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ANGER, VIOLENCE DEFINE EMASWATI NOWADAYS

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The narrative of EmaSwati being a peace loving and a happy nation needs to be revisited and reassessed in the wake of recent occurrences and what appears to be wholesale social behavioural transformation cutting right across the nation.


What is emerging from the social transformation, if you may call it that, is a Swazi nation that has unburdened itself of all civility while undressing itself of the moral robes with which it has been covering itself to project a false veneer of a humble, respectful and peaceful nation. EmaSwati are now an uninhibitively angry and violent nation. 


But before venturing deeply into my train of thought on the subject matter of today’s column, I will briefly digress on some excerpts, as published in the newspapers, from the autobiography of Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini. Until now I have been naïve enough to think, indeed believe, that in every one of God’s creations in the form of Homo-sapiens resides some goodness in them. I believed that one day before exiting this world we all cross our personal Rubicons wherein we concede and admit the wrongs we have done to fellow Homo-sapiens and then ask them and God for forgiveness for these transgressions.


My second error was thinking, indeed believing, that autobiographies by their very nature were narratives of facts and undiluted truth. They are repositories of their subjects’ life journey and invitations to share this insight with contemporaries and future generations. In turn it is an intimate journey into the depths of the lives of the subjects in which they bare their souls, at least those who have one. Of the excerpts from the PM’s autobiography that I have read seems to be objectionable to this thought. It seems to me he is all about romanticising his life and is nowhere near unraveling the man from the mystical figure who in one hand wields ‘Makhundu’ and on the other the Holy Bible.


Of particular interest to yours truly is the PM’s selective amnesia and reluctance to speak the truth to power in relative particularity the abrupt shutdown of the Swazi Observer I was editing at the turn of the 21st century. Causal to the closure of the newspaper, he says, was that it ‘seemed to go off the rails and took an unfair vindictive attitude towards government and him in particular’. He does not lance the boil apropos the undercurrents culminating in the closure, such as the untruths that were being peddled to the head of State. He also does not come out clear on the hand he personally played in the closure of the newspaper. Does he recall the one and only Albert Hheshane Shabangu, may his soul rest in eternal peace.


The PM also does not explain the closure under his watch of the Guardian of Swaziland Weekly newspaper. Perhaps somewhere in his book he writes about why, being the longest serving PM, he is so much disliked by the people, a disposition ventilated at Sibaya where the people even proposed for the position to become elective.


As for the man’s thoughts on marijuana or any subject matter for that case, they are relic, outdated and products of mental and intellectual colonisation. The autobiography itself does nothing except cement the man’s excessive fixation with himself. The book runs short of qualifying as an autobiography but evidently big on self-glorification and justification of the man.


Coincidentally, the PM has had a hand on the current emotional state of the nation, which is the subject matter of today’s column. Discerning readers will remember that the PM owes his longevity partly for his brutal disposition when cracking down on political dissent hence the nickname ‘Makhundu’. But even before his emergence, EmaSwati had been cowed into silence by the King’s Proclamation to the Nation of April 12, 1973 that effectively criminalised their inalienable and God given rights and liberties with draconian laws put in place to enforce the new order.


Over time the silence of the people has been interpreted as peace. The Constitution has not restored respect of the individuals or the rights and liberties alienated by the 1973 King’s Proclamation. The Constitution only exists when the powers that be say so but otherwise it is in permanent abeyance.


At some point the anger that has been building over the years occasioned by bad governance and having little or no say on how the people are governed will somehow find ventilation at some stage or the other. That is a given. The violence on the streets, at home and just about everywhere else may be a manifestation of worse to come at national level.


Nowadays taking a life is as simple as squashing a fly. It is happening all over, even in public spaces. Rape, even of babies, is now also a daily occurrence, mostly perpetrated by blood relatives. The sanctity of life has been lost and the moral fibre of society long severed.

Men and women of the cloth we often look up to for moral leadership and guidance are the devils incarnate, only interested in money and material possessions just like the national leadership.
As I see it, besides political oppression and bad governance, the people are facing too many challenges varying from poverty, disease, joblessness, etc, while those in leadership and their cronies, sycophants and bootlickers are enjoying the trappings of a First World nation, always planning the next party. The forthcoming 50/50 celebrations attest to that fact. Yes, the people are angry because there is nothing or very little they are happy about and to live for hence the violence that is gradually intertwining itself into the fabric of the lifestyle of EmaSwati.

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