By Ngomyayona Gamedze

If the article which Mr Mbingo published in the Sunday Observer of 24th December was indeed authored by him, then he is a disgrace to the media fraternity and to anybody who shares the tittle of editor with him in whatever media house, he is just a disgrace. 

The closest possibility is that given the state-ownership nature of the newspaper, the article was probably written by someone else and Mbingo was forced to publish it under his name as a someone’s puppet, otherwise if this is not the case then he is not the person we think he is and maybe he is the one who is a whiskey in a coke bottle in terms of his professionality.

Below are some of the points which makes one doubt his professional intellect and why we say he is a disgrace to the media fraternity.

Regarding our business trip to the PRC, he seems to be of the illusion that politics and business/the economy are totally unrelated. He must know that the world over, most if not all political parties and politicians are supported by business.

This is true even in Eswatini where business and money influences who goes to parliament and who doesn’t and that is a global practice which he doesn’t know seemingly.He probably was not around during our 2023 general elections and during the 2023 Senate election to witness what we are talking about. He also probably doesn’t know that elections campaign funding is provided for in our laws and he probably doesn’t know that money comes from business including any donor or salary money comes from business.

So our business trip as political parties was very much in order but out of sympathy, we understand how this is beyond his understanding. 

Even closer home in SADC states, political parties are supported by business but it’s a shame he doesn’t know that. 

Even though we are glad he googled our host the China People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, and I can imagine how disappointed he was when he found nothing mentioned about terrorism as his principals would have loved.He was actually so tongue-tied and went on to say blah, blah blah in his article, as a sign of disappointment that the institute really existed for a noble reason and that indeed the institute is a tool for collaboration with both governments and political parties world over. He must know that our visit was not the last one as there is a lot to exchange with the institute.His reference to those who did not win elections as losers is really unique to Eswatini and very much in sharp contradiction to what His Majesty said when addressing the recent Sibaya in 2023. 

His Majesty congratulated and thanked all those who participated in the elections both the electorate and candidates. HMK went on to praise them for living upto the adage that says “ngingete ngasala nasakha kwetfu”. 

It is laughable that both the government media being the Eswatini Observer as represented by Mbingo and the Prime Minister’s Office as represented by the Government Spokespers goes against the pronouncement by the King by continuously insulting and labeling those Emaswati who participated but did not win elections as losers, much against the King’s pronouncement who praised them as patriots. We thought the King was the supreme policy-holder in the country (Umlomo Longacali Manga), but obviously there are other kings out there in Mbingo and cabinet.His Majesty fully understands that all the citizens who participated in the elections as candidates are respectable Emaswati, family members, professionals, business people and of good social standing and they are no losers unless the one calling them losers is a loser himself.

Actually, Eswatini might be the only country which labels and insults people who did not win elections as losers. Mbingo must borrow from the adage that says winners don’t quit, which means if you don’t win today, you go back to the drawing board and polish your strategy very much like football teams do, which he might understand better.

An intelligent mind will understand that re-strategizing for victory is not wrong and Sive Siyinqaba is no quitter.It is strange that for a government media and the Government spokesperson, instead of talking more about government achievements in service delivery, they are busy focusing on stories about political parties as if the political parties are the government, unless the government thinks we should be the government, in which case, then it’s a different story for another day (yincangancanga Siloskhulu). Our advice to government and the government media is that they should stop behaving like an insecure government unless government is really insecure, by wasting their time and our taxes attacking political parties instead of focusing on service delivery unless there is no delivery to report on which is most likely true.

Mbingo does not know that we as Sive Siyinqaba publicly transformed ourselves from a cultural group to a national movement,unless this happened when he was on leave as seemingly he is known for taking long leave from work and we can now understand the reasons for his long leaves.

We also publicly announced both our new transformed manifesto and constitution as discussed and adopted in our November 2022 national convention.There is nowhere in our manifesto where it says we are against the King or the institution of the monarchy unless that is his wish. He should not try to please the king and his principals by telling lies about us.

Our visit to China is nowhere at odds with our published manifesto as we are well within our manifesto which is publicly available even for his for viewing.