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CONSTITUTION: THE NATION’S LIFE

04/02/2018 00:10:00 By Musa Hlophe

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I was there when His Majesty the King signed the Constitution at the Sibaya in 2005.

I noticed those loud praise for our King after delivering the Constitution, consequently returning the country back to constitutional rule which had been killed on April 12, 1973, outside the Lobamba Sibaya; something which explained the uniqueness and strangest happenings of that fateful day. And for that heroic act by our dear King we say Bayethe! Wena WaPhakathi! Thank you for returning your great grandfathers’ nation to constitutional rule.

It was mostly those people who are today the major violators of this supreme law of the land - claiming that they are, by doing this, complying with the dictates of Swazi Law and Customs. What a bunch of liars? Shame on them all.

Today, in responding to all the encouraging feedback I have received from the readers in response to my previous columns, I will try to trace the sources of our problems for not respecting the demands of our constitution by pointing out who are the main violators of our supreme law of the land. It is not the Prime Minister who must carry the blame for this lawlessness, but the government he leads.
But before I do that, let me deal with two issues which are of great concern for the people of the Lubombo region in general, but more especially the people of KaLanga and Mpholonjeni.

VICTOR’s BURIAL
We thank all those of you who travelled long distances to be with us on the day when we buried our son, Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze whose life was sniffed off by two point blank shots from the assassin’s gun. Above all, we thank Their Majesties for the love they displayed in support of his family by everything they made available to make his send off such a marvellous one which showed us how highly he was regarded by our Royal household.

We thank the Gamedze clan too and its chiefdom for respecting our son the way they did since his untimely demise. Siyabonga tsine bo Makhelwana bakhe and I have no doubt that even the Maziya leaders have similar sentiments like mine - Bayabonga!

The second concern is about the road condition of the MR16 from Lukhula to Big Bend. Victor’s death gave us a temporary relief because during the week leading to his funeral, the portion of the road from the turn off pass my home to Victor’s home was covered with soil. But with the first rains on Wednesday, the covering soil was washed away, taking us back to our daily suffering of negotiating gaping ‘potholes’ which are so deep and wide in such a way that you can actually bury someone of my stature in them.

STATE OF OUR ROADS
That is our plight. Coming from Big Bend to my home which is about 37 kilometres used to take 45 minutes in the past, but now it takes me more than two hours to travel the same distance. That tells you how bad the road has become. My call to the minister concerned is to remove the tar and let us return to the dusty conditions we used to drive on. Please Madam Minister, save us from this suffering which is wrongly advertising our region to those visitors who pass on this road daily. Please!

Getting back to today’s theme - calling for the stop in the flouting the Constitution by the main culprits or violators.
In its preamble, the Constitution declares itself as the supreme law of the Kingdom of Swaziland and that any other law which is not compatible with it shall be null and void.

Even before the constitution came into effect, the 2022 Vision had already been declared on chapter 8 on governance that if the country was to successfully realize its vision for being a peaceful, democratic and prosperous country, it had to resolve the conflict between Swazi Law and Custom on one hand and the modern system of governance so that one system can be known to be the supreme law over all others.

This included the written Swazi Law and Custom which had to be fully compliant with the Constitution which was being finalized at the time the National Development Strategy (NDS) was presented to the King.

The first sign of cheating on the NDS came on October 20, 1997 and December 20, 1997 when the government was instructed by the Swazi National Council standing committee members of the time to remove chapter five on scenarios and chapter eight which required reforms on governance if the vision was to be achieved by 2022.

When the then Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Majozi Sithole presented this message to all the stakeholders at the Mountain Inn in October of 1997, he was told in no uncertain terms that stakeholders were not prepared to hear anything about the said removal of those two very important chapters because each one of them was critical in enabling the government’s approach towards achieving Vision 2022, and that without one of them, the vision was to remain just a wish and not something serious and compelling to every sector of our nation to strictly adhere to the demands of the NDS.

WHY WE REJECTED ESRA
Sithole was told that we were not ready to be hoodwinked by what the government called ESRA more so because that was just a red herring aimed at misleading the Swazis to believe that something useful was being done to usher it to a better future . We rejected ESRA for what it was.

At the same time, the drafting of the Swazi Law and Custom was nearing its completion as well just as the process of drafting of the Constitution was approaching completion. After the drafting of the Swazi Law and Customs was completed, it was brought to the Swazi National Council standing committee, which instructed that it should not be gazetted because it was going to remove ‘the forest under which the Swazis hide themselves.’

SELFISH PEOPLE
I was told this by no other than the late Prince Logcogco who had been one of those who drafted the law.
It is therefore not surprising to any one in Swaziland when they see the Constitution being violated by those who should know best about its supremacy over all other laws in the country, including Swazi Law and Custom.

If the Constitution declares equality between man and woman, it must tell you that if a woman is the firstborn in the family, such a woman is the successor of her father and mother in leading that family. If you don’t believe this, then look at Section 28(3) of the Constitution; where you shall see that at KoNtsngila, Inkhosatana Gelane should have been the chief of the area .

And that at Ekutsimleni chiefdom, Inkhosatana Funani should have been the chief of that chiefdom. And we should not be seeing the struggle we are currently experiencing in that family - which has divided the children of Prince Sijula that resulted in siblings no longer talking to each other. What a shameful act by those who are busy dividing this family.

How then do we resolve this problem? By ignoring it as if it did not exist? Or by training everybody, including traditional leaders and others on the supremacy of the constitution and why it must be respected by all? My answer is for the second option- let us all committed to the training of every sector of our nation to fully understand the demands of the Constitution, especially about the equality clauses. In terms of the Constitution, there is no kufakwa esiswini.

This is no longer the case because the country returned to a constitutional rule.
I hope that those kind donors who supported both our constitutional development as well as the drafting of the Swazi Law and Customs shall be still willing; notwithstanding the disappointment they felt for financing projects whose outcomes are being violated left and right by those who should be leading by example.
Soon after these two laws, we shall begin training people on the law on Swazi Nation Land with all its promises to the people of Swaziland so that they could prosper.

UNDERSTANDING LAW
Let us help chiefs and other traditional leaders to fully understand what the supreme law of the land says about equality before the law; while the judiciary resists being intimidated by people who commit crimes and then come before the courts and claim that they did what they did while discharging their duties to His Majesty our King. Our King declared himself the first defender of the Constitution the day he lifted it up at the Sibaya and to date we have not seen him violating it. Evidently, he recently instructed those who have been violating our electoral law by not electing the four women as per the supreme law of the land not to ever repeat that act but sort it out and ensure that the four women are surely elected into the House during the forthcoming elections.
And for this we say: “Bayethe! Wena WaPhakathi!!

PEACE TO THAT!!! Amen.