Thulani Maseko & Bheki Makhubu

Swaziland

Thulani Maseko and Bheki Makhubu, a human rights lawyer and a journalist from Swaziland, have been awarded the Southern Africa Shield Award 2015. Thulani is a lawyer member of Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland and the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network. Bheki is a journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Nation.

Thulani and Bheki have been vocal supporters of social justice and the rule of law in Swaziland. In articles published in March and February 2014, Thulani and Bheki openly criticised the lack of independence of Swaziland’s justice system. Consequently, they were arrested for “contempt of court”. They were later acquitted and released after Swaziland’s Supreme Court found that they had been wrongly convicted.