Former Ngwempisi Member of Parliament Mthandeni Dube has ended his 15-year marriage with wife Hazel Baxter.
His grounds for divorce were that he and Baxter were miserable in their marriage and had differences that were not easy to solve. Dube filed his divorce application at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court, and a final decree of divorce was granted on the same day.
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He informed the court that he and his spouse got married in December 2010, in community of property. The couple has a son together.
However, Dube mentioned that he had other children outside of his marriage to Baxter.
“I concede I make mistakes, but we have differences which are not easy to solve. We are miserable in the marriage,” stated Dube.
After getting married in 2010, the former legislator informed the court that he and his spouse established their matrimonial home within his parental homestead at Ngcoseni, Mankayane. During the course of their marriage, Dube said in addition to their home, they had also acquired two vehicles and furniture.
Assets
In this regard, the former MP prayed that the court ordered that each should keep assets in their custody.
Also, the former MP registered that both he and Baxter had agreed that he instituted the divorce proceedings, through which he also prayed that the court granted a decree.
He further applied that the court granted both of them the custody of their son.
Baxter did not object to any of Dube’s applications and submissions, resulting in the court granting them their prayers. The court order states that the custody of their minor child is vested interchangeably in both parents for physical custody, and that each party should retain the marital assets in their own custody.
Further, the order directs the Births, Marriages and Deaths (BMD) registry to expunge the couple’s marriage certificate.
The divorce proceedings were instituted about a week after the former MP’s release from prison was announced by His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) for the second time. Initially, his release was announced in September when the first group of 464 inmates were released in accordance with the same Directive Number 2 of 2025, issued under the Prerogative of Mercy of His Majesty King Mswati III.
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This was preceded by an apology from Dube to the monarch, acknowledging wrongdoing. The apology was conveyed by Prince Simelane, Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, who was his emissary. This event happened during this year’s Correctional Services Day, held on June 20, at the Matsapha Correctional facility.
On November 4, the HMCS announced the conditional release of Dube and 11 other inmates. During his appearance at a press conference in Matsapha on this day, he declared his support for the Tinkhundla system of governance and further distanced himself from any political party.
Dube, who represented Ngwempisi Inkhundla in the House of Assembly from 2018, was arrested on July 25, 2021, amid pro-democracy protests in the country.
He and former Hosea MP Mduduzi Mabuza, who had also been elected during the same period, were charged under the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2008 and the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act 1938, as well as alleged murder and other offences relating to unrest during the 2021 demonstrations.
In July 2024, the High Court sentenced Dube and Mabuza to 18 and 25 years imprisonment without an option to pay a fine, respectively.
Without the Royal pardon, the former MP would have finished serving his sentence in 2032.
The separation between the couple appears to have been in motion for some time as Baxter had reportedly left the matrimonial home before Dube’s release from prison.
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