MBABANE: Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin Dlamini said after being served with a letter by the now ICT Principal Secretary Phesheya Dube shutting down the then Swaziland Shopping newspaper, he told him that he would establish an online publication that would liberate the whole country through the dissemination of accurate information.
The editor said while working in other newspapers in eSwatini, he realized that Swazis were oppressed through media capture as the State was controlling the flow of information.
Dlamini said after indicating that he will establish an online publication, the PS laughed at him as he closed the door in his office saying: “Swazis don’t take online publications seriously, they trust the Times and Observer something that is printed on paper. We have taken a decision to close your newspaper, we don’t care about what you are going to do thereafter”.
The editor said now Government is running up and down hiring South African lawyers trying to shutdown this Swaziland News, however, he assured Swazis that all the efforts by the State would not succeed.
“Even before receiving that letter shutting down the then Swaziland Shopping, I already had plans to establish an online publication and host it in a foreign country so that they could struggle to shut it down. I am now watching them wasting taxpayers money trying to shutdown the Swaziland News, that will never happen. For example, I can decide to host the servers of the publication in another country like Denmark, once they run to Denmark, host it in Switzerland because I have a network of international journalists who are ready to assist. I am happy to note that five years later after they closed the Swaziland Shopping, the face of eSwatini politics has changed,” said the editor.
A questionnaire was sent to ICT Principal Secretary Phesheya Dube, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Dlamini said with the assistance of other stakeholders, he was now working towards ensuring that in less than two(2) years, the publication conducted business inside a democratic Swaziland.
“In less than two years, my dream is to write and publish a story while inside Swaziland without any fear of being arrested. We must thank the ICT Principal Secretary, the then Director of Media in the Ministry of Information and the regime that decided to shutdown the Swaziland Shopping, by so doing, they pushed us to a more secure and uncensored platform that is now driving the political agenda of the country. This is exactly what I told the now ICT Principal Secretary in December 2017,” said the editor.
ICT Principal Secretary Phesheya Dube.