By Mduduzi Hlophe

HLANE: King Mswati was hosting his annual alcohol drinking ceremony and as result, couldn’t attend the Southern African Development Community(SADC) Summit on eSwatini and Mozambique crisis.

Photographic evidence in our possession suggests that on the very same day(03 April 2022)of the Summit, Mswati was allegedly busy drinking alcohol with members of Lutsango regiments and his security forces at Hlane Royal Residence, this was during his Buganu ceremony.

On Monday this Swaziland News, quoting a report by a South African online publication, the Daily Maverick reported that Mswati allegedly pulled out of the Summit saying he wanted more time to consult internally.

But On Monday evening, Thulie Dladla, the Foreign Affairs Minister released a statement and denied that King Mswati shunned the meeting and blamed the SADC Troika for postponing it. 

“The summit of the SADC Organ Troika plus Mozambique and Eswatini was announced in the past few weeks and our country was requested to provide a progress report on the situation in the Kingdom. However, due to unforseen circumstances, the Summit was postponed at the instance of SADC and the opportunity to present such a report was lost.The Ministerial meeting being the highest segment would not have heard this report as it was prepared for the summit.The SADC Secretariat and the Chairperson of the Organ are fully aware of this adjustment,”reads the statement in part. 

Speaking to this Swaziland News earlier, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, the Chairperson of the Multi-Stakeholders Forum alleged that King Mswati was actually delaying the dialogue facilitated by SADC so that he can have more time to to brutalize and silence the people.

The Multi-Stakeholders Forum is a collaboration of political parties and organizations within the civil society working together to amplify the calls for democratic reforms.

The human rights lawyer said after brutalizing and silencing the masses, Mswati will then go back to SADC and claim the problem that they were seeking to address has been resolved.

Reached for comments, Lucky Lukhele, the Spokesperson of the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN)called for the SADC  to act decisively against King Mswati. 

“Mswati doesn't respect anyone but himself, the ball is now in the SADC's court. SADC must show us that they are worthy to be respected by taking drastic punitive decisions towards King Mswati and Swaziland. For example ,by closing the SADC airspace so that the King could not fly to neighbouring countries for medical attention,”said the SSN Spokesperson.