MBABANE / SOUTH AFRICA Sources say Mduduzi “Gawuzela” Simelane moved his longtime friend, former Ngwempisi MP Mthandeni Dube, to a secret location on Sunday night after journalist Zweli Martin Dlamini released an audio recording that, they claim, was intended to put Dube back behind bars.
Dube was released in November 2025 under a royal pardon. His conditions are strict: no political activity, no press or social-media work, no public speaking, and limits on movement. A confirmed breach can send him back to finish his sentence.
How the night unfolded, according to sources
Zweli Dlamini first published an article. Sources say a threat followed about an hour later: cooperate, or the audio recorded without Dube’s knowledge would be released. After a tense exchange in which Dube asked why this was being done to him, Dlamini published the recording later on Sunday night, 13 September 2026.
Gawuzela Simelane, the exiled former Siphofaneni MP and SWALIMO leader, is said to have acted immediately. He and others worked through the night to get Dube out of reach.
By Wednesday morning, Times of Eswatini reported that an His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) enquiry team was looking into an alleged breach of Dube’s conditions and that the former MP “is nowhere to be found.”
Dube’s release was already politically loaded. Gawuzela has taken the opposite line: he remains in exile and has said he will never apologise.
Zweli Martin Dlamini, editor of Swaziland News and based in South Africa, has a long record of publishing material the government regards as hostile. Supporters of Dube and Gawuzela see the audio as a trap. Critics will say Dube should have stayed within the conditions he accepted.
None of the three men has issued a public statement that could be independently confirmed at the time of writing. HMCS has not detailed what the audio allegedly contains or whether a recall order has been issued.
The story is still developing. What is clear is that a recording published on a Sunday night was enough to pull a pardoned former MP off the map and put two of Eswatini’s most watched political figures back at the centre of the country’s unresolved 2021 conflict
