THE WAY FORWARD FOR
PART II
It is often said that if you aloe children into your living
room without supervision, they will turn it into a nursery. The matters that
were raised in our previous article, The Way Forward, were very serious indeed.
But before we proceed there are a lot of critical issues King Mswati III and
everyone concerned must be very clear about.
In the first place we are not here talking about a search
for a farge and/or psychological massage for the purposes of maintaining the
status quo. That immediately rules out the likes of Prince Guduza and his so
called Vusela. For a start Prince Guduza is not a constitutional lawyer or
expert recommended and/or approved by the United Nations. Nor are we looking
for shenanigan script writers in search of a short-term public office from the
King. Here we are talking about a serious and permanent constitutional change
that will give dispensation and individual human rights to the Swazi (town and
country), as well as getting rid of national thieves, restore the prestige and
national dignity of the Swazi Kingship or monarchy for generations to come. To
achieve that golden era of real peace and prosperity, King Mswati must stand
aside and allow the Swazi people to go forward instead of back to yester-years
of darkness, ignorance and diseases of all types.
Change is always painful to the privileged few, but a healer
for millions. That is the historically chosen road for us and the King to
follow. Why? Because if Mswati III continues to stand in the way of national
progress and prosperity, today’s monarchists like us shall turn into
anti-monarchists, and as these ranks swell at lightening speed, he can be
certain that there shall be no King in Swaziland within the next generation.
Emperor Haile Sallase of Ethiopia and the Shah of Persia shall tell you that is
the sure course of recorded human history. Swaziland is no exception to this
rule. Lesotho next door already has a constitutional monarch. So those who put
King Mswati into your pocket without blowing yourself and the very monarchy to
pieces. Secondly, they must have told him that while Kingship is given, respect
must be earned. King Sobhuza II earned respect because he grew up listening and
consulting until he was overtaken by historical events which saw him slide
backward. By a sharp contrast Mswati III had nobody to listen to and consult
with after locking up almost all the senior princes and princesses following
the Liqoqo fiasco.
Who wants to go to prison for nothing, even for one day? (The
seriousness of detention without trial). By this time King Mswati was
surrounded by the likes of Sotja Dlamini etc. , people with no legal training,
no political science, no study of government, no economics, no study of
history, nothing but their stomachs. They even dressed him up in police
uniform, drawing up lists of who was to be arrested next. That is why Swaziland
is in such a mess (the possibility of sanctions).
The Swazi traditional wisdom of punishing those who had
illegally deposed Queen Regent Dzeliwe by making them pay cattle (umdumezulu)
was ignored.
Now we have a young King who listens only to his own
master’s voice, and the nation is stuck.
The people who surprise me most in all this are those who
are locked up by Mfanasibili and his Liqoqo. Simon Nxumalo, Arthur Khoza, Titus
Msibi and others were put in condemned cells by Mfanasibili. Today, for a short
spell in public office, they see absolutely nothing wrong with the political
system, forgetting that without a proper democratic constitution on the lines
we are suggesting, there could be another Liqoqo at any time, and they would be
back into the condemned cells. The person who put a citizen in a condemned cell
is a Judge.
During the discussions of the Legco (Legislative Assembly
Constitution) of 1964, one elderly gentleman stood up to ask Polycarp Dlamini
at the Lobama cattle byre meeting “We the elderly are confused by all this. In
particular we do not understand where you, the Imbokodvo, differ from Dumisa
Dlamini and Dr Zwene’s NNLC (The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress)?” Polycarp Dlamini
replying said “Oh! The difference is very simple. We of the Imbokodvo want the
nation united under the King. Dumisa and Zwane want a one arse down and one
arse up situation (batsi akushon’ indunu kuvelindunu)!! The people laughed
their lungs out. They were not to know that is exactly what the Imbokodvo and
the Liqoqo they created were going to do immediately King Sobhuza disappeared
from the scene. They wanted to operate from the dark shadows, using the King to
cover their evil intentions until their time came.
We do not and the Swazi nation does not want that to happen
again. Queen Regent Dzeliwe told how she had not passed all the secrets to
Mswati. ARE YOU SURPRISED THERE IS NO RAIN? To be continued …
Clement Dumisa Dlamini
For and on the behalf of
The Human Rights Defence Fund
2nd November 1995