Swaziland is definitely in a flux.
Not for the first time, this week tensions were rising high – until authorities there banned all public protests and even suspended internet.
Pro-democracy coalition that includes trade unions, churches and the banned opposition say security services shot and killed a dozen unarmed civilians.
In fact the kingdom – Africa’s last remaining absolute monarchy has been burning for quite a while now.
The protesters are clamouring for democratic reforms that are long over-due.
Political parties are not allowed in Swaziland.
Eswatini as the country is now called is led by a king whose hold on the levers of power is absolute, brazen and unbridled.
He does not hesitate to use those powers – including and especially against unarmed civilians as when this week security services shot and killed unarmed civilians.
Poverty is rife, but the king spends lavishly on luxury.
His lifestyle easily compares to that of the Asian and middle-east tycoons.
This is a time when SADC should be on the side of the people.
SADC should earn its upkeep. And prove that it is always for the ordinary man – not the state.
The people of Eswatini – as their absolute monarch not so long ago decreed that his fiefdom will henceforth be called – will be totally lost for words at what SADC really stands for.
The flagrant assault on democracy in Eswatini will not be lost to ordinary citizens across SADC, but only to the leaders – the real members of the SADC club.
Ordinary citizens of Swaziland have fought a lonely cause to bring democracy and pluralism to their country.
SADC has not lent them a hand.
In fact every time SADC intervened, it was on the side of the king and his henchmen.
What the protesters are fighting for is exactly that which SADC in its official documents says it stands for.
Yet it sees nothing wrong when citizens of one of its member countries are arbitrarily denied basic freedoms by a power drunk king who denies people basic freedoms including political association and the existence of political parties.
For SADC, Eswatini is like a cancerous organ inside the body. SADC will never be a normal organisation when its member has not yet democratized.
Eswatini government is extremely harmful to SADC and more so to its own citizens.
We used to rail against former president Ian Khama for what was his undisguised soft spot for King Mswati.
We thought that was because Khama being a royal himself felt he had an obligation of affinity to Mswati that he could not resists.
The fact that their fathers were closer and also that Ian Khama spent time attending the prestigious Waterford further solidified their relationship.
Now we have president Mokgweetsi Masisi who also seems to have fallen for the king’s spell.
Why does he feel an insurmountable urge to stand solidly behind king Mswati?
Masisi an opportunity when he was still chairing the SADC organ on politics and security to remedy the mess in Swaziland.
But instead he sent his minister of foreign affairs on a stillborn mission as the opposition literally chased him away and accused him of taking sides with the government.
Now we are back to where it all started.
SADC has betrayed the people of Swaziland.
SADC has not met them half way in their fight for democracy.
In fact SADC has thrown its weight behind an errant king.
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa has succeeded president Masisi as chair of the SADC organ on politics and security.
President Ramaphosa has dispatched an envoy to Swaziland.
We can only hope that a previous mistake is not repeated and that all parties are given a fair and equal hearing.
What the people of Eswatini are demanding is not symbolism.
The want real solutions to real problems in a real world.
No doubt their King is all out resisting reforms because he does not want to share power with his subjects.
He needs to be helped to appreciate the fact that his subjects are full human beings.
And only SADC is best placed to perform such a role.
By resisting reforms that are way overdue, the king is clearly trying to stop the force of nature.
Let’s be clear; the king embodies the most illustrious history of the Swati nation.
But to keep and protect that history he must now embrace change, or he will be swept away into oblivion.
The people of Eswatini are not going to sit back – SADC or no SADC.
SADC role should be to preside over negotiations that would lead to power sharing in Eswatini ahead of genuine elections among political parties.
SADC should prevail to ensure that no party resorts to scotched earth tactics as the king seems inclined to do at the moment.
And above all, SADC should draw the line on the sand make sure there that in the end there is no winner-takes-all kind of arrangement.
That goes to the heart of exactly why SADC was formed.
SADC was at the forefront of fighting apartheid in South Africa and also liberating Namibia.
It cannot be right that with those burnished credentials, the same SADC does not help liberate the people of Swaziland from jackboot of dictatorship by their king.
