With the call for open dialogue becoming louder and spreading wider in the wake of the slain lawyer's memorial and burial, it is high noon for Eswatini's monarch.

Slain human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko was laid to rest in a rousing ceremony this Sunday in which the fervour of the toyi-toying often clashed with the sombre hymns as mourners gathered around his home in Bhunya, in Eswatini, to pay their final respects.

On a drizzly Sunday morning, thousands gathered to chaperone his coffin as it carved a circuitous route to a family burial site a few metres beyond the house in which, just a week before, he was shot twice through a window as he watched television with his family.

With well above a thousand people turning up to a memorial service held at a hall at eSibayeni Lodge in Matsapha, some regarded the large turnouts as a decisive show of bravery for pro-democracy forces. This capped off a week in which many were still coming to terms with the shock of Maseko's death, which has been widely characterised as a state-sanctioned assassination.

Signal

Maseko's death is believed to signal a portentous turn of events, coming soon after King Mswati...