Artist and cultural activist Khulekani Msweli held up an oversized rubber stamp engraved with the words “Swaziland Department of Nonsense. Just shut up and be a good Swazi”.
The stamp, he said, was the weapon used by those with power to deny people their rights. One needed a stamp of authority to obtain or acquire anything. “You have been bad? You don’t deserve a stamp,” he said.
The giant stamp is also a symbol of how the Swazi people have to convey their frustrations without using words, he said, in a country where it is “extremely challenging for common people to speak out, to protest, or just ask for a better and fair share in life”.
Msweli was speaking at a Freedom of Expression Summit that brought together about 100 representatives of a cross-section of civil society in Manzini last week. It was convened by my organisation, the Campaign for Free Expression, with Eswatini’s Inhlase Centre for Investigative Journalism, to confront a core issue: people’s capacity to speak out, protest and express themselves without fear in a society of rising conflict and division.
This small kingdom, domain of the last absolute monarch, is trapped in political limbo. Since the unprecedented prodemocracy demonstrations that began in May 2021 killings, violence and arson attacks have been continuing with an increasing number of young people calling for a change in the political system. Protests have been outlawed and security forces respond harshly to any show of dissent, amid claims of 1,000 arrests, more than 80 deaths and hundreds of wounded (though the figures are disputed). This is deeply shocking in a society that has long been peaceful and safe.
Now there is an active and apparently growing underground movement targeting security forces and the king’s allies, including journalists. Just this week the house of Alec Lushaba, editor of the Financial Times, a new progovernment newspaper, was torched. Last week two on-duty traffic police officers were shot dead, as was a soldier at home and a correctional services officer.
In all of this escalating conflict King Mswati III has been largely silent, responding only through his security forces. When President Cyril Ramaphosa flew in in 2021 to discuss the security situation, the SA president emerged to say they had agreed to begin a process towards “national dialogues”. Mswati has never confirmed this and there has been no visible movement since then.
A major part of the problem is that the establishment — including most of the mainstream media — is too beholden to the king to tackle him and say what has to be said. To give one example, the editor of the country’s leading independent publication, Martin Dhlamini of The Times, moonlights as the monarch’s speechwriter, for which he is handsomely rewarded. Most media is either government-owned or dependent on it as the country’s biggest advertiser. Self-censorship is the order of the day.
The country has a good constitution — except for the fact that the king can override it on a whim. In such a situation freedom of expression is a way to tackle the deadlock without going head-to-head with a nervous government likely to lash out.
There was no denying the mood at last week’s summit. The government pays lip service to people’s rights to free expression, which exist on paper only, said journalist Vuyisile Hlatshwayo. He cited the shutting down of the internet during the troubles in 2021, the lack of access to government information, threats to withdraw advertising from critical media, and attacks on journalists. Also raised was the handling of protests, particularly the limitations on particular groups speaking out, notably women, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ communities.
Nonhlanhla Dhlamini of the Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (Swaga) said self-censorship is deeply embedded in the patriarchal society, starting in the home. Swazis were raised to be “docile” and not challenge authority, she said. “We can’t demand certain things at a higher level if we don’t have them in the household.”
It is clear the issues run deep in Eswatini, deeply embedded in a political culture and practice that does not cope with popular demands to be heard. There is hope that this gathering can form a loose coalition to tackle these issues and push the kingdom into a more open space where people are no longer prepared to “just shut up and be good Swazis”.
• Harber is executive director of the Campaign for Free Expression and Caxton professor of journalism at Wits University.
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