• The Swaziland Multi-Stakeholder Forum has outlined an eight-point plan to solve problems in Eswatini.
• Slain human rights activist Thulani Maseko has been celebrated posthumously by civil society organisations.
• Maseko’s widow, Tanele, has taken it upon herself to continue fighting for justice.

The Swaziland Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) has tabled eight demands that it wants the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to take up with the government of Eswatini.

The wish list was presented at the 75th ACHPR session currently underway in Banjul, Gambia.

The demands were presented by Tanele Maseko, the wife of slain human rights activist Thulani Maseko, who was gunned down in front of his family on 21 January this year.

The demands are:

– The government should immediately allow for an internationally supported panel to conduct a thorough, independent, and expeditious investigation into Maseko’s murder.

– Uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of the country. This includes the rights to freedom of assembly and association, freedom of expression, and access to information, including refraining from interfering with access to the internet and social media.

– Uphold and protect the rights of children and other vulnerable and minority groups.

– Create an enabling political climate for negotiation and dialogue; to immediately recall the army and security forces that are deployed throughout the country and in communities.

– Release all political prisoners including but not limited to the two Members of Parliament, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.

– Allow all exiles to unconditionally return including but not limited to legislator Mduduzi Simelane and withdraw all politically motivated charges.

– Urgently ensure a neutral venue for a properly mediated national political dialogue and work with the SADC structures to ensure a smooth transition to a multiparty democratic dispensation.

– Cease all state-sponsored victimisation, harassment and targeting of pro-democracy leaders and campaigners using the security forces and arbitrary application of the law.

The forum said the only way out of the impasse was dialogue, but that the government had been using violence as a tool of repression.

Maseko said:

We emphasise that the only way out of the problems faced by Swaziland (Eswatini) can only be resolved through peaceful means to be found at the dialogue table.

The civil society delegation arrived in Gambia amid widening repression back home.

“Intimidation and harassment of activists is on the rise and the levels of suppression of freedoms of expression, association and assembly are at an alarming level, never before seen in the country,” Maseko said.

“In the past three weeks, an activist was severely assaulted by members of the security forces after attending a petition delivery to the UN; another [had] petrol [poured]on his face and set alight; and another was assaulted and shot and killed.”

Personal struggle