MBABANE: Housing Minister Major General Prince Simelane has come out to defend King Mswati saying he was never involved in the shooting and killing of civilians.
Mswati, the Commander-in Chief of the armed forces being the army, police and correctional services, was reported to the International Criminal Court(ICC) for allegedly unleashing soldiers and the police to shoot and kill dozens of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.
The Human Rights Commission released a report suggesting that forty-six(46) people were killed while political parties and the civil society say they have evidence substantiating that over one hundred(100) people were killed.
In a public address this week, Minister Prince Simelane who doubles as a Major General within the Army said he decided to personally come out and defend the King after noting that no one seemed prepared to defend the Monarch on what he described as false accusations.
“The King never killed the people and is not directly involved in the operations of the armed forces, there are people”, he said.
On another note Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini recently told the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) that Mswati’s police killed civilians, his sentiments comes after an electronic evidence that exposed the then Army Commander Jeffery Shabalala implicated Mswati.
Part of the evidence exposed how Mswati ordered the Heads of the armed forces to shoot civilians.
Speaking to the BBC, Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini confirmed that Mswati’s police shot and killed civilians, however, he said some protesters were killed by businesspeople who were protecting their properties from being looted and burned.
“People were protecting their properties and in that process they were shooting back and of course the police also, were shooting. So I am not saying the police didn’t kill anyone but I am saying not everybody who died was killed by the police", he said.
But the sentiments of the PM were refuted by Johannes Manikela, the Chairman of the Federation of the Swazi Business Community(FESBC) who said businesspeople never killed anyone, adding that they were also told to stay home in the midst of the unrest hence there was no way they could kill people.
“It’s not true that businesspeople killed the civilians, the burning of properties and looting happened at night while we were at home. So there was no way we can shoot people, in fact some businesspeople received calls from the police that their properties were burnt and looted”, said the FESBC Chairman.
The now consistent contradictory denials from Mswati and his regime come in the midst of investigations by international human rights organizations regarding the shooting and killing of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.
King Mswati