(From Swazi Media 13 March 2009 www.swazimedia.blogspot.com)
Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has
falsely claimed that the Swazi Constitution allows him to unleash a witch-hunt
against civil servants who support freedom and democracy.
Dlamini has been widely criticised for announcing this week that civil
servants who engage in politics that do not support the government will be
sacked from their jobs.
Now, in an attempt to justify his actions, Dlamini has claimed that he has
the Swaziland Constitution on his side.
In a statement Dlamini said, banning
civil servants from engaging in politics did not conflict with the
constitution and he cited Section 25 (iii) (c) in his defence.
But
S25 (iii) (c) actually reads as follows, ‘Nothing contained in or done
under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or
in contravention of this section to the extent that the law in question
makes provision (c) that imposes reasonable restrictions
upon public officers, except so far as that provision or, as the case
may be, the thing done under the authority of the law is shown not to
be reasonably justifiably in a democratic society.’
It’s a
bit long-winded, but what it is saying is that in some circumstances
restrictions can on ‘public officers’ but NOT if the restrictions are
unreasonable in a democratic society.
Not allowing civil servants to participate in politics is not ‘reasonable’
in a democratic society.
No
democracy that I know of forbids ‘public officers’ to participate in
politics. Let’s remember that the PM is attacking civil servants
(including ordinary police officers) most of whom have pretty mundane
jobs pushing paper around. There is even talk that school teachers
would be restricted under Swaziland’s new rule.
If all ‘public officers’ were counted there would hardly be an employed
person in Swaziland who would be allowed to speak up.
Dlamini has no love of the constitution. He was himself illegally
appointed Prime Minister last year and he runs a government that was formed
unconstitutionally.
His
latest statement on the constitution says two things to me. Either he
is deliberately misleading the Swazi people by citing S25 (iii) (c) in
his defence of the political purge, in which case he is simply a lying
politician; or he just doesn’t understand the constitution.
Link
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/swaziland-pm-and-politics-purge..html
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