A CONSTITUTION IN NAME ONLY? THE DPM, LIQOQO, AND THE ENDURING CULTURE OF VERBAL ORDERS
This year marks 20 years since the adoption of the 2005 Constitution—two decades since we were promised a new era of governance, where the rule of law would reign supreme.
Yet, the recent actions of Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla, who unilaterally stopped a press briefing called by the Board of Directors of Eswatini Medical Aid Fund (Eswatini Med) without a court order, prove that we are still trapped in a pre-constitutional era, where raw political power trumps legal process and where police continue to take unlawful instructions as if we have no courts, no legal system, no rights.
The DPM’s interference is more than just an abuse of power—it is a symptom of a much deeper disease in Eswatini’s governance. In a constitutional democracy, no minister, no politician, no royal advisor has the right to enforce their will without legal backing.
Yet, in eSwatini, verbal orders from those in power still carry more weight than the Constitution itself. This disturbing trend is not new. Liqoqo, the shadowy advisory body of the monarchy, has perfected the art of governing by verbal decree, treating police officers as their private enforcers.
A glaring example is the ongoing chieftaincy dispute at Endlini Lembi, where, time and again, police have been deployed not on court orders, but on mere instructions from Liqoqo, harassing those who challenge the royal establishment’s will.
Another example is the blatant harassment of a police unionist, who was unlawfully stopped en route to his destination—again, with no court order to justify such an infringement on his freedom.
The problem is twofold: first, we have political elites—including the very ministers entrusted with upholding the law—who see themselves as above it. And second, we have a police force that remains an obedient tool of those in power, acting not on legal authority, but on whispered instructions from politicians and royal insiders.
If police officers in a country with a written constitution still follow orders as if they were operating under an 1973 decree (or have we really left that era?), what does that say about the so-called rule of law? By now, our security forces should know better.
They should refuse to act without proper legal authority. If there is no court order, they should not enforce any political or royal directive, no matter who gives it. To do otherwise is to turn the police into a mercenary force for the elite rather than an institution that serves the people.
The DPM’s actions, along with the continued abuse of the police by powerful figures, make a mockery of the Constitution. We cannot pretend to celebrate 20 years of constitutionalism while senior politicians treat the law as optional.
We cannot claim to be a law-governed society while police officers still function like enforcers of royal decrees rather than servants of justice. If eSwatini is serious about being a constitutional state, then the law must be supreme—not politicians, not Liqoqo, not verbal orders.
Until that happens, this Constitution remains nothing more than a decorative document—good for speeches, but meaningless in practice.