The Eswatini government has slammed suggestions by South African officials that King Mswati III was to blame for a second high-level summit to discuss the situation in that kingdom being called off.
The Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc) Troika meeting, headed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, was supposed to take place Thursday and was supposed to include the king as well as Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi and Namibian president Hage Geingob.
The cancellation of the summit and the tone of the response by the Eswatini government suggests that the region is further away from bringing together the different parties for a national dialogue than it was before the violence in June last year which resulted in a large number of death and injuries.
No official reason for the cancellation of the summit was offered, but South African officials said it was because Mswati was unable to attend in person and because of the importance of the meeting, his Sadc counterparts wanted him to be there.
Eswatini government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, however, indicated in a diplomatic note dated July 12 2022 “that the Kingdom of Eswatini was going to participate in the Summit on a virtual platform”.
Subsequently the department of international relations sent an email to the Eswatini High Commission with a virtual link and password for the summit.
Nxumalo said the delegation from Eswatini at the preceding meeting by the ministerial committee of the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security co-operation in Pretoria was informed on Tuesday July 19 that the meeting was being cancelled, but no reasons were given. “This was a completely unanticipated turn of events,” Nxumalo said.
“The Kingdom of Eswatini has, at all times, been ready to attend the summit.”
The previous summit in April was also cancelled at the last minute, and again Eswatini was blamed.
The national political dialogue, which Mswati had agreed to last year, was supposed to have been discussed at the summit, but Eswatini officials insisted that Sadc should first have allowed Eswatini to have engagements about the document that it wants to discuss at the summit.
It is believed, however, that Eswatini had a deadline of February 28 to submit its response to the document, a draft terms of reference resulting from a fact-finding mission led by Jeff Radebe and appointed by Ramaphosa as Sadc security organ chairperson.
Eswatini officials say there is no working document to discuss and therefore there could not be a summit.
They also believe that the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security co-operation, which consists of three member states, had no good reason under Sadc rules to intervene in Eswatini and that it should be mandated by the summit next month, attended by all member states, before it can establish a national dialogue in Eswatini.
“We feel like naughty children being hauled over the coals,” an official complained.
Opposition sources, however, say the summit was cancelled because Mswati had been made aware that exiled opponents of the king were planning protests in front of Dirco’s headquarters in Pretoria where the summit was due to have taken place.
Activists in Eswatini also complain that harassment by security forces against them has intensified in the past few weeks.
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