Africa-Press – Eswatini. Julias Malema, the Chief in Commander of the Economic Freedom Fighters, has been told that he knows nothing about this country’s politics and is being widely misled by the company he keeps.
This was said by Government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, who was addressing Malema’s tirade against the country and His Majesty the King over the weekend.
The EFF leader used his rally to launch his party’s manifesto to call for democratic reforms in the country.
Reacting to the statement, Nxumalo called Malema’s utterances unhinged, reiterating his previous statement that Eswatini has its homegrown type of democracy that does not need others to interfere in it.
Nxumalo said the statement was unhinged in that Eswatini was a sovereign State and not a province of South Africa.
“Eswatini enjoys territorial integrity and it is a constitutionals state. We are not a subsidiary State to any county, neither are we the 10th province of the country where Julius Malema belongs,” he said.
He said Malema might be confused about how the frameworks of diplomacy work in the region.
“There is no country or government that informs another or imports or exports its brand of democracy to another. We hope that with time Malema and the EFF will get to understand that Emaswati have crafted and charted their own democracy and we are not waiting for the utopia or any other brand of democracy from South Africa or anywhere in the world anytime soon,” he said.
He extended an invitation to Malema to visit the country in order to see how monarchal democracy works, further pointing out that Malema did not have a bigger picture of how things were on the ground, despite that he has previously been hosted in the kingdom.
“Before Malema formed the EFF, he was a very common sight in the country, and he got busy down the line.
During the time he visited the country, he never witnessed the things he is telling his followers are taking place in this country. We are extending an invite to Malema to come to the country the same way he visits KZN (where the manifesto launch was held). He witness our democracy and the peace that we enjoy,” Nxumalo said.
Nxumalo added that it was ridiculous to think of Eswatini as a country that was undemocratic, stating that all political parties must understand that Eswatini has its own form of democracy, this in line with Malema saying the EFF would support a transition of Eswatini ‘from an absolute monarchy to a more inclusive and participatory system of governance’.
“It is preposterous to create the belief, impression and narrative that Eswatini is undemocratic and thus, is awaiting for organisations such EFF and others to import their ‘super brand of democracy’ to Eswatini.
This is a figment of naysayers’ fertile imagination in furtherance of ulterior political agendas such as the madness of ‘regime change!’,” Nxumalo said.
Nxumalo stated that the EEF needed to appreciate the type of democracy that Eswatini had adopted.
“Julius Malema and his EFF party, like the rest of the other political parties, must begin to understand, embrace and appreciate the Kingdom of Eswatini’s ‘home-grown-democracy’,” he said.
Nxumalo made it known that the country’s had developed since independence in 1968, which he said had been crafted over time ‘while other countries in the region were fighting for their freedom’.
“We are not a perfect democracy because there is none that you can find anywhere in the world,” he added.
Nxumalo said Malema’s statement was a threat not only to the country’s national security but also to the entire SADC region.
“Julius Malema’s statement remains appalling and unhinged. It’s a textbook example of a statement of threats to our national security and it’s a bold declaration of the intentions of a possible EFF government’s programme of aggression against not only the Kingdom of Eswatini but also against neighbouring States and the whole of the SADC family,” he said.
“The EFF government will encourage and support a transition from an absolute monarchy to a more inclusive and participatory governance system,” Malema had told his followers.
Nxumalo, in an interview with South Africa’s news channel, Newzroom Africa, said political organisations were are free to operate in the country, reiterating that certain formations were represented in parliament.
“Within the current composition of parliament, we have members of political formations which announced that they would participate in the national elections and some of them won seats in parliament. They are not even afraid to tell anyone who care to listen that they belong to these political formations, nothing is hindering their parliamentary work as they engage with their constituents,” he said.
On Malema’s allegations against the King, Nxumalo explained that there were no facts in Malema’s statement of crimes against humanity against the king and the country as there was nothing linking His Majesty to any crimes.
“I think you will recall that these days there is excitement over the development that occurred in the International Court of Justice regarding the situation in Israel.
There is absolutely no legal process or investigation that has taken place in this country that links our head of state to any of the things that Julias Malema is addressing.
Our king does not have any grudge or ill feelings against his own citizens. There is absolutely no way that the King can be implicated directly or indirectly to any crime that have costs some citizens their lives,” he said.
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