Southern Africa: Who Killed Thulani Maseko? The Deafening Silence From Eswatini and SADC About a Serious Investigation

Thulani Maseko
analysis

A month has passed since the assassination of Swazi human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko. However, there seems to be little political will in Eswatini or the SADC to investigate the murder and identify his killers. On Friday Amnesty International, which has 10 million members across the world, launched a global letter-writing campaign to demand justice for his murder.

In the aftermath of Swazi human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko's assassination on 21 January 2023, there have been widespread and growing calls for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to launch an internationally supervised independent investigation into his killing.

These calls have emanated from the UN human rights experts, organisations of African lawyers and judges and international NGOs such as Freedom House and Amnesty International.

In South Africa, Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, told Maverick Citizen that South Africa too had condemned the assassination, but he fudged the question as to whether it supported an independent investigation saying, "Yes, South Africa endorses the call for an investigation".

By contrast, a day earlier the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for "a prompt, independent, impartial, transparent and thorough investigation, under the auspices of the African Commission on...

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