Swazi authorities threaten new publications with closure

By law, all publications in Swaziland including newspapers and magazines are required to register with government. Registration is accompanied by a bond of E1 000 (approx US $100).

One of the publications, CAP Magazine, a business publication established last year, has said it has been approached by the office of the Director of Information, who is also the Registrar of newspapers under the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, to produce a registration licence or face closure.

The magazine's editor, Sbongiseni Mamba, said they were shaken by the threat.

Mamba confirmed that their magazine is not registered as required by the Books and Newspaper Act 1963 and said this was because they were not aware of this legal requirement. He said now that they are they will promptly register to pre-empt the government threat.

“Though we might have erred, we were not happy with the way the government issued its threat to close us down. It was as if the officer was not pleased by our mere existence. We felt there was more to the threat that the mere fact that we were not registered,” Mamba told MISA Swaziland

He said they will try to comply as soon as possible to ensure that the publication continues to exist.

Another new publication, Mbambambamba newspaper published in vernacular and launched only last month, has also been reportedly pressured to register or face closure. Management of the newspaper is reported to have already made attempts to comply to avoid being closed down.

Source: Media Institute of South Africa (MISA) via the African Press Organisation