PUDEMO AT FOREFRONT OF ELECTIONS DISRUPTION - KING’S OFFICE LEGAL ADVISOR

EZULWINI – King’s Office Legal Advisor David Millin says PUDEMO always has an agenda to disrupt the national elections.

The officer made these remarks during a counter terrorism stakeholders’ workshop that was held at SibaneSami Hotel yesterday. The workshop was organised by the SADC Regional Counter Terrorism Centre (RCTC). During his presentation of the terrorism threat assessment in Eswatini, Millin stated that the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) had made it their mission to disrupt elections in the country. He told the delegates from the SADC region that inasmuch as Eswatini had been known to be a peaceful nation, that narrative had changed in recent years.  He said the disruption of the peace emanated from people who wanted to vote under a multiparty system. He cited that at the forefront of these disruptions was PUDEMO.

Elections

“PUDEMO tried to disrupt elections each year. In 2008, they tried to bomb EBC Offices and they were declared a terrorist organisation since then,” he said. The legal advisor went on to state that the organisation also tried to disrupt elections in 2013 and that they had been vocal about their intentions to disrupt the process. He mentioned that despite all the tension that was brought by PUDEMO, terrorism threats had always been in the background until 2021, when it was eventually carried out. The legal advisor told the meeting that in the country, there was a serious uprising in June 2021, where stores were looted and around 37 people lost their lives. Millin said the narrative served to the international community was that it was an uprising from people who wanted reforms. After the June 2021 violence, Millin said there was a very limited appetite from people to partake in protests. “Before that, there were thousands of people who were partaking in protests. After June 2021, many people realised that was not what they wanted and they then stopped partaking in them. After realising that people were no longer protesting, terror of violence or threats started,” he said.

He alleged that the very same organisation started targeting individuals, security forces, traditional leaders and emaSwati. The attacks became a reign of terror, where the local social media was used to report the chaos. He noted that after June 2021, the rate of the threats was extremely high. He said the sad part about it was that it was accompanied by disinformation and, to this day, there had never been a true representation in the international community. Millin said there was too much support for these threats coming from groups in neighbouring countries and the international community. “Dealing with this threat is going to be difficult, more especially if one party is willing to look the other way,” he said. The legal eagle mentioned that they noted that as a large number of killing and attacks took place, there was also an increasing number of new political parties and breakaways. He added that these parties also had their own agendas.

Millin told the stakeholders that recently, security officers in the country made a tremendous breakthrough, as a number of those who were perpetrating terror were arrested. He said during their arrests, they were able to give information about the names of people they needed to look out for. “It looks like it is calm but the threat is still there and needs to be managed. The seriousness of this threat means we need to restore law and order,” he said.

Calm

He noted that the environment at the moment looked calm but they could not be 100 per cent sure because they felt there was need to maintain law and order. For that reason, Millin said the environment was not suitable for a dialogue. He said His Majesty King Mswati III was keen to hold a dialogue, however, it was crucial for a dialogue to be held in a peaceful environment, where people could honestly voice out their concerns without having to look back constantly. Efforts to get a comment from PUDEMO were unsuccessful as the organisation’s spokesperson had not responded to questions that were sent to him. The first attempt was a WhatsApp message that was sent to the Secretary General (SG), Penuel Malinga, who referred the questions to the Deputy Secretary General (DSG), Maxwell Dlamini. “I will refer you to Maxwell Dlamini our DSG. He is our spokesperson; I’m at the airport travelling,” Malinga said. Dlamini was contacted around 1.30pm where he promised to respond to the questions after an hour since he was on a flight. “…can I respond in an hour? I’m actually on a flight and l will land by then (sic),” he said. At the time of compiling this report, he had not responded.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: