By Zweli Martin Dlamini

King Mswati, through his Spokesperson Percy Simelane is re-gaining power,while dominating the public discourse agenda and correcting previous political narratives.

Appointing a Spokesperson was one of the most important decisions adopted by the King, his public image is slowly being restored particularly, on issues that previously reached the public domain at the time when government was refusing to comment. 

Government was actually ‘donating’ the reputation of the King to the independent media by avoiding to clarify issues, the office of the Head of State requires consistent clarification on critical issues because, that is where decisions that impact the lives of the people are taken.

But, I had on numerous occasions published articles advising the pro-democracy MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF) to appoint a strong Spokesperson whose political vibrancy will then shape or influence the democratic discourse.

King Mswati has introduced reforms within his political circle, having a strong Spokesperson who understands issues including the pillars of the Tinkhundla system of Governance, is surely working in his favour. 

A Spokesperson is different from a Secretary General(SG) and by the time the MSF realizes that King Mswati through his Spokesperson Percy Simelane is now shaping the public discourse, it would be too late.

Mswati realized that avoiding the media and operating such an important office without a Spokesperson was a huge mistake, he corrected that mistake and he seems to be cruising now in terms of information dissemination and setting the record straight.

The game of power among others, is played and decided in the media space, anyone who dominates the press with a convincing political ideology wins the masses.