Muluzi, King Mswati hold talks on democratisation efforts in Swaziland – Commonwealth

Former Malawi president Bakili Muluzi as a special envoy to Swaziland to continue a process of engaging the Kingdom to undertake further democratisation efforts in the run up to the 2018 elections met a broad spectrum of stakeholders including King Mswati III.

Muluzi, who governed Malawi from 1994 and retired in 2004 at the end of his constitutional two-terms, is Commonwealth special envoy to Swaziland where the grouping is pushing for the unbanning of political parties in Swaziland.

According to Muluzi, he also met the Electoral ad Boundaries Commission of Swaziland, the Commission on Human Rights and representatives of a wide variety of civil society organisations. He also met the donor community represented in Swaziland.

Muluzi  state that he held “substantive discussions” to advance Commonwealth values and principles in Swaziland.

The Commonwealth envoywelcomed the recent strides made by Swaziland to register the Trade Union Federation TUCOSWA and to release of Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu who were jailed in July 2014.

“I raised a range of issues, including the need to strengthen the Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration and promote greater dialogue with the civil society,” said Muluzi.

He also underscored the need to allocate the necessary resources for the elections and boundaries commission to begin the current cycle of electoral preparations ahead of the 2018 elections.

Muluzi , who was accompanied by Nita Yawanarajah, adviser and head of the Good Offices Section and political officer for southern Africa and Koffi Sawyer from the Commonwealth Secretariat, also conveyed concerns regarding incarceration if Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dhlamini since May 2014.

The former Malawi leader will visit Swaziland again in September.

Opposition politicians in King of Swaziland’s ‘monarchical democracy’ have accused King Mswati III regime as “ intolerant, intransigent and arrogant”

The tradition in Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, is that parliamentary candidates are hand-picked by traditional chiefs loyal to King Mswati III.

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