You’ve got to love the internet. It is literally a case of now you see me, now you do not.
I am not sure where the origins of these phrase came from, but I am sure it was something used by magicians in the past.
I stray, but do you remember Chairman of Philani Mswati Lutfo Dlamini used to be a magician LOL (there goes my complimentary Eswatini Biggest Braai ticket).
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Do you all remember how enraged some of you were last Wednesday when the news of five hardened criminals deported from the United States of America broke? People were livid, demanded answers on why Eswatini would do something like this when we have our own challenges with issues like SODV and murder.
When I also first saw the links I honestly thought it was fake news, called a few of my people who also had no idea what was going on. Eventually the acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli issued a statement confirming that the inmates were indeed housed in one or two of our correctional facilities and needless to say, we should not panic because we were safe.
That seemed to bring another wave of anger from some members of the public who felt that Mdluli should not have been the one releasing that statement, but someone more senior like the prime minister or minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation. Deep down I had wished that they could have given Prince Simelane the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs the microphone so he could give us his personal opinion.
Personally, I was not bothered by these news, if anything my mind was on eish month end is coming and my bills are seemingly tripled this month, so a bunch of five mine held at Matsapha I assume would not change my day.
If anything I was mandated to talk to a commercial radio station from Botswana, Gabz FM and all they wanted to know was how was the mood of Emaswati, were we enraged, were we scared etc. I told them that in my opinion, the situation was normal and did point out though that government should have given us a heads up, but what where we going to do with the issue. I watched again as Newsroom Afrika sent some of their reporters to Mbabane to monitor the situation, but again in my opinion the people were not bothered.
However, I did hear the reporter state that perhaps the ordinary citizens on the street did not want to be heard because they are afraid of freedom of expression etc. I am not sure.
Instead, they interviewed some man his last name was Matimela and they said he was exiled and I have no idea why they would want to interview someone who does not reside here, but that is me.
My opinion on this matter is that our government surely could have handled the issue better especially in notifying the public. We are not too sure of the agreements, so having an opinion with very little facts is like shooting yourself in the foot.
Anyway, as I said in my introduction, you have got to love the internet. While we were still angry about the deported prisoners on a totally different issue, something else caused an internet storm.
A married CEO Andy Byron was filmed at a Coldplay concert still in the US with his arms around the company’s HR head in a video that went viral.
As a result, Byron has since resigned from the company Astronomer.
In a post on Linkedin, the software start-up said : “Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.”
Meanwhile, it was reported that the HR head Kristin Cabot had been placed on leave. Again, I do not know how I feel about this issue, save to say poor wife. Thing is with the internet it is hard to detect the lies from the truth because I read somewhere that the wife was not upset per se about the cheating, but the fact that he went to a concert with his alleged mistress.
I did not even know Coldpaly could still draw such a huge crowd, I last saw them at the Club football world cup and I though awu basaphila. So there we go with current news and if I were to ask you to give me at least two names of the deported inmates kungaba seDivine LOL.
That said government should quickly give us a new spokesperson be it Thabile or anyone else, but it is clear that given the latest developments, the country needs to handle its public relations properly.
It is a good thing that the PM’s portfolio committee is expected to have a sitting this morning. Perhaps he will give us the answers we all crave.
Until next week, do not forget to be kind.
Eswatini Observer Press Reader
