Africa-Press – Eswatini. Justice Minister Pholile Dlamini-Shakantu, when delivering a Periodic Report under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism of the Human Rights Council in Geneva about two years ago, highlighted the political unrest preliminary report released by the Eswatini Human Rights Commission.
That the report was compiled by the then Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, now Judge Sabelo Masuku, whose integrity is highly questionable,is a subject for another day.
It is now clear that the eSwatini Human Rights Commission rushed to conduct what appeared to be an investigation, and subsequently released a preliminary report just to cover-up the killing of civilians.
As a result, the process was never in the interest of justice, but it was in indeed, a cover-up, so that the country could be seen to be doing something in the eyes of the United Nations(UN).
A preliminary investigation, by its nature, is a process that seeks to establish basic facts amounting to reasonable belief that a crime a committed, its findings and/or recommendations must influence a comprehensive investigation.
Judge Sabelo Masuku, the then Chairman of the Human Rights Commission is corrupt to the core, no wonder he was rewarded with a top judicial position for ‘peeing’ on the blood of the dozens of innocent civilians, allegedly killed by King Mswati.
It is surprising that after two(2)years since the release of the preliminary report, we haven’t seen any effort to launch a subsequent criminal investigation by the relevant law enforcement agencies, as per the findings amounting to reasonable belief that innocent civilians were allegedly killed by King Mswati’s security forces.
What was the purpose of the preliminary investigation because in the absence of a full and/or comprehensive investigation, some allegations remains unsubstantiated?.
The Human Rights Commission’s preliminary report, in its current form, cannot be taken-up with the relevant international human rights bodies.
After all,a preliminary investigation cannot produce the required level of evidence that can substantiate or prove, at least on a balance of probabilities, why and how the innocent civilians were killed by the security forces.
It is shame that such a huge number of civilians could be killed and the government continues with it’s business as if nothing happened.
The investigation regarding the killing of civilians including highly regarded human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko must commence.
International human rights organizations must put pressure on Mswati, the killing of civilians merely for demanding democracy, is not a matter that can fade away so easily, particularly because, Mswati allegedly went on to kill lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko who was never a threat to anyone except to call for an open, just,free and democratic society.
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