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RE: Soweto Giants should not spoli their rich history by honouring a tinpot despot

When the current manager of the English national team, Roy Hodgson, was appointed into his post his past was brought up to remind the public of the social role that sports personalities cannot escape. At the height of Apartheid, Hodgson had naively and insensitively allowed himself to be used by the Apartheid regime in its public relations tactics to reverse its pariah state status by participating in a football match.

Today human rights violations continue and despotic regimes still desperately seek unsuspecting sports and music personalities to use as pawns. Where this unfortunate situation exists, the conscientious world has responded by boycotting and isolating these ignoble regimes.

King Mswati is one such dictator and he has found perfect pawns in two of Southern Africa’s biggest sports clubs, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. These two African giants need to understand the blot they might have on their impeccable record of history, if they allow themselves to sell their souls and be ‘bought for thirty pieces of silver’ by participating in the forthcoming public relations hoodwink - dubbed Super King’s Cup, in Swaziland.

DESPOT

It has long been widely known in South Africa and beyond that Swaziland’s government has no respect for human rights and that the country has no political freedom. Swaziland is a dictatorship. It continues to evade the international media radar mainly because the country is so miniscule, with even less prestige internationally.

The country has no democracy at all. All power is vested in the monarchy, which rules by decree despite the existence of a worthless constitution which was imposed on the citizens ten years ago. As an absolute monarch the king only delegates his judicial, executive and legislative powers to powerless institutions which may make one believe that the country is run like modern state when it is in fact run like the king’s personal farm.

While there is no law that explicitly bans the formation and functioning of political parties, they are effectively rendered useless by the fact that they cannot contest state power as that power is vested exclusively in the king who appoints the prime minister, deputy prime minister, all cabinet ministers, a third of parliament, all senior civil servants and members of the diplomatic corps. As another king’s appointee, the country’s senate president recently pointed out, the king is the state.

KLEPTOCRACY

With all this power vested in him, the king of Swaziland has not held back on abusing it to fulfill his selfish personal greed. This has resulted in him forcing all major investments in the country to guarantee him and his family’s trust fund, Tibiyo, shares in their businesses. As a result of this he owns virtually half the country’s economy. Despite his hold on so much personal wealth the king still draws royal emoluments from the state which is over a fifth of the nation’s budget.

It is these kleptocratic tendencies which have resulted in the country’s economy growing sluggishly while the rest of the region’s economies make major strides. It is worth pointing out for example that the country remains the only one in the region with a sole mobile phone operator, MTN Swaziland, a company that retains its monopoly primarily because the king has substantial shares in it. All attempts by other companies to break into the market have been futile. This is perhaps the reason why some mobile phone operators may wish to sponsor an event like the Super King’s Cup in order to gain favour with the country’s despot.

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Human rights abuses in Swaziland are endemic because the people have no government of their own. At every level of society people are denied basic human rights. Political dissenters are detained arbitrarily or with spurious charges levelled against them.

Like the Apartheid regime, king Mswati’s regime has gone to great lengths to tarnish the image of those who call for democracy in the country and there are legal instruments that are used to achieve this end such as the infamous Suppression of Terrorism Act, which gave the country’s government legal authority to declare any entity as a terrorist organisation. Once declared terrorist organisations such formations are proscribed and any association with them results in severe sanction including harsh prison sentences.

It was due to this act that one political activist by the name of Sipho Jele was arrested in May 1, 2010 for merely wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the name of one proscribed entity, PUDEMO. He never lived to see his day in court as he died in custody possibly from police torture.

There are other oppressive laws also used to suppress dissent such as the law against sedition. The president of the same organisation (PUDEMO), Mario Masuku, and the Secretary General of its youth league, Maxwell Dlamini were also arrested in 2014 for what the state claims were seditious statements made at a Workers’ Day rally.

In the same year their arrest was followed by that of two columnists, Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko who were charged and later convicted for criticizing the manner in which the then country’s Chief Justice had handled the detention of a government cars inspector.

They remain behind bars while ironically the Chief Justice and the presiding judge in that case have been arrested by the country’s authorities for abuse of power and corruption. The manner in which this arrest was conducted was also flawed as it saw the country’s prime minister appointing himself the state prosecutor withdrawing and reinstating charges against those who had been arrested in the state’s publicity stunt.

Political activists are not the only ones denied basic human rights as even those who choose to shy away from political involvement end up on the wrong end of the country’s suppressive institutions. Poor Swazis are evicted annually for one reason or another without compensation from their ancestral lands. All their attempts to seek redress from the courts are futile as the king is effectively above the law and therefore immune from prosecution or civil charges.






RESISTANCE

The most important thing worth considering about Swaziland is the fact that the country’s population has made sincere attempts to change the country’s governance. As already pointed out, these political activists are dealt with brutally which results in a general state of despondency and fear amongst the population.

Yet despite this general fear within the population, the country’s Mass Democratic Movement thrives underground and continues to mobilise the country’s population to struggle against the dictatorship. It is this brave population that convinced those outside the country to provide solidarity to the struggle in Swaziland.

BOYCOTT

It is in this spirit of solidarity with the people of Swaziland that the Swaziland Solidarity Network [SSN] appeals to the two teams, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, not to honour the invitation to participate in the Super King’s Cup. It is clear from the name of the event that this is not just a sporting event meant to promote goodwill but rather a political event meant to legitimise a despot who has lost credibility in the eyes of the world and the country that he rules with an iron fist.

A brief background has been provided into the reasons why being in bed with this despot will blot the two teams’ record in history but should they need further information our organisation is willing to facilitate a meeting with them to elaborate on these issues. The very least that they can do is to hear both sides of the story before making a decision on whether to participate in this one day political publicity stunt or not.

Issued by Lucky Lukhele