PRESS STATEMENT
BY HONOURABLE MP WELCOME DLAMINI
First of all, one would like to state that I am a proud “Skom-boy”, having been born and bred in this historic area of Msunduza. I and thousands of others are proud to call this place “our home”.
On Thursday I attended the Eswatini Editors Forum Breakfast Meeting with the Honorable Prime Minister both as a qualified journalist and politician. I looked forward to a fruitful engagement between the senior journalists and the politicians present but this soon turned into a disappointment when I heard Bheki Makhubu attempting to belittle me by implying that people who come from Skom are low-lives and nobodies. My disappointment developed into feeling pity for him because I realized that he is a broken and bitter man. Here is a man who was given an opportunity to state his case in front of the Honorable Prime Minister on why the media has failed to put in place a self-regulatory mechanism and instead of doing so he chose to attack me and the place I live in. Bheki is not just bitter and broken but also full of disrespect, and he believes that everything revolves around him. That’s the behavior of bullies. Not long ago after the National Elections, he called me several times to lobby me on what I should push in Parliament. I listened to him and took some of the things he said and indeed raised them in the House. But today, because it suits him and his love to play at the gallery, I should no longer be taken seriously because I come from Skom! This is an insult not only to me but to all the people of Msunduza and those associated with this bustling kasi area. This is the same place that has been home to respected senior members of the Royal family in the likes of HRH Prince Makhungu and HRH Prince Phiwokwakhe, not to mention astute politicians such as Founder of the African National Congress Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, former President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza and founding member of the Swaziland Progressive Party J.J Nquku. Were these people also low lives and nobodies? Only in Bheki’s shallow view. Bheki’s fellow journalists, namely the late legendary Mandla ‘Tiger Magagula, the late legendary Cyril Dlamini (former Swazi Observer boss), former Swazi Observer Managing Editor and Bheki’s close associate Vusi Sibisi, and current Editors Forum Chairperson (and Bheki’s friend) Mbongeni Mbingo all lived at Skom. With a friend like Bheki, do (or did) these individuals need enemies? It goes without saying that the opinion he holds now about me living at Skom is the same he has always held about them coming from the same area. Skom has produced executives, bureaucrats, trade unionists, musicians, soccer stars, and other professionals. Bheki has a brother who loves Skom so much that he has acquired commercial property in this glorious area, no wonder he is a successful engineer. The same cannot be said about Bheki’s journalism career which has stagnated at his Nation Magazine, whose circulation figures I doubt he would ever dare to publicize. This is part of what has contributed to his being a frustrated, bitter, disrespectful, and bullying journalist. By the way, for those who might not be aware, Bheki has lived at Skom for some years and acquainted himself well with Timele Bar and Ka-Mchunu shebeen. That was while he worked for the
Times of Eswatini until he was forced out of the company for an article that sought to ridicule a highly prominent member of society. And that has always been his style of journalism – one that derives pleasure from scandalizing, insulting, and looking down at other people. That is why Bheki is so vigorously opposed to any form of media regulation. He knows that his journalism style would not pass the test of such regulation. While he wants other people to be held accountable, he doesn’t want the same to apply to him. Such hypocrisy! His unwillingness to transform and the fact that he doesn’t value the views of people who come from areas such Skom will leave him stuck in the past while other more open-minded journalists move forward. The Skom-boy in me will continue to challenge high-horse riders that come in the mold of Bheki Makhubu. For being the great journalist that he wants all of us to believe he is, I challenge him to make time for a decent public conversation on the need for the media to be regulated. And he should not hide behind the tired line he likes to always bring up whenever his content is found wanting – that he has been jailed for being a journalist. Before I forget, Bheki irked a lot of people with his statement during the Editors Forum Breakfast Meeting because some of the senior government officials who were in attendance had wives and husbands who hail from Skom. But because Bheki is so full of himself, he didn’t realize that. May I reiterate, that I am a proud Skom-boy, who went to KaBoyce High School, proceeded to the University of Eswatini, worked as a journalist and today I am an elected Member of Parliament. I’m not done yet, more is still to come. As they say, dogs bark at a moving vehicle, not a static one.
