was killed, Mswati warned pro-democracy activists that mercenaries would “deal” with them. Nobody was held accountable for the crime, and Maseko’s widow, Tanele Maseko, confronted harassment. When she returned to Swaziland from South Africa in March, she was arrested and her passport and cell phone confiscated.
Authorities continued to arrest, kidnap and detain activists, and a few survived obvious assassination makes an attempt and arson assaults. New Prime Minister Mswati warned the media they might face tighter laws. The state additionally used violence to suppress additional protests. Elections had been held in 2023, however as regular, political events had been banned and candidates needed to undergo a variety course of designed to exclude dissenting voices.
Autocracies and the flexibility of these in energy to disregard the calls for of the folks result in corruption and impunity. Most of Swaziland’s 1.2 million folks reside in poverty, however Mswati and the royal household get pleasure from huge wealth and a lavish life-style, paid for by proceeds from main property they immediately management.
No dialogue
The nationwide dialogue Mswati promised in response to the 2021 protests by no means materialized. As an alternative, he held a conventional gathering, the Sibaya, the place he was the one one allowed to talk.
Mswati solely promised dialogue after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa intervened. South Africa has a transparent position to play right here: it borders Swaziland on three sides, is by far its largest buying and selling accomplice, and is dwelling to many exiled pro-democracy activists, whereas Mswati reportedly imports South African mercenaries . The Southern African Growth Neighborhood (SADC) must also be concerned. However South Africa has exerted little strain to behave, and Swaziland has struggled to maintain itself out of the SADC agenda.
South Africa and SADC ought to remind Swaziland of its obligations below the worldwide and African treaties it has adopted, together with the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The federal government should roll again repressive public order, sedition and terrorism legal guidelines, together with these used to imprison Dube and Mabuza. Liberating each of them could be a superb begin.
Andrew Firmin is Editor-in-Chief of CIVICUS, co-director and contributor to CIVICUS Lens, and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
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