BACEDE MABUZA AND "BUY CASH": A STORY OF TWO BROTHERS THAT IS SYMBOLIC TO THE STORY OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY
The paradox of the country's broken soul can best be seen in the life of recently elected Speaker of Parliament Jabulani "Buy Cash Mabuza" and incarcerated former Hosea Member of Parliament Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza.
On the week that the Eswatini Observer reported that Jabulani Mabuza, the former Agriculture Minister turned Speaker of the House of Assembly, had been elected and then “endorsed” by the King to lead the House of Assembly, the Times of Eswatini was reporting that his brother, incarcerated former Hosea Member of Parliament and Businessman Bacede Mabuza, had filed an application at the High Court where he was claiming that he had been heavily assaulted by over 100 Prison guards and had to be taken for medical attention.
Last week, details emerged that the former Hosea MP had allegedly been found with contraband in prison where he is currently awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of a slew of charges emanating from his role in the failed 2021 uprising and then assaulted by over 100 prison warders who even attempted to gauge his eyes.
Every pro-democracy group issued a statement condemning the assault, including a strongly-worded statement from Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa who called for a prompt, thorough, and independent investigation.
Chikwanda stressed the need for Mabuza to be granted immediate access to medical care, his family, and his lawyer. Meanwhile, Mabuza was dining with his former colleagues at the Ministry of Agriculture for his farewell dinner having successfully lobbied members of parliament that he be elected Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Mabuza (Jabulani) has worked and lived as if nothing is happening to his brother. Not once has he condemned the charges and conviction of his brother, neither has he been vocal about the alleged torture of his sibling. He has not even gone to court to support his own brother in the many court appearances in Mbabane. His silence has been defeating indeed.
Being indifferent to the plight of his own flesh and blood can, on some occasions, be excused —perhaps owing to unknown family antagonisms and contradictions—but going on to work against all your brother is arrested for seems a little sadistic even by a cold "Bush Cash" standards.
This is a sharp contrast to his other brother, Bheki Mabuza, who has shown his support to his brother by supporting the democratic movement in a more surreptitious way and has shied away from supporting the government, tacitly or otherwise.
From a principled point of view, many would have stayed away from the government that has persecuted his brother even if not actively campaigning against it. Just staying away would have been a sign that "Buy Cash" is not agreeable with the treatment of his brother.
But “Buy Cash” is actively working for the government, wittingly and unwittingly enforcing the policies and rules that his brother wanted changed. And the King is happy with him, to the extent that newspapers reported that he "endorsed" his election as Speaker. In the King has refused to endorse Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament Marwick Khumalo upon his election as Speaker.
The current constitution makes it clear that the King can veto Members of Parliament's decisions and laws.
But the story of the Mabuza brothers is the same story of many family members who have been torn apart by the aftermath of the 2021 failed uprising. Former Senator and Mvuma Chief Kekela Dlamini actively campaigned against his son Mzwandile Dlamini, commonly known on social media as Stufuza we Country, who was running for parliament on the ticket of seeking democratic change.
'Stufuza' runs a Facebook page that reports news for the democratic movement and has been vocal about the affairs of this country. A former Minister who lost the recent election almost "lost" his own family members who tried in vain to have him resign in protest to the brutal response of the state to the failed 2021 uprising.
The former Minister's wife and children were not happy with how the Minister continued in government as if nothing had happened in the country post 2021. Perhaps it is safe to say the story of Bacede and his brother is repeated in varying degrees.
A wife waits for her soldier husband to fall asleep before she can call her friends to tell them how bloody his uniform was; a son writes the petition that will land on his mother’s desk; a sister wants to join the election that his brother was campaigning so much against. It's a paradoxical tale of a country gone mad.