James Hall The Kingdom of Swaziland has been wracked by an unprecedented bout of public protest after the eviction of two chiefs that cuts to the heart of a social compact that ties Swazis together. For centuries land has been obtained not by ownership but by use and allegiance to the king through his chiefs. But King Mswati’s imposition of his brother, a senior Prince, Maguga Dlamini, in place of two hereditary chiefs, Mliba Fakudze and Mfutso Dlamini, has sown seeds of doubt in Swazis’ confidence in the system. On October 14 defiant residents of the two areas governed by the chiefs were rounded up at midnight in a joint police and army raid, and transported with their belongings to a field 100km away. Soldiers now keep them in, and keep visitors and the press out. Fakudze has sought political asylum in South Africa, and Dlamini has gone into hiding. One elderly woman who was evicted, Thembisile Mabuza, related: “When the soldiers came to take us away in the middle of the night, they said we could return as soon as we apologise to Maguga.” For years Swazis had been following with unease the efforts of Maguga to take over two chieftaincies, Macetjeni and MaKhweli. Since 1992 the residents of those areas, peasant farmers on communal Swazi National Land, or “king’s land” because it is held in trust for the Swazi nation by King Mswati III, have resisted the prince. Both chiefs say they have documentation that they were installed by King Sobhuza II, the current king’s father. Maguga says Sobhuza gave the land to him. Upon the advice of palace councillors, the king has sided with his older brother. Eighty per cent of Swazis live on king’s land, and those who do not are still rooted to the ancestral lands they consider their true homes. “Everyone is watching what is going on with Prince Maguga’s land grab closely, because we all feel insecure,” says Vusie Ginindza, editor of the Times Sunday. “If all those people can be evicted for defying the dictates of a prince, no one’s home anywhere is safe.” The University of Swaziland has been closed indefinitely after enduring the most violent disturbances in a decade, aimed at the university’s chancellor, the 32-year-old king, who signed the eviction order. A teachers’ strike shut down some schools, and the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions is considering having the 80 000 members of its 26 affiliated unions mount a nationwide workers’ stayaway in protest. “The people remain loyal to the king, but it is his advisers, the princes in particular, whom the people distrust,” says Joshua Mzizi of the Human Rights Association of Swaziland, which has been vocal in its condemnation of the evictions.
The trade union federation, for years the bte noire of royal government, envisions a constitutional monarchy with Mswati remaining as a cultural symbol of unification, along the lines of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. To keep a lid on dissension, debate about the convictions has been barred in Parliament and coverage of the evictions is not allowed on government-controlled radio and television. Police roadblocks have been mounted nationwide, while the largest military presence since a week-long nationwide workers’ stayaway in 1996 is on display in urban centres. Even the nurses of Swaziland have joined a grassroots protest against the treatment of Swaziland’s “internal exiles”, as the human rights organisation describes the evictees. Nurses refuse to treat the ailing 70-year-old Maguga, who is suffering from diabetes and may lose a leg. The prince feared that nurses might do more than withhold their ministrations. While staying at Mbabane hospital under police guard he reportedly ripped the intravenous drip from his arm in the belief that the medicine may have been poisoned. He stormed out of the facility at the weekend, saying, “I would rather die at home.” The possibility of the prince’s demise may have prompted the evictions.