By Zweli Martin Dlamini
Africa-Press – Eswatini. Bishop Mpendulo Nkambule’s Ambassadors Ministries became a uniting church for both the conservatives and progressives on Sunday during the service meant to remember the life of Zanele Mbokazi,the wife to the Bishop.
Seeing Nxumalo laughing and smiling with political activists made to me to realize that, the Government Spokesperson is maturing in politics and, whether he was genuine or not, he bahaved in a manner that is in line with the principles of humanity.
As emaSwati we are known for humility particularly when we have lost our loved ones, we will always differ in political ideology but one day, we will sit down,dialogue and discuss the future of the country.
Uniting figures like Bishop Mpendulo Nkambule must continue to play a neutral role, one day we will need them to play the role played by the late Bishop Desmond Tutu during the transitional period in South Africa after the apartheid regime announced the unbanning of political parties.
I remember someone saying “you and Alpheous are enemies” and I said sometimes the debate might reach the boiling point but, there’s something I like about the Government Spokesperson and things I disagree with in the manner he conducts himself.
One of the things I liked in his speech on Sunday was his public confession that, he was once a comrade or a progressive thinker and of course, it’s true that he played a role in transforming or speaking against some of the things that were not going right in this country.
Alpheous Nxumalo might be labelled as a liar sometimes but on Sunday in church, he tried to be honest about himself and the country, maybe he was influenced by the church environment.
This means being a comrade does not mean you are an enemy of the State, if Tinkhundla system decided to kill Nxumalo for his political views at the time, he wouldn’t be a Government Spokesperson today and defending Government.
We may differ on why he decided to support or join Tinkhundla, maybe he realized that, the things he was advocating for, like the current Constitution have been resolved, it was a personal decision.
But the truth is; this country needs a serious political transformation and we hope one day, we will see progressive political leaders and conservatives coming together to dialogue.
Nxumalo delivered a very matured statement on Sunday but, that does not mean, he will behave the same way when defending Government, he will be hard on the same political leaders he was laughing with and they might be hard on him as well, it’s “politics”.
There was a time received an invitation from the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation(DIRCO) to attend and cover the Southern African Development Community(SADC) Troika Extraordinary Meeting on eSwatini political crisis.
But I was disappointed to learn that King Mswati won’t attend and the Summit was subsequently cancelled, I wanted to go there with other international journalists, laugh and interview Mswati but come back and heavily criticize him again in this publication on issues of public administration.
In politics or the job we are doing as journalists, we sometimes become hard and soft depending on the subject matter, it’s not a job for individuals with anger issues.
We address issues here and inform the public, what Alpheous Nxumalo did on Sunday is exactly what politics should look like.
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