PRINCE PROTECTING TINKHUNDLA SYSTEM

In the midst of Eswatini facing probably its biggest threat in its history - outside bad governance - you would expect all hands to be on deck in unity to collectively fight and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a serious threat to the lives of emaSwati but certainly not divisive statements and postures in this hour.

Hence it came as a surprise when Prince Masitsela chose to be divisive by saying political parties would never rule Eswatini.
The prince chose to politicize the pulpit and, by extension the church, during what is officially referred to as the national church in Lobamba last week on the occasion of the commemoration of the birthday of his father, King Sobhuza II, under the banner of Somhlolo National Festival of Praise. The press, reporting on the event, did not give us an insight of how those attending the church service reacted to this apparent political intrusion on the sanctity of the church.

reckless

As I see it, Prince Masitsela should be venerated as one of the nation’s elder statesmen and, therefore, is not expected to be reckless but instead be judicious and guarded whenever he says something in public. But on this day he violated the pulpit with his proclamation that ‘political parties will never rule the Kingdom of Eswatini’. “They will try but will never succeed,” he said. This was neither the place nor the time to make such a statement because the church is not a political rally nor a platform on which to fight political ideologies. A statesman would also be circumspect in using the word ‘never’ in the context he did because nothing is cast in stone. He should have qualified that by saying ‘never in his lifetime’.

As a leader and advisor to the institution of the monarchy, we, the ordinary folk, expect better from Prince Masitsela. As it were his criticism was fraught with factual inaccuracies and distortions to suite his agenda. While he might claim to have been merely mirroring the position of King Sobhuza II on multiparty democracy, but the King was never divisive irrespective of his distaste for political parties. While promoting his socio-political agenda, King Sobhuza II was true to his word that he was a father to all emaSwati, and not just to the children he sired. In that context he never labelled anyone with derogatory names, such as timfucuta, that are commonly thrown around today.

monarchy

King Sobhuza II understood that the institution of the monarchy belonged to emaSwati and that it was not his to impose. Thus he positioned the institution as a unifying force and indeed a catalyst to all and every challenge faced by emaSwati individually and collectively as a nation. Today the same cannot be said since those privileged by birth and by their proximity to the centre of power do as they wish. The failure or refusal to prosecute a prince for an alleged rape of a university student and protection of a legislator who is a former Cabinet minister to answer alleged corruption in the construction of the Sicunusa-Nhlangano road are but two of many such examples of impropriety by the privileged political elites.

As I see it, the nuance that political parties want to rule this country is incorrect because this is a kingdom, which none of the existing but still outlawed political parties has avowed to overthrow. All that political parties want is a people-driven political dispensation in which political power is resident with the people and not centralized in the institution of the monarchy. The achievement of this objective would in turn translate and manifest in a government elected by and accountable only to the people. All of the political parties recognize the King who would remain head of state even under a multiparty political dispensation, which will not constitute, as Prince Masitsela alludes, a rule of or by political parties.

We can also now conclude, all thanks to the prince, that the so-called vusela consultations of the people were what some of us always thought, a fraud intended to mislead the international community into believing that there was rule by consensus, yet that is not true. Consequently, vusela exercises were a waste of time and resources and unwarranted.

misrepresentation

It is also a misrepresentation that in the current political set-up there ever was a member of parliament (MP) who was elected on the back of his political party. Political parties are barred from participating in elections since they remain outlawed and, therefore, illegal. Yet this is another factual untruth that was peddled as a fact by Prince Masitsela from the pulpit. Perhaps the prince would have done himself a favour by sticking to his mandate of being the eyes and ears of His Majesty whom he was representing during the service, and not spoken out of turn.

Interestingly, it took the partial lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus negatively impacting revenues from tithes and other collections to hear the voice of the church. Yet the church has been silent on matters of social injustices, including the rule of law crisis and the criminalization of God-given human rights and liberties, by the obtaining political order.

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