Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane will remain a Facebook President, perhaps he must start demonstrating qualities of being a good leader who respects independent journalists and other political leaders.
Magawugawu might be popular but the truth is, he doesn’t have any strategy to liberate this country, he would call other leaders of political parties and try to spy on what they were planning to do.
The former MP would then rush to address a ‘Family Meeting’ on Facebook to announce future plans of the struggle so that when these political leaders called protests it would appear as if Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane is leading in the eyes of the public.
Now that other political leaders are avoiding to talk to him, he would conclude his Family Meeting without any way forward because he is not aware of the future plans of the struggle.
I advised him several times to work with other political leaders in the MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF) and the Political Parties Assembly(PPA) but he refused to listen and opt to try and manipulate the media,elevate himself as a person who is working.
Unfortunately, you cannot grab and rule a country through Facebook, there are pillars of the State that you must seize before taking over power.
University students called a protest, because Magawugawu knew that the protest might attract a huge crowd, he rushed to do an audio and pretended as if he was endorsing the protest.
I spoke to Magawugawu, Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube before the warrant of arrests were issued and told them to prioritize their safety.
Magawugawu ran away because of the information provided by the media and now he thinks he can control journalists by influencing the public opinion on Facebook.
At some point, I was intimidated and told that if I exposed or criticized him the online publication would collapse because people would unfollow it and read other online publications.
It’s almost a year now since we kicked-out the ‘Family Meeting’ and the paper is fast reaching 250 000 followers on Facebook, over 50,000.00 on Twitter and over one million on the website.
I banned the Family Meeting after noticing that Magawugawu was strategically positioning himself without working with other political leaders in the MSF and PPA.
I am still waiting to see if this online publication will collapse because we criticize Magawugawu, this publication is supported by local and international partners and Magawugawu knows nothing about its pillars.
During one of our conversations, Magawugawu told me that this publication became popular because of him, that was when I realized that this man has serious problem blinded by popularity.
If that was the truth, why is this publication not collapsing after we banned the Family Meeting?.
Magawugawu is, and remains a serious threat to media freedom.
After I stopped the Family Meeting that was attracting over 15000 viewers here, he rushed to other platforms thinking that viewers would leave this publication, he is now being watched by less than 5000 viewers.
The popularity will continue to drop as more people start realizing that he is merely talking without any strategy or action.
It was a good strategy for those who are actually working with the underground forces in the struggle to just keep quiet temporarily, so that Magawugawu can be exposed that he is doing nothing.
Once those who are working paused their underground operations, Magawugawu ran out of content and paused his Family Meetings because he doesn’t have any strategy on how to liberate this country.
Magawugawu can run around and feature in all the online publications that are struggling to attract a following.
This publication is not desperate to attract a following by worshipping Magawugawu, we are being followed based on the quality of the news we are providing.
We will expose Magawugawu if he continues to steal funds meant to assist his organization, it is our duty as journalists and we won’t be intimidated by rouge followers.
A political leader who starts stealing now, will loot public funds in the new democratic dispensation and we won’t tolerate that.
Anyone who aspires to lead this country must be ready to be screened by the media.
Does Magawugawu thinks we can give him a country because of Facebook LIKES even if he demonstrates ‘symptoms’ of being a dictator?
As a journalist who is well-versed with various operations in the struggle, I can assure him that if he continues with his dictatorship tendencies, he must just forget about leading this country, we don’t have a problem with him being a Facebook President.
At first, we warned him to stop centralizing power around his relatives in his organization, Magawugawu trusts his family members more than the SWALIMO Executive, what is the difference between him and Mswati?
As the media we gave coverage to his wife LaZwide when campaigning not because we were convinced she can change the Tinkhundla system, we knew the idea was to put food on the Simelane family’s table.
As a result, LaZwide might leave Parliament without moving any motion in support of democracy, but at least the Simelane family will have something to eat with the over R50,000.00 salary.
Some monies were donated via his family members, he is actually a duplicate of Mswati who appoints his close relatives.
In conclusion, let me state clearly that we want democracy not to be bullied by Magawugawu who thinks he can intimidate the independent media.
We are not changing power here from the Dlamini family to be ruled by a Simelane family with similar dictatorship tendencies, we want democratic institutions and leaders who subscribe to the principles of transparency and accountability of public power.
If Magawugawu thinks he can fight independent journalists and still aspire to rule this country, then he must forget.
We won’t stop him from kissing his followers on Facebook and be their President there.
We are talking about a country here not a performance and we actually know the qualities of the leadership we want.
If Facebook following means leadership, that would mean even Gedlembane with his over 300 000 Facebook followers can lead a country.
We want political leaders who understand, embrace and respect the role of the media in a democratic society.
It is now clear that if Magawugawu could take over this country with his dictatorship tendencies, we might find ourselves running to exile again once we expose him as the media.
SWALIMO President Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane.