Officials move to shut newspaper

A newly established newspaper in Swaziland, ‘The Guardian’, is under threat of closure by the authorities, ‘The Star’ reported on Thursday. An intensive investigation has been launched into the directors of the company that owns the newspaper which was established in March. A senior management official of ‘The Guardian’, Thulani Mthethwa, said they gathered from police sources and royal sources that the authorities were unhappy about articles on corruption in government and the abuse of power by the Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini. Dlamini was implicated in the closure of a state-owned newspaper, ‘The Swazi Observer’, which was reopened in February after a year. Two weeks ago, ‘The Guardian’ published a photograph of accused King Mswati III’s wife, LaMbikiza, who has been suspected of poisoning the king. Since then a series of articles have been run by the newspaper on several alleged misdeeds committed at top government level. The newspaper is owned by a group of journalists who had been working for ‘The Swazi Observer’ and were not reemployed when it reopened. It has an online edition, and since its first print edition at the beginning of March has posted a circulation of at least 3,000. According to the report, Mthethwa, who has won an award for journalistic bravery, has been under police surveillance for several years because of his reports that exposed a number of corrupt practices in the police force and government. Last year he allegedly obtained a secret letter written by Swazi police commissioner Edgar Hillary to former South African police commissioner, George Fivaz, requesting covert investigations against a Swazi multi-millionaire, Ron Smith, who is being held in Durban on drugs-related charges.