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Swaziland : Swazi regime strikes another blow to PUDEMO

D 27 octobre 2010     H 04:02     A Lucky Lukhele     C 0 messages


Fresh from receiving a widely publicized dubious award from a well known conman, the Prime Minister of Swaziland on Monday shocked the country when he declared that the president of the country’s banned liberation movement [PUDEMO] and the company he keeps are not recognized human beings by government.

In a wide ranging spat aimed mostly at pro democracy groups within the country and the South African newspaper, City Press, which remains banned in Swaziland, the ever controversial and illegally appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland admitted that the President of the Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) is not recognised by the state as a human being. The Prime Minister was responding to questions from senators who wanted him to give clarity on an article which appeared in City Press on Sunday describing how the prime minister had gone to the World Bank to beg for money while the king and queen had left the country on different trips whose purpose is still unclear.

The prime minister was incensed at reports that the PUDEMO President had given the South African newspaper information that is considered by government as incorrect information. The issue of contention is the exact number of people who accompanied the royal figures. He further pointed out that there were also certain individuals who write negatively about the country on Sundays, an obvious reference to articles critical of government which appear on the Sunday Times, a weekly publication owned by the country’s only independent newspaper. Oblivious to the irony of his statement, the Premier accused the columnists behind these articles of being traitors who are financed externally to deliberately taint the country’s image and swore that he would search for an existing law to curtail their freedom to write these articles, failing which he would ask government to draft it. Unsurprisingly, he did not give any evidence to support his libelous claims.

It is extremely disturbing to hear a head of government admitting with impunity that a certain citizen, regardless of his stature in society or his political beliefs, is not regarded as a human being. This is especially so for a government which invited the very same man for what was widely being sold to the nation as “dialogue”. There is a word in the English language for people who openly claim to be having dialogue with people that they do not recognize as human beings. The Prime Minister and his henchmen are clearly UNHINGED HYPOCRITES. Moreover, the Swazi press remains highly censored and columnists only comment on what is reported daily as they will no doubt comment on the Premier’s recent rant even this weekend, which will then be regarded as “propaganda” by the very same culprit. The Swaziland Solidarity Network calls upon the Swazi government to allow the press to function without any intimidation and to stop dehumanising the president of PUDEMO comrade Mario Masuku while pretending to the outside world to tolerate him and what he stands for.

Luck Lukhele, SSN Spokesperson