Times of Swaziland, 28 May 2008
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Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2008
THE WRITING ON THE SWAZI WALL
From Swazi Media Commentary
http://www.swazimedia.blogspot.com/
The Times of Swaziland got itself in a bit of a state yesterday, when it tried to report about some rude words that had been written on a wall near an election registration post.
You see the words were about King Mswati III and they were not flattering.
‘What was written cannot be printed due to their contemptuous nature,’ the Times reported (28 May 2008).
And to top it all some pamphlets were found nearby which were ‘anti election’.
Dissent (about anything the ruling elite is in favour of) is not allowed in Swaziland, so the mere fact that someone has dared to say something nasty about the king is, I suppose, news. What interests me is that there is no vocabulary for the media to use when reporting such matters.
Reading the Times report I got the impression the newspaper desperately wanted to give the details, but the consequences they would face if they did would be too dire.
Here are some choice extracts from the report. The pamphlets were about, ‘The ongoing election registration process and the upcoming elections are said to be a waste of public funds to enrich those in the corridors of power.’
The Times said that the writing on the wall, when translated from the original siSwati, said, ‘away with … and the government who feeds on our money’. The writing didn’t actually say ‘dot, dot, dot’ – the Times put that in to spare our anger. I assume ‘dot, dot, dot’ is really King Mswati III. Mswati is known in some circles as ‘M3’ and the Observer newspaper group has taken to calling him ‘HMK’ (for, I assume, His Majesty the King), but I shall always think of him from this point forward as ‘dot, dot, dot’.
Anyhow, the Times continued, ‘Parliament was also not spared in the seditious statements as it was accused of passing laws like the recent Road Traffic Act, which according to the perpetrators, are made to enrich the government at the expense of the poor.’
So dangerous are these statements that the Times took it upon itself not to reveal the name of the political party that distributed the pamphlets, because the newspaper couldn’t confirm that they were genuine.
The Times reported that police confiscated the pamphlets; although it was not said what offence has been committed.
These are not the first ‘anti election’ pamphlets to have been found in Swaziland recently. As I reported on Wednesday (28 May 2008) pamphlets found at Zombodze were also seized by police.
There is a serious point to this. Swaziland is supposed to be having a ‘free and fair election’ (at least according to ‘dot, dot, dot’), but how can that be so if people are not allowed to discuss the issues. Swaziland is not a democracy and just about any of the many indices you care to use shows that too many people in the kingdom are poor, and the distribution of what wealth there is in Swaziland is poorly distributed. Only this week the newspapers have been reporting that one cabinet minister has more than E30million (more than 4 million US Dollars) in his personal bank account.
Why shouldn’t people be allowed to talk about this massive imbalance of wealth? And why shouldn’t they be allowed to question the present social setup that puts ‘dot, dot, dot’ above the rest of the population.
That, after all, is what elections are for. Except, of course, in the ’unique democracy’ that is Swaziland.
See also
‘DEMOCRACY IS EVIL’ – SWAZI CANON
SWAZI KING SAYS ELECTION IS FREE
First published 29 May 2008
See also
SWAZI PROTESTORS DEFACE WALL
http://www.swazimedia.blogspot.com/
The Times of Swaziland got itself in a bit of a state yesterday, when it tried to report about some rude words that had been written on a wall near an election registration post.
You see the words were about King Mswati III and they were not flattering.
‘What was written cannot be printed due to their contemptuous nature,’ the Times reported (28 May 2008).
And to top it all some pamphlets were found nearby which were ‘anti election’.
Dissent (about anything the ruling elite is in favour of) is not allowed in Swaziland, so the mere fact that someone has dared to say something nasty about the king is, I suppose, news. What interests me is that there is no vocabulary for the media to use when reporting such matters.
Reading the Times report I got the impression the newspaper desperately wanted to give the details, but the consequences they would face if they did would be too dire.
Here are some choice extracts from the report. The pamphlets were about, ‘The ongoing election registration process and the upcoming elections are said to be a waste of public funds to enrich those in the corridors of power.’
The Times said that the writing on the wall, when translated from the original siSwati, said, ‘away with … and the government who feeds on our money’. The writing didn’t actually say ‘dot, dot, dot’ – the Times put that in to spare our anger. I assume ‘dot, dot, dot’ is really King Mswati III. Mswati is known in some circles as ‘M3’ and the Observer newspaper group has taken to calling him ‘HMK’ (for, I assume, His Majesty the King), but I shall always think of him from this point forward as ‘dot, dot, dot’.
Anyhow, the Times continued, ‘Parliament was also not spared in the seditious statements as it was accused of passing laws like the recent Road Traffic Act, which according to the perpetrators, are made to enrich the government at the expense of the poor.’
So dangerous are these statements that the Times took it upon itself not to reveal the name of the political party that distributed the pamphlets, because the newspaper couldn’t confirm that they were genuine.
The Times reported that police confiscated the pamphlets; although it was not said what offence has been committed.
These are not the first ‘anti election’ pamphlets to have been found in Swaziland recently. As I reported on Wednesday (28 May 2008) pamphlets found at Zombodze were also seized by police.
There is a serious point to this. Swaziland is supposed to be having a ‘free and fair election’ (at least according to ‘dot, dot, dot’), but how can that be so if people are not allowed to discuss the issues. Swaziland is not a democracy and just about any of the many indices you care to use shows that too many people in the kingdom are poor, and the distribution of what wealth there is in Swaziland is poorly distributed. Only this week the newspapers have been reporting that one cabinet minister has more than E30million (more than 4 million US Dollars) in his personal bank account.
Why shouldn’t people be allowed to talk about this massive imbalance of wealth? And why shouldn’t they be allowed to question the present social setup that puts ‘dot, dot, dot’ above the rest of the population.
That, after all, is what elections are for. Except, of course, in the ’unique democracy’ that is Swaziland.
See also
‘DEMOCRACY IS EVIL’ – SWAZI CANON
SWAZI KING SAYS ELECTION IS FREE
First published 29 May 2008
See also
SWAZI PROTESTORS DEFACE WALL
SWAZI VOTER BOOK MYSTERY
Swazi Observer
28 May 2008
ELECTIONS SHOCKER
By Starsky Mkhonta
TWO clerks and a police officer have been questioned over the past two days - following the mysterious disappearance of a voter registration book.
The three have been questioned by the Shiselweni regional police. It is not clear whether they will be charged or not.
The registration book was used in Mbabala chiefdom in the Shiselweni region. The area is embroiled in a chieftaincy dispute.
It is suspected that the missing book could be a result of the dispute.
The two registration clerks are Nothando Hlatshwako and Khanya Hlatshwako, while the police officer was identified as Constable President Nhlengetfwa.
It is said the booklet went missing on Sunday but it was not until Monday that the box where it was supposed to be locked in was brought to the umphakatsi empty.
It was said all hell broke loose when the discovery was made. This was after senior police officers arrived at the Umphakatsi and started castigating the junior police for being irresponsible for the missing book.
Normally, at the end of each day, the booklet is thrown into a locked trunk box and taken to the police station where it is kept in the armoury room until the following morning.
“Yesterday (Monday), when the registration process was to commence, it was discovered that the trunk box was empty. This was shortly after the officer had been driven to the registration centre. When the driver of the vehicle that brought him was stopped to check the book, it was not there. It was then that the top brass were alerted,” said one of the insiders at the umphakatsi.
It still remains unclear who actually had access to the armoury where the boxes are locked and as to how the trunk box was taken to the umphakatsi without realising that it had been tempered with.
The senior officers drove him to the regional headquarters together with the clerks.
He was also dispossessed of the service rifle.
Yesterday, the registration at the umphakatsi did not take off; instead the area was a centre of police activity who were busy with investigations.
Gordon Mbuli, responsible for the registration in the Shiselweni region, confirmed yesterday that the booklet went missing but by yesterday it had been recovered. He did not want to go into specifications when pressed further as to what had actually transpired.
“My only relief is that the registration booklet has been found,” he said. He said when it was recovered it had not been tempered with.
Shiselweni Regional Administrator Paul Dlamini said he was still to be briefed about the matter.
In the region, since the registration process started the disappearance of the booklet is the second incident to cause hiccups. Last Tuesday, at Zombodze Emuva residents found the area littered with pamphlets belittling the election process.
Link http://www.observer.org.sz/main.php?id=44109&Section=main&articledate=Thursday,%20January%201,%201970
28 May 2008
ELECTIONS SHOCKER
By Starsky Mkhonta
TWO clerks and a police officer have been questioned over the past two days - following the mysterious disappearance of a voter registration book.
The three have been questioned by the Shiselweni regional police. It is not clear whether they will be charged or not.
The registration book was used in Mbabala chiefdom in the Shiselweni region. The area is embroiled in a chieftaincy dispute.
It is suspected that the missing book could be a result of the dispute.
The two registration clerks are Nothando Hlatshwako and Khanya Hlatshwako, while the police officer was identified as Constable President Nhlengetfwa.
It is said the booklet went missing on Sunday but it was not until Monday that the box where it was supposed to be locked in was brought to the umphakatsi empty.
It was said all hell broke loose when the discovery was made. This was after senior police officers arrived at the Umphakatsi and started castigating the junior police for being irresponsible for the missing book.
Normally, at the end of each day, the booklet is thrown into a locked trunk box and taken to the police station where it is kept in the armoury room until the following morning.
“Yesterday (Monday), when the registration process was to commence, it was discovered that the trunk box was empty. This was shortly after the officer had been driven to the registration centre. When the driver of the vehicle that brought him was stopped to check the book, it was not there. It was then that the top brass were alerted,” said one of the insiders at the umphakatsi.
It still remains unclear who actually had access to the armoury where the boxes are locked and as to how the trunk box was taken to the umphakatsi without realising that it had been tempered with.
The senior officers drove him to the regional headquarters together with the clerks.
He was also dispossessed of the service rifle.
Yesterday, the registration at the umphakatsi did not take off; instead the area was a centre of police activity who were busy with investigations.
Gordon Mbuli, responsible for the registration in the Shiselweni region, confirmed yesterday that the booklet went missing but by yesterday it had been recovered. He did not want to go into specifications when pressed further as to what had actually transpired.
“My only relief is that the registration booklet has been found,” he said. He said when it was recovered it had not been tempered with.
Shiselweni Regional Administrator Paul Dlamini said he was still to be briefed about the matter.
In the region, since the registration process started the disappearance of the booklet is the second incident to cause hiccups. Last Tuesday, at Zombodze Emuva residents found the area littered with pamphlets belittling the election process.
Link http://www.observer.org.sz/main.php?id=44109&Section=main&articledate=Thursday,%20January%201,%201970
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