IS EBC PROPAGANDA TOOL?

Newly appointed government’s spin doctor Alpheus Nxumalo breezed into his new role with a rather grotesque, if not bizarre and somewhat offensive, statement – if this newspaper quoted him correctly: “We don’t do politics by exploiting the situation of the rested souls of citizens.”

The ‘rested souls of citizens’ uMnguni was referring to were the emaSwati murdered during last year’s political unrest, largely blamed on the State’s security organs. Just why he chose to throw himself in the middle of this political storm is quite a mystery if not an ill-intentioned ploy to draw the public’s attention to his arrival, in which case it was unwise and quite frankly nauseating.

Firstly, given the context of the murders, reference to ‘rested souls of citizens’ is hardly befitting to these martyrs. The State has neglected and declined to order an investigation into the massacres so that those responsible are prosecuted, assuming there is rule of law and justice in this God forsaken country. Those killed met their fate while fighting for their inalienable human rights the State, in the name of the so-called unique Tinkhundla political system, had alienated from them. Why, even in death they have been denied what they were fighting for in life, justice. Yet Nxumalo has the audacity to say their souls are rested.

It is rather queer that the government spokesman can reach the conclusion that there are ‘rested souls of citizens’ when he should be using his vast communications skills to convince his principals why investigations into the killings of emaSwati ought to be a priority in order to find closure for their families. Otherwise, this matter will not just simply disappear as Nxumalo and his ilk are apparently hoping.

As I see it, if anyone, it is Nxumalo who is being insensitive and abusive to the bereaved families who, almost close to a year later, are still praying for closure on how and why their relatives, mostly youthful, were murdered. Calling for accountability is not political expediency and what is insensitive and inhuman is someone like Nxumalo trying to move on as if those killed were animals and did not matter. If he were a Christian, he would know and understand that fact without being told. No one, including his principals, is licenced to kill emaSwati for demanding what essentially is their birthright or for anything for that matter.

Accountability

I, for one, will go on demanding accountability and justice for all those killed and maimed during last year’s epoch-making protests against the obtaining oppressive polity that is a direct contrast to God’s injunction that all men are born equal and in His image. At this point, it is best to leave the government’s PRO to settle in in his new chair, hopefully to refocus and distinguish between good and evil, and move on to another terrain.  

Until last week, I had the utmost respect for Prince Mhlabuhlangene, the Chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) before the measure of the man was decided by what he uttered during a so-called educational tour of Siphofaneni Inkhundla in preparation for a forthcoming by-election for a Member of Parliament (MP). There is this simplistic, if not myopic, view that a constitution is an end all on its own to which the prince was alluding to as well. In disputing the narrative of an absolute monarchy, the EBC chairman sought the refuge of the Constitution. The Constitution per se has no life of its own but is premised on the activism of the people who supposedly promulgated and own it.

That the Constitution does not spell it out that there shall be an absolute monarchy does not necessarily nullify the fact. Proof No.1: The EBC chairman would know that at some stage, Parliament passed a vote of no confidence on a sitting prime minister in strict adherence to the dictates of the Constitution, but the King did not sign off on this, in direct violation of the very Constitution which did not and does not accord him the option of refusing/declining to assent.

Change

Proof No. 2: Prince Mhlabuhlangene would also know that the Constitution he was wielding did not leave it to one man to change the name of the country from Swaziland to Eswatini, yet this is exactly what happened. Also, and significantly too, in his narrative of nullifying a fact that was refusing to go away – that is absolutism of the monarchy - he was constantly referring to the King allowing this and that to happen, obviously at his pleasure, that no one or institution could overturn, whose sum total boiled down to absolutism. Just how bad can it get without the prince making a fool of himself in trying to defend the indefensible? Or is it a case of singing for his supper?

Prince Mhlabuhlangene also appeared to repurpose the EBC at the same educational tour of Siphofaneni. There he was directly pleading the case of the Tinkhundla political system instead of unpacking the mechanics of the voting procedures and processes. Any wonder then why ballot boxes full of ballots for the late Jan Sithole, a pro-multiparty democracy candidate in the last parliamentary elections, strayed to Lubombo without the EBC taking time off to explain or rectify this anomaly. The question is, can the EBC be trusted to deliver a free and fair election or by-election under the circumstances when it exhibits attributes of being a propaganda tool?  

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