Maxwell harassed by police again

“The external region of SWAYOCO is disgusted and disturbed by reports that [Swazi] student leader Maxwell Dlamini was arrested [on Friday] for allegedly not abiding by his bail conditions,” SWAYOCO’s Wandile Mazibuko wrote in a statement published on PUDEMO’s Facebook account yesterday.

“This is despite that Maxwell has been religiously observing and abiding by all the bail conditions as set out by the High Court. If anything, it has been the state that has been giving this reason or the other for failure to capture on the record books his reporting to the police station,” Mazibuko continued.

Maxwell Dlamini spent four hours in detention, according to the Swazi Observer, a newspaper owned by autocratic king Mswati III.

Maxwell, who is the president of the Swaziland Union of Students, was detained and tortured by Swazi police in connection with allegations of possession of explosives, allegations that he and his co-accused Musa Ngubeni strenuously deny.

The court case that followed this has so far provided no credible evidence against Maxwell and Musa, but the terms for his bail included a massive 50 000 Rand bail settlement, reporting to Mbabane Police station three times a week, and having had his passport withheld.