Tanele Maseko is a Swazi human rights activist and the widow of Thulani Maseko, a renowned Swazi human rights lawyer and peaceful pro-democracy leader. She campaigned for her husband’s release when he was imprisoned in 2009 for criticizing the absence of democracy in the kingdom, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, and again in 2014, after he was jailed for criticizing abuse of power in the judiciary. That year, she spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum and read a letter her husband had written in his prison cell. Despite the traumatic experience of witnessing her husband’s January 2023 assassination, she’s carrying on pro-democracy and human rights activism with exceptional resilience and grace. She is the vice chairperson of Southern Defenders, a network of human rights defenders in southern Africa, and the CEO of the Thulani Maseko Foundation.
