Lawyer Thulani says he won’t disown suspect bomber MJ

MBABANE- Senior human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko has told the High Court that he cannot disown alleged dead Lozitha bomber, Musa ‘MJ’ Dlamini, because that would be like disowning his own conscience.

Maseko feels that his charges for sedition and subversive activities are not about the two dead bomb suspects but about the intransigency of the government to embrace change, which he argues is inevitable.
Maseko said this in his urgent application filed at the High Court where he is challenging the Sedition AND Subversive Activities Act No46 of 1938 and wants it to be declared unconstitutional.

He argues that his arrest and that of PUDEMO President Mario Masuku is meant to keep the nation in the bondage of fear.
“I am neither intimidated nor shaken. At trial I will show that these charges are baseless and without merit,” Maseko charges at government in his court papers.

Maseko wants the High Court to declare the law null and void on the grounds of inconsistency with section one as read together with section two and 24 of the Constitution of Swaziland.
In papers filed at the High Court, Maseko states that he has no doubt that his arrest and that of Masuku was sending a clear message to the general citizens of Swaziland that each of them is a potential candidate for arrest.
“In a democracy the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act has no place for it violates the guaranteed freedom (of speech) as alluded to above. In terms of section two of the constitution, any law that is inconsistence with the Constitution is null and void and of no force or effect and must be struck down”.

“Accordingly, the fact that I have been arrested and charged under the Act is a violation of my right to freedom of speech and expression, As already stated, the wording of the Act is very wide and over board so much that the right to freedom of speech and expression is absolutely eroded and rendered meaningless and ineffective.

I am aware that one of the Ministers of the state and the Prime Minister, have been quoted by the print media saying that anybody who criticizes the Tinkhundla regime stands to be dealt with in terms of either the Suppression of Terrorism Act, under which Mr Mario Masuku has been charged, or face the wrath of sedition and subversive Act under which both Masuku and myself have been charged,” reads Maseko’s urgent application.

Maseko argues that the expression of a view is not in itself a criminal offence, at least in a country that claims to boast of democratic and participatory credentials. He feels that the conclusion that can be reached was that the charges to him are politically motivated in order to shut up those who are advocating peaceful change. He states that the intention is to demonise those different views. Government is yet to file his responding papers.