Bheki an effective bullshit detector - Nick Dawes Swaziland, the pocket dictatorship, is a hard place to get people angry about. Mswati III is a sort of caricature of a wayward monarch, with his Maybachs and his maidens, and perhaps it isnt surprising that there is a comedic character to the place he occupies in the popular imagination - to the extent that he troubles it at all.But there is nothing funny about the reality of contemporary Swaziland, and the total capture of its institutions couldnt be better illustrated than it is by the ongoing detention of Bheki Makhubu, whose magazine, the Nation represents most of what remains of the independent press in that country.Bheki is a fine journalist, a good friend, and an utterly unerring bullshit detector. He was arrested with Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer, over an article perceived as critical of the judiciary. It is a ludicrous, and infuriating situation which I hope brings home to South Africans and others in the region just how grim the state of Swazilands justice system is. Nick Dawes is former Editor in Chief of the Mail and Guardian and is now editor of one of the biggest newspapers in India. He wrote this to his millions of readers after learning about Bheki and Thulanis persecution and incaceration.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 13:34:02 +0000