Inyandzaleyo! stop these killings!

I am increasingly getting con cerned as to why Swazis fail to react to things that are otherwise outrageous and would, in normal societies, make people take to the streets and say:” enough is enough”.

If you are beginning to wonder what this old man is on about today, please calm down, because today I want to discuss an outrage which we have to accept as normal: the killings, in cold blood, of the alleged poachers.
Before I discuss these senseless killings, let me trace the issues surrounding the subject of wild life conservation in Swaziland in recent years.
I believe it was in the 1990s, during Obed Dlamini.s premiership that conservationists, such as Big Game Parks, brought to our living rooms, horrific pictures of wild life/animals snared and dying slow and painful deaths.
These pictures told us one thing: that some among us were irresponsible in the manner they were trapping these animals.

What it said was that there was urgent need to protect these animals from these ruthless people. Well and good.
Measures were to be developed to create enabling legislation to achieve this objective. Again, well and good.
I think I am not mistaken when I say that indeed, such legislation was brought to life but in the process of doing so, somebody went for an overkill, (literally.)
Yet you will ask: why is Musa Hlophe talking like this today? What is he trying to tell us and above all, what does he expect us to do once we have read his article?

If you are beginning to ask yourself these questions, then I am about to communicate something very serious taking place in our country, and, seemingly, no one cares about it because this happens to be affecting black and poor rural Swazis we call “poachers.”
It would appear to me that once somebody is called a poacher, such a person loses the right to life.
I will explain shortly, but let me reveal why I am so angry, because I am angry.
Earlier on I said it would appear to me that in trying to protect the animals from what was then senseless killings, we went overboard to an extent that a part of our population has become easily disposable, so long as we are able to defend  ourselves by saying they are poachers.

What is sad about this is that Swazi society has accepted that these so called poachers can be killed and there be no consequences to those who shall have killed them.
That is outrageous to say the least.
This happens because once I do something and claim I am doing it on behalf of the King, I can get away freely!
That is Swaziland for you, 42 years after independence.
Rural poor black Swazis have never experienced true freedom, if I must tell you the truth, and it annoys me because the freedom I fought for was for every Swazi, regardless of status.

The current topic these days is about a young black Swazi male named Sicelo Mamba, who is alleged to have been shot dead by rangers from one of the private farms in the Lubombo Region where most of these killings are taking place.
Sicelo lived nine kilometers from where I live. He was subject of the chiefdom of Kashoba. His wife is expecting their first child. When this incident took place I was in South Africa, trying to sort out university space for my little Chakazile.

As usual on these matters, when I came back, I was to be confronted by two of my fellow human rights defenders, Muzi Masuku and Thulie Makama. They told me about this, yet another and that the family was being intimidated by people who should have been on its side: the police.
Of course I am now used to this behavior by the police in our region on matters like this.
Last year I experienced the same behaviour when Makhotsakhotsa Gamedze was gunned down in the same fashion Sicelo.

The police in these matters seem to be on the side of the rangers and their masters instead of investigating a cause of a violent death of a human being. However, who says poachers are human beings anyway, especially if they happen to be black and poor?
Testimonies by family members of both Makhotsa Gamedze and now Sicelo Mamba, tell us of  communities forever living under threat of being shot any time one is found walking next to any of these private conservation farms, simply for being suspected that he/she must have been about poach. Increasingly, this fear is fast giving way to anger, an anger that may result in the people taking the law into their own hands to defend themselves against what they see as an onslaught on their lives as citizens, without anybody coming to their defense.

We see these things today in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and we do not like what we see, yet this anger and degree of violent reaction could be traced back to the way some of these farmers once treated their black neighbors I may sound racist and alarmist when I say this, but, if we ignore this warning, things may come to haunt us some silly day down the line.
I may not be there to tell you that I told you so.
Today’s article is a call to do something about the plight of black rural poor who live next to these private farms, to do something before we see a violent reaction to these senseless killings.
It is an ‘Inyandza leyo’, (cry for help) aphela emaSwati acedvwa banini bemapulazi! Imphilo yetinyamatane seyi mcoka kwedlula imphilo yeliSwati! Tabobani kani tona letinyamatane? Kantsi atisito temaSwati?

If the argument is that we are preserving for the King, isn’t the King holding these in trust for the Swazis?
Are the rural poor not part of the Swazi nation?
Having vented my anger and frustration, may I end by putting some constructive suggestions to arrest this situation in the long term.

First, and as a matter of urgency, I call upon the Human Rights Commission to investigate all these killings.
In doing so, it must take testimonies not only the family members of those killed, but also from members of these communities. It will go a long way in assuring these communities that somebody some where cares about their plight. They did not choose to be in the Lowveld where there are these tinyamatane.
In fact, most of them lived well with nature before the owners of these farms came, and some of them, if not most of them, were removed from these areas, to make way for what then was called:”logoli/lijosi labo” which has now turned out to be their nightmare
This is the only way the Human Rights Commission can demonstrate its relevance to the rural black poor members of our population.

Some thing else the Commission can do is to mediate between these conservationists and the rural poor who reside near their precious farms. There has to be some deliberate effort to have these two living side by side in peace, and an arrangement of how the rural can benefit from this natural resource. Tinyamatane temaSwati, there is not a single farm owner who brought these animals from Europe.

Please, let no one fool the Swazis. Silungile kepha asisito tilima beKunene. Safa Sive seNkhosi.
Secondly, let the Prime Minister be forced to open an inquest into these killings. We may not bring back bo Makhotsakhotsa and Sicelo, but we can ensure that there shall be no further impunity.
The inquest must also deal with the conduct of the police in all these incidents. I have never been satisfied with their conduct in both Makhotsakhotsa’s case and now Sicelo.

If the Prime Minister cannot do this voluntarily, then his hand must be forced through a Court Order.
This cannot be business as usual when part of our population lives in constant fear.
let every citizen enjoy the fruits of 42 years of independence, and that includes the people of KaShoba and Mampempeni. Is there going to be anyone to stop these killings? Just imagine, as you read this article, we shall have buried a young man who was denied, not only justice but life itself. This must not be allowed to go on, let us some how stop it. Let Sicelo’s death be last one. This is my honest prayer.