---

I can accept that if the sentence is hard on us, other honourable MPs will never stand for the truth as they will always be afraid that they might be arrested. Indeed, a harsh sentence by this honourable court would induce a chilling effect, not only on the current MPs but also future ones

---

Sizwe sama Yende

---

A detained former Eswatini legislator has challenged the country’s courts to strengthen rather than muzzle members of parliament.

Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza has pleaded with the courts as he and another former MP Mthandeni Dube face a hefty sentence after Judge Mumcy Dlamini found them guilty of terrorism and murder relating to violent riots that engulfed the country in July 2021.

The riots erupted after pro-democracy MPs, which also included Mduduzi Simelane and Mthandeni Dube, argued in a motion that King Mswati III should not interfere and handpick a prime minister following the death of incumbent, Ambrose Dlamini, due to Covid-19 in December 2020. In the previous term, MPs had also passed a motion of no confidence against then prime minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, and his administration following a number of corruption scandals.

No fewer than 42 MPs voted in favour of the motion. Only six MPs voted against it and two abstained. Even though more than a two-thirds majority voted in favour of the motion, the monarch ignored the outcome.

In 2021, the public decided they had enough with King Mswati’s regime, which banned political parties in 1973. With encouragement from the pro-democracy MPs, they submitted petitions to Parliament to demand wholesale democratic changes. King Mswati responded with brutal force.

More than 1000 members of the public were reportedly killed by the army and police as they tried to quell violent protests in all corners of the landlocked country. Protestors burnt down businesses and government property, causing damage estimated at about R3 billion.

King Mswati has since snubbed SADC’s advice for a dialogue with pro-democracy formations and rather opted for isibaya (byre) gathering.

In a statement for mitigation of his sentence to Judge Dlamini, Mabuza said that he had done nothing wrong. Mabuza and Dube will be sentenced on March 26. Simelane, a well-known gospel singer, left the country and went into exile before he could be arrested.

“Parliament is a very important organ in ensuring that the administrative conduct of government and authorities is subject to the scrutiny of independent directly elected representatives of the people. It is my reasonable expectation that independent courts would seek to strengthen, rather than muzzle, the voices of Members of Parliament,” Mabuza said.

Mabuza said that his struggle was not for self-benefit but for the country’s poverty-stricken citizens he represented. He said that his MP perks were nothing compared to what he earned from his various business ventures in retail, real estate, and farming. Those businesses, he said, also directly employed 500 people and indirectly employed 4 000 people.

“Through my interaction with ordinary people, I could sense the deep anguish, frustration, and desperation for a change of their untenable material conditions. I stand before this honourable court with a clear conscience that I committed no crime, nor did I wrong the people of eSwatini in any way. My only crime is to serve my constituency, the people of eSwatini, and all sections of society dutifully and faithfully across their political persuasions,” Mabuza said.

He said that the Eswatini state missed an opportunity to introspect when the riots erupted, but invented imaginary enemies. “I still believe that the government must be fully elected by the people and not appointed by His Majesty the King. Those remain my enduring political views that no one can change, even if you try to convince me otherwise. While in jail, I have tried to look at what wrong I might have done. I have never found the reason because I think that the only “crime” I have made in my life was to have different views on the political system of this country,” Mabuza said.

Mabuza said that the court needed to be reflective and reasonable when sentencing them to avoid planting fear in MPs and discourage them from speaking out.

“I can accept that if the sentence is hard on us, other honourable MPs will never stand for the truth as they will always be afraid that they might be arrested. Indeed, a harsh sentence by this honourable court would induce a chilling effect, not only on the current MPs but also future ones,” he said.