MBABANE:The United States(US) Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged Senators to pass Resolution 174 as the Government of Eswatini continues to threaten assassinated human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko’s widow Tanele Maseko and others for demanding justice or an investigation into the death of the highly regarded and internationally respected human rights defender.
This comes after the Eswatini Government through its controversial Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo threatened Tanele Maseko,the wife to the assassinated lawyer merely for demanding an investigation into the death of her husband.
Nxumalo threatened the widow with treason charges merely for uttering statements saying her husband was killed by a “horrible dictator”, there were fears that the widow who is a critical witness in the assassination might also be killed by the Tinkhundla regime as the threats by the Eswatini Government Spokesperson escalated.
The widow was speaking during the recently held sanctions oriented Magnitsky Awards when accepting an award on behalf of her late husband who was honored for advocating for human rights in eSwatini.
But after the Government Spokesperson issued the threats and further accused Tanele Maseko of using the death of her husband to cash money, Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini released a statement and amplified the threats against those accusing the authorities of the country of killing the human rights lawyer.
The Government has been staggering in investigating the assassination while making one excuse after another, pointing to different directions and making contradictory statements,when asked to account for the killing of the human rights lawyer.
But on Monday evening,the US Senate Foreign Relations Commitee posted on X(formerly Twitter),quoting a story published by the Daily Maverick, urged Senators to pass Resolution 174 that seeks to impose targeted sanctions on human rights violators in the Kingdom of eSwatini.
“A year ago,internationally-respected human rights activist Thulani Maseko was murdered in his home.Unsurprisingly,the gov’t of #Eswatini puts its efforts into disparaging his widow& others who seek the truth about his death over the pursuit of justice.We must pass S. Res 174”, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee posted on Monday evening.
A questionnaire was sent to Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
On another note,human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko was the Chairperson of the pro-democracy MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF), he was assassinated allegedly by King Mswati’s mercenaries while corresponding with the Southern African Development Community(SADC) and other international human rights organizations, facilitating a political dialogue as part of peaceful means to end the eSwatini political crisis and usher the country into a new democratic dispensation.
Reacting to the latest developments on Monday evening,Sivumelwano Nyembe,the Spokesperson of the MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF) said, the people of eSwatini were in urgent need of every available resource to attain justice for the assassinated human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko.
“The pursuit of justice is not only a fundamental right but also a collective responsibility, ensuring that the truth prevails and those responsible are brought to account for their actions,” said the MSF Spokesperson when speaking to this Swaziland News.
Eswatini is ruled by King Mswati as an absolute Monarch,political parties are banned from participating in elections while human rights defenders are arrested, tortured and killed for merely demanding democracy.
The United States has been consistently demanding an investigation into the assassination of the human rights lawyer who was advocating for democracy through peaceful means.
An X post by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.