BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prince Simelane is concerned that Emaswati and the international community fail to protect the right to life.
Because of this, the minister has pleaded with Emaswati and everyone to protect the right to life.
He made this plea today (Tuesday, December 10, 2024) at Mountain View International Hotel in Mbabane. This was during the commemoration of the 76th Anniversary of the Human Rights Day.
Prince Simelane said observing human rights was part and parcel of Emaswati’s way of life. According to the minister, it was totally against the Eswatini way of life to kill each other and he asked all human beings to ensure that the rates of killings were at least alleviated.
The minister mentioned that Emaswati’s way of life was later enshrined in the country’s Constitution. He said Chapter III of the Supreme Law of the land was dedicated to the protection of human rights. He even stated that Section 15 of the Constitution clearly stated that every person in Eswatini had a right to life and no one was supposed to take away that right.
Prince Simelane stated that Emaswati’s way of life was exactly how God wanted people to live.
He said God also commanded that the right to life should be protected at all costs and God did not want to lives to be taken by anyone. He quoted a Bible verse from the book of Exodus 20:13, which stated that people should not kill.
The minister was worried about the news the local and international media disseminated. He said almost daily, the press seemed to carry gory news reports about killings. In most cases, these killings were between people who were in romantic relationships and this was very worrying because these people were brought together by love.
He asked the participant if he used to watch international news from media outlets such as Al Jazeera, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN), France 24 and others. However, he stopped watching these news outlets because every time, he used to be shown video footage of murder. It was like people had taken killing as a profession – something they did daily.
Prince Simelane said at times he would be shown footage where as many as 200 people would be killed in one day and be buried in one huge grave. He called upon the United Nations (UN) to step up and intervene because what was happening was frightening.
Human Rights Day (HRD), according to Wikipedia, is celebrated annually around the world on 10 December every year. The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly‘s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.
