JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Mbabane | Wednesday 1.30.pm
EMBATTLED Swaziland editor, Bheki Makhubu, has been formally dismissed from the small kingdom’s independent Times newspaper group on serious insubordination charges.
The dismissal follows Makhubu’s arrest on criminal defamation charges last week after he published an article in the Sunday edition of the Times of Swaziland labelling King Mswati III’s new fiance a highschool dropout.
The article detailed how 18-year-old Senteni Masango dropped out of two separate schools following complaints about absenteeism and ill discipline.
Makhubu questioned whether Masango was a suitable rolemodel as a future queen and Queen Mother of the Swazi nation and also warned that she had not yet been tested for AIDS.
Masango was chosen as Mswati’s eighth wife from thousands of women at the annual Umhlanga Reed Dance last month.
The Times newspaper management suspended Makhubu immediately after the article was published and sent a senior delegation the King’s Royal Kraal to formally apologise for embarrassing Mswati.
Makhubu attempted to get a court interdict preventing the newspaper from taking internal disciplinary action against him last week Friday but had his urgent application dismissed with costs by Swaziland Chief Justice Stanley Sapire.
Makhubu insisted in his application that the disciplinary hearing would be unfair until after there was a verdict on the criminal charges in the High Court.
The Times of Swaziland confirmed this week it had forwarded a bill for its R3000 legal costs to Makhubu and said it formally relieved him of his position on October 4.
The newspaper’s daily news editor, Vusie Ginindza, has been appointed to replace Makhubu as editor of the Sunday edition.
Makhubu is meanwhile still out on R3000 bail after appearing briefly in the Mbabane magistrate’s court on Monday on the criminal defamation charges.
Mbabane Principal Magistrate, Kenneth Nkambule, agreed to extend Makhubu’s bail but said the 29-year-old editor would have to appear in court on a weekly basis until his case was placed on the country’s High Court roll.
Makhubu’s attorney, S’dumo Mdladla, argued that the weekly court appearances would place a financial strain on his client and requested that he merely be summonsed when the matter was finally placed on the High Court roll.
Mdladla also requested that Makhubu’s passport be returned after assuring the court that he was a prominent Swaziland citizen with too many ties to flee the country.
Magistrate Nkambule noted the arguments but said he would only consider them at Makhubu’s next court appearance next week Monday when the bail conditions are reviewed. –African Eye News Service