By Bhekie Matsebula
Mbabane - A senior Swazi police officer stunned the Mbabane magistrate's court on Tuesday when he told a trial of six trade unionists charged with staging a strike that the anthem Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was banned in Swaziland.
And in Lozitha, signs grew of a serious constitutional crisis that could see the present government and parliament being dissolved by King Mswati III. The 33-year-old monarch has summoned cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini to an urgent meeting.
Royal insiders say the meeting with the king followed a decree in which Attorney-General Phesheya Dlamini's appointment could not be challenged.
Constitutional experts in the kingdom said on Tuesday it was unconstitutional for Mswati to issue the decree while parliament and the government were in place.
What the king should have done, the experts said, was to dissolve parliament and the government, and rule the country with a group of counsellors and cabinet ministers.
In Swaziland, once a king issues a decree, no court or anyone else is allowed to interfere with it.
Political parties are banned in the country.
Concern has been expressed by members of parliament over the decree, which was published on May 4. Among a number of notices published in the government gazette this month were the bannings of the Guardian newspaper and The Nation magazine.
In Mbabane, Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions secretary-general Jan Sithole; Swaziland National Association of Teachers (Snat) secretary Musa Dlamini; Elliot Mkhatshwa, former president of the Civil Servants Association; Quinton Dlamini of the same association; and Phineas Magagula and Bonginhlanhla Gama, both of Snat, are facing two charges of contempt of court and disturbing the peace. They have all pleaded not guilty.
A senior police officer told magistrate Sabelo Mngomezulu that no one in Swaziland was allowed to sing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika , the national anthem of South Africa and Zimbabwe, because it was a political song.
He said it was prohibited by Prime Minister Dlamini on November 13 last year when he announced the ban of a two-day workers' stayaway. He could not, however, produce the order banning the song.
Advocate David Smith, for the accused, wondered: "How can you say Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is banned in Swaziland when your police band played the same song when South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma visited Swaziland earlier this year?
"I think Thabo Mbeki will not believe this when he hears about it."
The police officer retorted: "When political groups in Swaziland stage protest marches, they sing this song. It has become a political song, not a religious one."