By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:The bombing of a house belonging to Mlungisi Makhanya,the President of People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) allegedly by State agents has been cited in a report compiled by Amnesty International, a human rights advocacy organization.

The report cites incidents of human rights violations in eSwatini that include among others, the abduction and torture of the  then President of the Swaziland National Union of Students(SNUS) Colani Maseko by security forces, the declaration of editor Zweli Martin Dlamini as a terrorist and the banning of lawyer Sicelo Mngomezulu from entering eSwatini, Mngomezulu is the Chairperson of the pro-democracy MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF).

A questionnaire was sent to Alpheous Nxumalo,the eSwatini Government Spokesperson, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.

On another note, the Amnesty International report accused the eSwatini authorities of using the 1938 Sedition and Subversive Activities Act and the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA) to silence critics.

“In June,Zweli Martin Dlamini, editor of Swaziland News, one of the country’s few independent online newspapers, was declared a terrorist under the STA.In July, three UN Special Rapporteurs and other UN representatives raised concerns about the “severe restrictions of fundamental freedoms” in relation to the repression of mass protests, among other violations. The government denied responsibility for the violations.On 1 September, the government banned South African national Sicelo Mngomezulu from entering the country following his remarks about the Annual Reed Dance (a cultural event). However, the ban may have arisen from his being a member of MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube’s legal team. The MPs were detained in 2021 on trumped-up charges under the STA, and for contravening Covid-19 regulations. They were brutally assaulted by correctional services officers in the early hours of 22 September and denied medical care for over 24 hours until their lawyer filed an application at the court.On 20 September, the home of PUDEMO’s president, Mlungisi Makhaya, was bombed, reportedly by state agents. He and his family were out and no one was injured”, reads the report in part.

Eswatini is ruled by King Mswati as an absolute Monarch,political parties are banned from participating in elections and human rights defenders are killed for demanding democracy.