By Zweli Martin Dlamini

“Kwetfula” to King Mswati resulted to emaSwati held hostage by many political fools, some who are holding Cabinet and other positions of significant trust in the various Governing Councils.

Well, I am not disputing the fact that, “kwetfula” is part of our culture but, this cultural practice has been manipulated to bribe the King for political positions and this, resulted to the country dominated by political fools some, who are holding powerful positions.

When you engage some of these fools on the country’s foreign policies, human rights and/or democracy, they will tell you “Leli laSomhlolo Liyahlolelana”.

I have audios, King Sobhuza used to say “Leli la-Somhlolo, LaMsimudze, lisindza ngeluzazana”.

The Prince Msimudze that King Sobhuza was talking about is my great-grandfather who was the Commander of emaButfo during wars and as Liswati, I fully understand the feeling of mentioning your grandfather or great-grandfather, it’s a feeling that activates who you are.

But there’s absolutely no reason why we should monopolize the governance of a country as if eSwatini belongs to the ruling Dlamini clan, this automatically turns Tinkhundla to be worse than the apartheid regime.

King Sobhuza, Somhlolo, Mbandzeni, Prince Msimudze or anyone within the royal family, dead or alive, cannot own a country and indeed, a country is a property of all citizens and emaSwati must be allowed to decide who must rule through democratic elections.

But we have political fools in this country who always remind other citizens that “Leli la-Somhlolo liyahlolelana”, why threaten other citizens with the ancestors of the royal family just to make a political point?.

It’s very frustrating to debate politics with political fools who believe this country will never be democratized, this country will eventually be democratized and its resources will be enjoyed by all emaSwati.

It’s a pity that “kwetfula” promotes the elevation of political fools into positions of significant trust, even in Cabinet and the King’s emaBandla, those who are intelligent are frustrated because, when making submissions, they must first make the fools understand the subject matter.

Even the voting under the Tinkhundla system, any fool with Taiwan rice, some cash to fund a football tournament can easily become a Member of Parliament(MP), we have a very few MPs who are intelligent and understand why they were elected into Parliament.

But with this article, I am not suggesting that, all King’s appointees or those who won elections are political fools, my main worry is that, the intelligent ones are overshadowed by the political fools who used alleged corrupt means to climb the political ladder.

In the midst of a debate, those political fools will tell you “Leli laSomhlolo litakuhlolela”, these are the same fools who believed that King Sobhuza used to magically become a cat when facing danger.

In most instances, these fools will never read a Bill before passing it into law, we previously had a similar incident with the Value Added Tax(VAT) Act, it was passed without being debated and the fools who were in Parliament at the time, started to react after the then Swaziland Revenue Authority(SRA) started to implement it, shutting down companies and imposing penalties.

Theres absolutely no reason to threaten other emaSwati with the ancestors of the royal family, my grandfather was buried in the same Mountain where Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Prince Maguga and other members of the royal family where buried but, that does not mean my ancestors are more superior than others.

We have a serious problem in this country of thinking that, there’s seniority even in the spiritual world of ancestors, King Somhlolo does not own any country.

In fact there was a time when King Somhlolo went into hiding during wars, it was his brother Maloyi, the founder of the Mamba clan who fought while Somhlolo was in hiding.

Maloyi was then rewarded by Somhlolo who suggested that, he must establish his own Kingdom in the eastern parts of the country, that’s why today we have a Mamba King in the Lubombo region.

In conclusion, it is important to state that almost all the citizens of this country, their  great-greatparents fought for this country, all emaSwati must be allowed to be free and enjoy living in this country with access to resources.

The Dlaminis fought for this country and founded this Nation, we are known as emaSwati and our country is ”eSwatini” because previous King’s including Mswati I and Mswati II were great warriors in establishing this beautiful Nation.

But that does not mean the Dlaminis were fighting alone, there’s absolutely no reason to turn a whole country into a property of the royal family.