By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE: King Mswati is highly expected to go to his Incwala seclusion again in the next few weeks without hosting the highly anticipated political dialogue.

Eswatini, a tiny Kingdom situated in Southern Africa is in the midst of a political crisis after Mswati allegedly unleashed his police and soldiers to shoot and kill dozens of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.

Reached for comments, King Mswati’s Spokesperson Percy Simelane said the Southern African Development Community(SADC) tasked its Troika Organ to work on the eSwatini turmoil in accordance with the Constitution, in an all inclusive manner adding that no date had been set.

“SADC tasked its Troika to work on the Eswatini turmoil in accordance  with the 2005 Constitution in an all inclusive  manner. We are not aware  of any date set by Troika but very much alive to Eswatini's concerns  about the hostile environment that currently obtains which includes threats by key stakeholders to use violent means to  deal with those who will present against them or stand in their way during the dialogue.How Troika sees these concerns has not yet been made public,” said the King’s Spokesperson when responding to our questionnaire on Sunday evening.

Speaking to this Swaziland News on Sunday evening, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, the Chairperson of the MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF)said it was very unfortunate that the King’s Spokesperson could claim there were people who wanted to disrupt a political dialogue. 

Responding to our questions on the subject matter, the MSF Chairperson said it was, in fact, the masses who have been calling for a dialogue even before SADC was seized with the eSwatini political crisis.

The MSF is a coalition of pro-democracy groups collectively advocating for democratic reforms in the Kingdom eSwatini.

“SADC Troika produced a draft with the terms of reference and Government has not reacted to the proposal by Troika that stipulates what form must the dialogue take. So he can’t then say it is the Troika that must fix dates when they have not reacted to the proposal by Troika that stipulates how the dialogue must be held. You will recall that back in February, SADC Troika proposed the dialogue with timelines because you can’t have a dialogue without fixed timelines. But Government undermined those timelines, so the main issue we are faced with here is that Government is reluctant to commit on the proposal by Troika,” said the MultiStakeholder Forum Chairperson.

Eswatini is ruled by King Mswati as an absolute Monarch with Executive,Judicial and Legislative powers, political parties are banned from participating in elections.

Two Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were thrown behind bars allegedly by King Mswati for demanding democratic reforms, they are facing politically motivated terrorism charges.