World
King Mswati III’s government under fire for the “targeted killing” of people’s hero Thulani Maseko
Thulani Maseko (1 March 1970 – 21 January 2023) was fatally stopped in his tracks as he campaigned for electoral reforms in Eswatini. The assassination has attracted global attention on the extent of repression in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Calls to hold King Mswati III’s government to account for the “targeted killing” are getting louder.
The United Nations, human rights defenders, trade unionists, law societies and media associations have condemned the killing of Swazi human rights lawyer, public intellectual and democracy advocate Thulani Maseko. African Union and SADC have been called on to hold the continent’s last absolute monarch King Mswati III’s government for the “targeted killing” of the committed defender of Swazi people’s rights.
Maseko was shot in his home on Saturday, January 21. No arrest has been made for the murder, committed by unidentified gunmen who shot through the window while Maseko was in the company of his family. The climate of repression in Eswatini has given rise to concerns that Maseko was politically assassinated.
The embattled authoritarian, King Mswati III, has threatened “demonic elements” causing disharmony in the kingdom with elimination. Eswatini police has also marshalled a regime of extra-judicial incarceration and assassination of citizens calling for electoral reforms to democratically limit the powers of the monarch.
Maseko was at the forefront of the ongoing democratisation campaign. He was in prison between 13 March 2014 to 30 June 2015, convicted of contempt of court along with journalist Bheki Makhubu. The two had reportedly criticised the judiciary’s lack of independence. They were released after Supreme Court revoked High Court’s two year sentence as having been based on a wrongful conviction. In 2018, Maseko sued King Mswati III for changing the country’s name from Swaziland to Eswatini.
Human rights defenders in East and Southern Africa have added their voices to the growing condemnation of Maseko’s assassination. “We stand in solidarity with his family, human rights lawyers, citizens of Eswatini and the whole Southern Africa region that grieves the loss of an impeccable human being that transcended the self to offer his knowledge and experience in amplifying the distraught situation in his country, which is why, as fellow Human Rights Defenders, we must now speak for him and demand justice and accountability for his death,” human rights groups in East Africa said in a statement.
The statement was signed by Social Justice Centers and HRD Network Uganda, Women Human Rights Defenders Hub -The Hub, Africans Rising, Defenders Coalition, The African Agenda Forum, Tribeless Youth, Red Vests Movement, Protection, International Africa, Coalition For Grassroots Human Rights Defenders-Kenya, PUSSY POWER MOVEMENT, Freedom Movement Uganda, HAKI Africa, Mzalendo Halisi Foundation, Kongamano La Mapinduzi, Feminist for peace rights and justice centre, Bunge Mashinani Initiative, Grassroot Defenders Focus- Uganda, Mathare Social Justice Center, Law Society of Kenya and Social Justice Centers Working Group.
Maseko was, himself, a human rights alumnus of East Africa, havings split time between Makerere University, Uganda, and University of Pretoria, South Africa, for his LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (HRDA) in 2005 and 2006.