After the petrol bombing of Tinkhundla Minister David Cruiser Ngcamphalala’s home, Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku and the Cruizer blamed the “29 June repeat” statement by SWALIMO President Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane.
It seems both Ngcamphalala and the Deputy Prime Minister have forgotten the statement by Prince Simelane where he urged the police and soldiers to fight “fire with fire”, the Prince incited violence and indeed dozens of protesting civilians were killed.
Now, the DPM and the Tinkhundla Minister are quick to cite the “June 29 repeat”, perhaps they are mistaking the ‘Simelane Prince’ and Mduduzi Simelane, the President of the Swaziland Liberation Movement(SWALIMO)
It was Prince Simelane who spoke about fire inside Parliament and subsequent to his statement, the country experienced a massacre that is now subject to investigations by international human rights organizations.
After the killing of civilians, government including King Mswati, the alleged political serial killer never demonstrated remorse to the Nation, instead, the King and his loyalists kept on making noise about the destruction of property.
As journalists, we have an obligation to discourage violence and we have been doing that consistently, warning this cruel and oppressive government against killing the people.
When citizens are killed by soldiers and the police, government will claim to be conducting endless investigations to cover-up the crimes against humanity, but when their properties are attacked, within 24 hours, political hypocrites like Themba Masuku and Cruizer Ngcamphalala have a suspect in mind.
Then the question is, how long does it take to investigate who killed the civilians in broad daylight and why it is quick to know the petrol bombers who attacked Cruiser at night?
When was the investigation into Minister David Ngcamphalala’s conducted and what were the findings?.
Well, let me remind Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku that this Nation is grieving and the citizens are fully aware who killed their relatives, life will never be normal in this country until peace is restored.
It is stupidity of the highest order for any public figure to create a culture of impunity where citizens are killed by those in power and then expect to live a normal life.
All Cabinet Ministers, members of the royal family, security officers among others, are members of the community, therefore, they have obligations to create a peaceful environment, promote and restore political stability in our country.
This country does not only belong to those who dance Incwala, the citizens who are now living in the forests in fear of being killed by the police after expressing their political views are Swazis as well.
Now, Themba Masuku claims those who are calling for democracy are responsible for the burning of properties, he accuses them of targeting those who disagreed with them.
Your Excellency, the Deputy Prime Minister, the truth is: It is the cruel and oppressive government that persecutes and kill citizens with different political views, two Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube are behind bars while Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane is in exile.
These MPs were targeted after expressing their political views, some of the Swazis who supported their views by protesting on the streets in demand for democratic reforms were killed by the Tinkhundla government.
Perhaps, let me bring to the attention of the DPM that there is no evidence suggesting that the petrol bombing of the Tinkhundla Minister's home was linked to the political unrest, what if he committed adultery with someone’s wife within the community and the husband decided to sort him?
What if it’s a strategy by the regime to paint the pro-democracy activists as terrorists to justify the killing of civilians and the arrest of the pro-democracy MPs?.
It should be noted that, when we allege that Mswati, his Cabinet and State security officers killed civilians, we are basing that on evidence, not political assumptions.
That headline by the Times was not written by Magawugawu, headlines are prerogatives of editors and there are possibilities that he was misquoted or quoted out of context to suit the motives and agenda of this regime.
In conclusion, let me bring to the attention of the Deputy Prime Minister and remind him that he was never elected by the people, killing civilians to hold on to power will never work for this regime.The
police must investigate, gather evidence and arrest those who petrol bombed David Cruizer Ngcamphalala’s home, we can have different opinions regarding the circumstances surrounding this matter, but the truth remains that this is a criminal matter that should be dealt with by the police not political hypocrites like Themba Masuku.
Mswati and his loyalists will eventually fall, it’s just a matter of time.
Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku.