23 January 2013 :

King Mswati III's Swaziland government is in search of a hangman so prisoners presently on death row may be executed.
The Swazi Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze said a job vacancy advert would be placed as soon as possible.
Gamedze told the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, an advert had been placed last year but no suitable applicants had put their name forward.
The Observer reported that taxpayers, who they did not name, had complained about the cost of keeping death-row inmates in prison.
Gamedze said his ministry was waiting for permission to place the hangman's advert again. Immediately they got the instruction, they would definitely re-advertise the post, the Observer reported him saying.
The Observer said, 'Some of the concerned members of the public' (again, who they did not name) wanted to see David Simelane, who had been sentenced to death last year (2012) for killing 28 people, executed. At least five other people are thought to be waiting execution in Swaziland.
The Observer said families to victims (who they did not name) 'who were murdered by the convicts ... said they were comforted when the courts issued the [death] sentences but it pained them to see that the convicts were still enjoying full benefits for inmates at the correctional institutions'.
In October 2011, Swaziland was heavily criticised at the UN Universal Periodic Review into human rights in the kingdom for continuing to have the death penalty. Gamedze told the UN that although the death penalty existed in Swaziland the last execution had been in 1983. He said this showed that the kingdom was abolitionist in practice.

23 November 2012 :

Swaziland’s Constitution saved a 27-year-old man from getting a death sentence for murder and rape offences.
High Court Judge, Nkululeko Hlophe meted out a 35-year custodial sentence on Mandla Matsebula after being guilty of killing a woman and raping another. He sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment for the murder of Sibongile Sihlongonyane on October 26, 2008 and 10 years for having raped another woman on July 3, in the same year.
Matsebula had pleaded not guilty to the offences and was represented by Justice Mangosuthu Mzizi, while Stanley Dlamini appeared on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Matsebula had also been charged for raping Sihlongonyane, but the Crown withdrew the charge after some evidence was said to have been contaminated.
Judge Hlophe said the rape and murder offences were committed with brutality. He noted that evidence showed that not only did he strangle the woman he killed, but he also stabbed her. He said Matsebula’s total lack of remorse was an aggravating factor and made the offences more grievous.
Before sentencing, Judge Hlophe said there were no factors reducing Matsebula’s blameworthiness.
He said had it not been for the intervention of the Constitution, he would have been obliged to issue a death penalty against Matsebula.
He said Section 15 of the Constitution stated that courts were not obliged to issue death penalties where there are no extenuating circumstances in a case. Section 15 (2) states that the death penalty shall not be mandatory.
"Courts have been granted a discretion which should be exercised judiciously.
The sentence will, however, be commensurate with the seriousness of the offence. I will not issue a death sentence. The accused (Matsebula) is 27 years old. I am not, however, giving a precedent that 27-year-olds should not be given capital punishment. I am doing what I am doing looking at the circumstances of the present case," Hlophe explained.
As Judge Hlophe delivered the judgment, Matsebula stood motionless in the accused dock. Hlophe said he had taken into Matsebula’s favour that he was a first offender and a relatively young person. He said even though he was going to mete out a lengthy sentence, in his view, it would enable Matsebula to return to society after serving his sentence. He also said he had considered that Matsebula cooperated with the police as he even led them to the crime scenes after his arrest.
Judge Hlophe said Matsebula’s lack of remorse made him doubt that if he was to be given a light sentence, he would not commit similar offences in future.
He ordered that both sentences run consecutively and the first sentence was backdated to October 28, 2008 when he was arrested.

20 September 2012 :

Amos Mbedzi was spared the death penalty by Swaziland High Court Judge Bheki Maphalala because he had not intended to kill his two companions with a bomb.
Mbedzi, aged 48, was instead sentenced to a total of 85 years in jail on two counts of murder, unlawful possession of explosives, sedition, and illegal entry into Swaziland. The sentences will run concurrently and he will serve 25 years of this time, backdated to the time of his arrest on 20 September 2008.
Maphalala in his judgement said the Swazi constitution allowed for the death penalty in cases of murder but the court had discretion on whether to impose it.
He said, 'Taking into account all the circumstances of this case, I am persuaded that this is not a proper case in which I should impose a death penalty. In particular the evidence proves that the direct intention of the accused was not to kill the deceased but to bomb the bridge.'
In sentencing he refused to accept Mbedzi's mitigation that he is married with three minor children to support and that his children stand to suffer for any punishment imposed by the court.
Instead, he accepted the prosecution's case that the crimes were very serious. He said, 'Their seriousness outweighs the personal circumstances of the accused'.
Mbedzi was described by the AFP news agency as a part of the Umbane People's Liberation Army, 'a secret militant group linked to the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), which sought to undermine elections that year [2008] until Swaziland allowed a multi-party vote'.
He had been convicted of attempting to bomb a bridge near the Lozitha royal residence in September 2008. King Mswati III had been expected to use the bridge later in the day.
Maphalala said Mbedzi, a South African, 'was engaged in violent revolution to overthrow the State'.
The sentence has caused outrage among pro-democracy groups, who see Mbedzi as a victim of King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch.
The People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) called Mbedzi's sentence, 'an open expression and declaration by the royal regime of its unwillingness to accommodate diverging views on the country's political direction and future'.
The Communist Party of Swaziland called the attempt to blow up the bridge, 'a brave and principled act of struggle against the illegal Mswati regime'
The Swaziland Solidarity Network said of the sentence, 'This is a clear declaration of war to the forces of democracy in Swaziland. When people are left with no option to protect their human rights, they are bound to explore all possible means to realise them.'