Magawugawu counting on British politician for political assistance

• David Blunkett is currently serving in the House of Lords in Britain and also in other strategic structures of influence
• I met him shortly after Judge Mumcy Dlamini delivered her latest judgement-Magawugawu

Mbabane – Former Siphofaneni Member of Parliament Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane is counting on British seasoned veteran politician David Blunkett to help in getting emaSwati in what he calls an oppressive entanglement.

David Blunkett is currently serving in the House of Lords in Britain and also in other strategic structures of influence, having served as an MP for over two decades. The two met recently while Blunkett was in South Africa and they had a meeting.

Simelane said the meeting briefed Blunkett and other stakeholders on the pain of the people of Eswatini.

“This then enabled us to look at ways at how to we can help emaSwati to get out of the oppressive entanglement. Much was discussed.

When asked on what was Blunkett’s take on the incarceration of the two MPs in Bacede Mabuza of Hosea Inkhundla and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi Inkhundla, Simelane said those matters are the core of the advocacy work.

“Note that I met him shortly after Judge Mumcy Dlamini delivered her latest judgement. It’s on that note that he committed to do his best,” he further revealed.

According to sourced information, David Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from 1987 to 2015, when he stood down. 

Blind since birth, and coming from a poor family in one of Sheffield‘s most deprived districts, he rose to become Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary in Tony Blair’s Cabinet following Labour’s victory in the 1997 general election.

Following the 2001 general election, he was promoted to Home Secretary, a position he held until 2004, when he resigned following publicity about his personal life. Following the 2005 general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, though he resigned from that role later that year following media coverage relating to external business interests in the period when he did not hold a cabinet post. 

In May 2015, he accepted a professorship in Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield (in 2014 he was invited to be a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences), and in June 2015 he agreed to become chairman of the Board of the University of Law.

 In addition to his other work with charities, he was also chairman of the David Ross Multi Academy Charitable Trust from June 2015 to January 2017. He is the honorary president of the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT).