Nneka Nwogwugwu
Oilwatch Africa and 54 civil society organisations in Africa have condemned the assassination of Thulani Maseko, a highly decorated human rights lawyer from Swaziland, on Saturday 21 January, 2023.
In a statement by Oilwatch Africa on Monday, the activists condemned the murder of their colleague and renowned activist in his own home and demanded for the arrest of the perpetrators.
Thulani Maseko was well-known as a campaigner committed to the respect of human rights and the use of dialogue as the key tool for the resolution of political disputes and conflicts.
They described the brutal murder of Maseko as one that had raised serious concerns about the heightened threat to human and environmental rights defenders and the overall rule of law in Swaziland.
According to the statement, The assassination of Maseko marks an ugly turn in the attempts to cripple dissent and eliminate the defenders of the masses on our continent.
Human right defenders have been the target of executions, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, and harassment as well as restrictions on their freedom of movement in Swaziland and elsewhere in Africa.
During one of Masekos life challenges, he was arrested allegedly for contempt of court charges for having questioned the way the then Chief Justice was conducting the affairs of the Judiciary.
He was sentenced to two years without an option of a fine. Sadly, he had to endure that imprisonment and completed the sentence before the Supreme Court accepted that his arrest and sentence were unlawful in the first place and an infringement on his right to freedom of expression.
Among the 54 environmentalists who endorsed this statement were: Friends of the Earth Africa, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), South Africa, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria, Connected Advocacy, Nigeria, Friends of Lake Turkana, Kenya, We the People, Nigeria, Bio Vision Africa (BiVA) and Africa Network for Environment, Economic Justice (ANEEJ) and Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN).
The environmental activists further said, As a family, African human and environmental rights campaigners share in the grief of Masekos.
We call on the international community, including the United Nations, African Union, Southern African Development Community, and individual governments, to demand that the government of Swaziland respect human rights.
African governments must ensure they create an environment where human rights of all citizens are respected, and activists are not targeted for standing up to injustice. No more bloodshed!