Swazi Media Commentary

GOVERNMENT DENIES HIV SCANDAL

2009-12-05T07:56:00.002+02:00

There was an interesting insight into the mentality of the Swaziland Government following the news to that one in five children in the kingdom who are HIV-positive may have caught the virus as a result of medical negligence.

The first stance of anyone in authority in the kingdom was to deny there was a problem.

So nothing new there then.

But then up pops the Principal Secretary Dr Steven Shongwe at the Ministry of Health. We can’t trust the academics who conducted the research (and had it published in the International Journal of STD and HIV, of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV) because the Swazi Government hadn’t given the researchers permission to carry out the research.

‘There is a Ministry of Health Scientific and Ethics Committee that approves any health related research. With regard to this particular study, the committee is not privy to any application or approval of the study by any organisation or individual. Therefore, the information contained might not necessarily provide the official position of the issues raised,’ he told the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

So there you have it. Only information officially sanctioned by the government is allowed in Swaziland.

STOP SWAZI MP PAY RISES, SAYS IMF

2009-12-04T10:44:00.002+02:00

The Swaziland Government should reverse its decision to give ministers and MPs salary increases, to save the Swazi economy, according to a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The salary increases pledged to civil servants should also be abandoned, if the kingdom is to survive.

And on top of this the government needs to cut back on public expenditure.

The latest warning from the IMF issued on Wednesday (2 December 2009) comes after its team visited Swaziland. According to the IMF the discussions it had with ministers and others was aimed at finding ways to stabilise the Swaziland economy, which as anyone who has been paying attention will know, is on the brink of disaster.

IMF said in a statement that Swaziland has been struggling in the world economy and the cutback in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) which in the context of high spending levels, is posing serious risk to medium-term fiscal sustainability’.

Economic activity is sluggish in 2009 and the economic outlook is not good, the IMF said.

The IMF said the Swazi Government needed to educate the public on the need for public spending cuts. Without these, the IMF says, Swaziland will have ‘unsustainable debt levels’. One figure mentioned was that Swaziland’s debt could soon reach 77 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The IMF called for immediate public spending cuts ‘in particular, the recent across-the-board salary increases, which are unsustainable given the sharp and permanent drop in SACU revenue, need to be revisited’.

The Swazi Government also needs to shift the public expenditure the kingdom can afford to ‘critical social programs, including investment in human capital and expenditures that foster economic growth’.

SUSPICION OVER ‘TIMES’ LETTERS

2009-12-04T07:44:00.003+02:00

I smell a rat. There has been another letter published by the Times of Swaziland from a reader in Europe following the showing of a documentary about the kingdom there.

Just like in the previous letter (written by a different person) the reader doesn’t give the title of the documentary (so we can only take his word for it about the contents) but uses it as an excuse to criticise people who he says are are putting Swaziland down. Like the other letter it also talks about a desire to visit Swaziland next year (2010) at the time of the FIFA World Cup.

And just like the previous letter the editor of the Times adds a footnote to extol the virtues of Swaziland.

The reader writes, ‘Most media reports suggest that public gatherings are banned in Swaziland and that violent clashes with the police are the result of such gatherings. Does this mean that Swaziland will not have any fan parks during the 2010 World Cup?’

To which the editor responds, ‘This place [Swaziland] is not only beautiful, it is also very peaceful, and I am afraid you have been misled. It is not true that gatherings are banned, but maybe what you mean is gatherings of a political nature where people intending to have such gatherings only have to request permission to hold them. It is not abnormal.’

Tell that to the striking security guards who earlier this week had rubber bullets and teargas fired at them by Swazi police.

In his footnote the editor also says that the Swaziland 2010 Committee (that is organising things to coincide with the football tournament in South Africa) says there will be ‘fan parks’ (that’s places for people to see matches televised on large screens in public areas) and ‘these won’t just be in the urban areas, but will be spread across the country’. Considering the committee’s inability up to now to organise a drink up at a brewery (to coin a phrase) I think this statement is definitely one for our Fantasy Watch game.

So who are these letter writers from Europe and why have they suddenly taken the urge to write (of all places) to the Times of Swaziland? And why do they say share similar sentiments about Swaziland. And why does the editor see fit to add footnotes to these letters, but not to any others he publishes?

Next time I’m at the Times’ office I’ll look out for one of the paper’s hacks hunched over a keyboard in a back room knocking out another ‘reader’s letter’ to the editor.

FOOTNOTE: The editor gave this link for the letter writer to get more information about Swaziland’s preparations for the World Cup. When I tried it I got a message offering to sell me a website for a dollar ninety-nine. Looks like another victory for the Swaziland 2010 committee.

NO ROOM FOR SWAZILAND HIV DENIAL

2009-12-03T14:23:00.002+02:00

Editorial Comment in the Swazi Observer

NO ROOM FOR DENIAL ...

REPORTS carried by the international media that one out of five Swazi babies contract HIV through the negligence of nurses and other health professionals in the country’s hospitals deserve more than just a casual look.

The findings of the respected British Association of Sexual Health and HIV are not only shocking, but go a long way to question Swaziland’s commitment to reverse the tide in so far as the incidence of HIV is concerned. Such reports come at a time when the country is at pains trying to shed the ruthless stigma of leading the world in infection rate. Such reports also call to question the country’s health sector and overall standards of service delivery.

Now that the ‘cat is out of the bag’ there is no room for denials or blame apportioning. Our government is (in)famous for engaging the denial mode as a first reaction to an impending crisis. By the time the facts are gathered and the picture is clearer, the damage is already at an advanced stage. Look at the dithering we were subjected to by the Ministry of Health regarding the issue of the shortage of drugs and medicines in the country’s health institutions.

When the matter was first raised many months ago, it was brushed aside as a creation of the fertile imagination of journalists who wanted nothing but to pour scorn on the abilities of the leadership. What do you know? A few weeks ago, the ministry admitted that there was a E250 million ‘drug shortage’ problem in the country.

The de-worming fiasco is a close second in examples of the ‘denial virus’ that sometimes afflicts our government. It was after a few admissions of students with stomach problems that government finally succumbed to warnings that there were problems with the whole process. We can go on and on with examples of this out of your depth trip down ‘denial lane’.

With the latest report about the AIDS babies, we can already see the suits in the ministry putting on the caps and coats of denial. We can already hear them say: ‘Aghh, this is just a ploy by these white people to amass donations from the international community at the expense of Swaziland.

They cannot be taken seriously because they are involved in a sinister plot to demonise our beloved country.’ That is when the wheels fall off the wagon. When will it be that as a country we will start to view things objectively and look deeper into an issue before we start rubbishing it as useless chatter?

We call on Minister of Health Benedict Xaba to heed the advice of Senator Prince Kusa Dlamini and cause for the setting up of a judicial commission or whatever appropriate structure to get to the bottom of this matter. We owe it to the lives of our children, sisters and mothers to get to the bottom of this issue. The truth shall come out!

Swazi Observer 3 December 2009

SWAZILAND KING ‘TOPS IN AFRICA’

2009-12-03T10:07:00.002+02:00

Here’s a story to warm the cockles of the heart of any Swazi Royalist. King Mswati III is reckoned to be the most influential monarch in Africa.

But once you go beyond the headline, things aren’t quite so rosy.

A report just published by Stakes Capital Limited’s International Corporate Research

(ICR) under the trade name Research Intelligence, puts King Mswati top of the pile based (mostly) on the fact that he is an absolute monarch. Or put another way the research model was skewed in favour of dictators.

In the report called Powers That Be researchers used three criteria (i) the size of the territory the monarch reigns over; (ii) is his word law and if so over how many people? and (iii) the amount of recognition the monarch gets and the respect he is held by in by the international community.

King Mswati wins by virtue of being sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch (his word is most definitely law) and the inflated role he took this year in the activities of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

I can’t quite see what the point of the research is. The ‘institute’ that produced it seems to be an outfit from Nigeria. Not to be confused with the International Corporate Research organisation in the United States.,

The report published on the Internet is riddled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar (I know signs of pot calling kettle black here), but it doesn’t read to me like a professionally produced report.

Anyhow, to wipe the smile of the faces of the Royalists and to pre-empt any crowing the Swazi media might do - here are some quotes about King Mswati from the report

· Today he is described as Africa's last absolute monarch in the sense that he has the power to choose the prime minister, other top government posts and top traditional posts.

· He is ranked 17th on the list of richest heads of government with a net worth of $100m. [Actually 200 million US dollars according to Forbes].

· Is currently ranked 18th on Parade Magazine's 2009 World's Worst Dictator list.

NEW DATES FOR DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN

2009-12-03T10:00:00.002+02:00

The public launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign has been put back following the funeral of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)’s founding first Deputy President, Chris Dlamini, in Swaziland.

The coordinating team has now announced new dates.

10-11 February 2010:

Public launch of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign and joint Swazi-South Africa civil society programme development workshop.

The official campaign launch will take place on the 11 February 2010. The agreed workshop between organisations from Swaziland and South Africa to look at (i) an assessment of momentum on both sides of the border, (ii) the sharing of experiences of solidarity platforms from South Africa and Zimbabwe and (iii) the development of a common programme of action in support of democracy in Swaziland, will take place the day preceding the launch.

(The scenario planning element of this programme will take place early March 2010.)

19 January 2010:

A further South African civil society report back meeting will be convened on the 19 January 2010 at the same venue, the offices of the South African Council of Churches. This meeting will provide an opportunity for the coordinating team to provide a report back on their work thus far and to finalise preparation for the launch, including agreeing on the draft programme of action initially developed at the first SA civil society meeting.

15 December 2009:

Conclusion of the Global Declaration in support of the struggle for democracy in Swaziland. The idea for a global declaration emerged as a product of continuous engagement between organisations on both sides of the borders. The draft declaration has been concluded and will be tabled at the report back meeting of the SA chapter. and at a meeting to be convened inside Swaziland , for amendment and endorsement. Over and above individuals and organisations that have already pledged their support for the Swazi cause, further signatories are welcomed. The final, signed declaration will be published the week before the launch.

NEW LESSONS IN SWAZILAND HISTORY

2009-12-02T16:11:00.004+02:00

I wrote on Sunday (29 November 2009) about the new history syllabus that schoolchildren in Swaziland will have to sit this year and how it contained work on King Sobhuza II and his tearing up of the Swazi constitution and on the struggle of the banned People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

I doubted that that's what would really be taught.

Anyway we shall see. Following my report a copy of the syllabus is in general circulation on the Internet. And for the sake of historical accuracy I reproduce it here.

SGCSE HISTORY Syllabus 6891
November 2010 Examination

PAPER 1

Learners must study all of the Core Content Swaziland, 1945-c. 1995 and either

Case Study 1 The ending of minority rule in South Africa, 1948-c1995

Or

Case Study 2 The ending of minority rule Zimbabwe, 1951-c2002

CORE CONTENT- SWAZILAND, 1945-C. 1995

Key Question 1; How did Swaziland achieve independence?

Why wasn’t Swaziland incorporated into South Africa after the Second World War?
Why did political activity in Swaziland intensify in the 1960s?
Why was Imbokodvo National Movement the most successful of the political parties?
What were the events leading to independence in 1968?

Specified Content
• The impact on Swaziland of the intensification of racial discrimination in South Africa. British rule in Swaziland. Increased political activity in the 1960s and the different political parties.
• The 1964 elections. The new constitution, independence in 1968 and the elections of 1972.

Key Question 2; What have been the main developments in Swaziland since independence?
How did King Sobhuza II unify the Swazi nation?

Why did Sobhuza II act as he did in 1973-4?
Why were there internal disputes 1984-6 and how did Prince Makhosetive settle these?
Why were reforms introduced in the early 1990s?
Why have there been tensions between the government and the judiciary, Parliament and the press?

Specified Content
• The repeal of the constitution in 1973 and the introduction of the Tinkhundla system in 1974. the new parliament of 1979. the succession of Queen Regent Dzeliwe. Internal disputes in 1984-6 involving the new Queen Regent Ntombi and the Liqoqo. The return of Prince Makhosetive, the abolition of Liqoqo and the 1987 elections. The activities and demands of the Peoples’ United Democratic Movement. The reforms in the early 1990s. Relationships between the government and the judiciary, Parliament and the press after 2000.

Key Question 3: Social and Economic developments in Swaziland since 1945

Focus Points
What social and economic problems faced Swaziland when independence was achieved in 1968?
How successfully has Swaziland developed socially and economically since independence?
How effective have the activities of UN agencies been in Swaziland?

Specified Content
• Social and economic conditions in Swaziland in 1968. the development of tourism, textiles, mining, forestry, sugar cane and fruit farming including the use of Marula fruit. The problems facing these industries. Social and economic problems and how these have been addressed. The standard of living in Swaziland since independence. The roles of women. The activities of UN agencies in Swaziland.

Key Question 4: How developments in Southern Africa Impacted on Swaziland?

Focus Points
How important have Swaziland’s relationship with the rest of Southern Africa been?
How did events in Mozambique affect Swaziland?

Specified Content
• The contribution of Swaziland to the struggle against apartheid regime in South Africa. The policies of the Nationalist government in South Africa towards independence for Basutoland ( Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Swaziland. Border disputes between South Africa and Swaziland. Swaziland’s membership of Southern Africa development Community (SADC). The impact of the struggle for independence by Frelimo in Mozambique on Swaziland. The Impact on Swaziland of the withdrawal of the Portuguese from Mozambique?

SWAZI POLICE FIRE ON STRIKERS

2009-12-02T10:01:00.002+02:00

It hasn’t taken long for Swaziland’s police force to show their true colours when it comes to defending people in power.

Swaziland’s new police commissioner Isaac Magagula has been trying to tell us Swazi police aren’t agents of state control. He even says the police will respect their ‘clients’.

But an attack the Swazi police made on striking security guards yesterday (1 December 2009) shows what a lie this is.

One guard was shot in the head with a rubber bullet and five people in total were injured when police opened fire on striking security guards in Swaziland’s capital Mbabane.

Police also used teargas on the strikers.

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported police fired teargas to ‘calm’ the strikers.

The striking workers were demanding a meeting with their bosses to put forward a wage claim to increase their pay in line with inflation.

Unlike the police and Swaziland’s MPs who recently received large salary increases, security guards are poorly paid. Their bosses say the security workers are getting the minimum amount they are required to pay by Swazi government regulations.

According to a spokesman for the Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union (SATU), the bosses ‘arrogantly told us they have the money to pay three times what we are asking for’, but will stick to the government’s minimum wage figure.

According to the union, the police were defending the employer Fidelity Security Services which had hired casual employees to take over from the striking workers and was attempting to smuggle them into the company premises.

‘Our members got angry to when they heard such. Our members want [to] block the casual staffers from entering the premises – something which resulted in the confrontation with the police who tried to drive our members away from the company gate.’

The union said police fired at the strikers ‘for no apparent reason’.

The union said the strike would continue until their demands are met.

SWAZILAND ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

2009-12-01T13:12:00.003+02:00

Now, it’s official: Swaziland is on the brink of financial collapse.

I’ve been warning for some time that the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch is living beyond its means.

With 70 percent of the one million population earning less than one US dollar a day and receipts from the Southern African Customs Union about to be cut to ribbons, there is next to no money coming into the government in Swaziland.

But the Swazi Government continues to give its members and ordinary MPs vast wage increases while at the same increasing money it pays to civil servants.

Now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned enough is enough.

It met with the Swazi Finance Committee last week and said the government must stop its reckless expenditure. The salary bill for civil servants now stands at 54 percent of the kingdom’s budget.

Finance Committee chairman MP Marwick Khumalo last Friday told the Swazi Parliament, ‘We met with the IMF team on Wednesday and it must be said that they were not happy with Swaziland and a red flag was raised. The team said Swaziland was on the brink of collapsing because money was being wasted on paying government personnel and those in leadership positions.’

The IMF, according to Khumalo, warned of tough times ahead as the kingdom was also faced with dwindling SACU receipts and therefore could not afford to continue spending money on salaries for personnel.

As the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper reports today (1 December 2009), this is not the first time that the IMF has sent such a warning to Swaziland as it previously advised the country to cut down on its number of government employees.

This advice has not been heeded, however, as the Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, Barnabas Dlamini, when taking up office, promised there would be no civil service retrenchments. Dlamini instead promised that all vacant government posts would be filled and this includes temporary teachers whom government has since engaged on a full time basis.

NEGLIGENT MEDICS GIVE KIDS HIV

2009-11-30T12:23:00.002+02:00

One in five Swazi children infected by HIV got it from the negligence of medical staff in Swaziland.

They did not contract the virus from their own HIV-positive mothers. In many cases the mothers of HIV-positive children in Swaziland are themselves HIV-negative.

A new academic research study to be published tomorrow (1 December 2009) to coincide with World AIDS Day says the children probably became HIV-positive because Swazi medical staff gave them injections with contaminated needles. The injections were often unnecessary.

The International Journal of STD and HIV, published by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, looked at rates of HIV infection among children in Swaziland.

Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world with 26 per cent of the adult population infected. Life expectancy in the kingdom is now 32 years.

Using data from the Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey, the authors of the research found that one in five Swazi children aged two to 12 who are infected with the virus have HIV-negative mothers.

These children had experienced many more medical injections and vaccinations than their uninfected brothers or sisters. Most of these related to anti-malaria health programmes.

Africans are subject to a much higher proportion of injections and blood tests than patients in the West, according to a 1999 study for the World Health Organisation.

That research found that a wide range of common symptoms such as colds, ear infections, fatigue and tonsillitis were treated with injections rather than oral medication.

The study concluded that at least 50 per cent of these were unsafe, with needles being used repeatedly on one patient after another, without sterilisation.

Source Daily Telegraph, UK.

FALSE DAWN OF SWAZILAND HISTORY

2009-11-29T10:44:00.002+02:00

The joy in some progressive circles that has greeted news that Swaziland’s schoolchildren will be made to learn about the banned pro-democracy organisation PUDEMO in their history classes may be misplaced.

PUDEMO will form part of the syllabus in the new Swaziland General Certificate of Secondary Education (SGCSE), which has been devised by the University of Cambridge, UK.

Children will also be required to learn about how King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and his backers manipulated his way to the throne and how King Mswati’s predecessor King Sobhuza II tore up the Swaziland constitution and ruled by decree thereafter.

Or maybe they won’t. It seems true enough that a new history syllabus has been drawn up that centres on Swaziland's history, but it is far from clear what schoolchildren will actually be taught.

It was Winston Churchill who said that history is written by the victors. Or put another way history is written and taught from the point of view of those who hold the power.

In Swaziland, King Mswati and his hangers-on rule and it is not in their interests for people to learn that the king isn’t sent from God (as many of his supporters want us to believe) but his capture of the throne was as the result of a power struggle within the ruling elite worthy of any Shakespearean play.

Nor, will they let the children know that Swaziland is not a democracy and that groups like the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) are fighting for human rights in the kingdom.

I can’t see how history teachers in Swaziland who do not know the real history of their own kingdom will be able to teach such a syllabus even if they were allowed to.

Wandile Dludlu, president of the PUDEMO youth wing Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) is quoted by the Times Sunday today (29 November 2009) saying the news of the new history syllabus is good news and too good to be true.

Sorry, Wandile. It is just that: too good to be true.

FANTASY WATCH – KING’S JET MONEY

2009-11-27T09:55:00.002+02:00

Here’s a new round of my game Fantasy Watch. This one involves the return of a deposit paid for a new jet for King Mswati III and the promise that E400 million (about 40 million US dollars) would be given to Swaziland for development projects.

In June 2009, I cast doubts on a claim by Swaziland Finance Minister Majozi Sithole that he had secured the return of a E28 million deposit on an ill-fated (and probably illegal) attempt to buy King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, a private jet from taxpayers' money.

Sithole had claimed that he had secured a refund of the deposit (believed to be E28 million) plus interest on the money, plus extra money from unnamed donors. A total of E400 million was said to be available for ‘social upliftment’ projects.

Part of the deal was that the Swazi Government would not be allowed to touch the money (by the government’s own admission about E40m a month is lost to corruption in Swaziland), but instead funds would be made available through a trust fund administered by Prof Frans Whelpton, of the University of South Africa.

I and others cast doubts on the whole project and wanted to know where the money was coming from. It was widely reported that a company called DAFIN Asset Finance Limited had a large role to play in setting up the project.

Now Sithole has admitted that Swaziland might not get the E28 million jet deposit back nor will it get the development cash (reported now to be E450 million, an increase on the previously claimed E400 million, which was itself an increase on the E100m originally stated. But that’s fantasies for you, they just keep growing).

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reports today (27 November 2009) that Sithole is in an ‘embarrassing situation’.

I bet he is. He trumpeted the triumph of getting the money for Swaziland and now it’s been revealed to be a figment of the imagination.

According to the Observer, the Swaziland Finance Committee reckons the whole thing has turned into a circus and the integrity of the people involved in the fictitious deal is questionable.

The committee wants Sithole and two MPs to go meet Prof Whelpton and DAFIN to find out what’s going on.

I’d save them the trip. I think we all know what’s going on.

IS SWAZILAND A MAD STATE?

2009-11-25T09:39:00.002+02:00

Swaziland not a mad country in some unstable state – heading to a letter from a reader published in the Times of Swaziland.

As any academic might be I was attempted to append the word ‘discuss’ to that statement.

For those who didn’t see the letter it comes from someone from the Netherlands who has never visited Swaziland but saw a documentary about the kingdom on television.

He didn’t say which documentary he watched but it was so powerful he felt compelled to write to the Times of Swaziland to say, ‘What I knew about Swaziland mostly circled around the absolute monarchy and so called liberators running around like chickens with no heads.

'If one was to believe most of what we hear of Swaziland, one would think it is a mad country in some unstable, revolutionary state.'

Now, he reckons he and his pals are coming to Swaziland for the FIFA World Cup next year (2010).

The letter prompted a response from the editor of the Times inviting people to ‘come visit, and experience the true royal experience, and the true beauty and tranquillity of this beautiful country’.

I hope the writer does visit Swaziland but avoids the five star hotels and instead visits the rural areas where more than 70 percent of the population live. Perhaps, the writer would care to live as an ordinary Swazi (70 percent are in abject poverty earning less than a dollar a day) in squalor without health care or clean water and at the mercy of tuberculosis and other disease.

Then he can visit some of the HIV sufferers (at 40 percent the highest rate in the world) and talk to the countless thousands of children who are now head of their household because AIDS has ravaged the Swazi population.

Then he can visit the people in prison whose main crime is poverty (they can’t pay the fine imposed upon them for often quite trivial offences so have to take a prison term as an alternative).

Then he can visit the one in three girls in Swaziland who are sexually abused by their relatives and discuss with them what a tranquil kingdom Swaziland is.

After that he can meet some of the women at Swaziland’s textile factories who are paid such poor wages they have to share one meal with three people, share a bed with six others and prostitute themselves to the local soldiers just to keep from starving.

Then he can go watch a game of football in South Africa with tens of thousands of other Europeans. He won’t see any Swazis there and hardly any black South Africans. They can’t afford a ticket.

SEEING THROUGH AIRPORT FANTASY

2009-11-21T13:14:00.001+02:00

I see we are being buttered up with excuses about why King Mswati III’s great fantasy - Sikhuphe International Airport - won’t be finished on time.

Readers playing the Fantasy Watch game with me will know that airport is expected to be completed and ready to receive its first flight in March next year (2010).

Now we are told this deadline is ‘unrealistic’ and was only set so that the airport could be used to transport passengers for the FIFA World Cup being played in South Africa next year.

The airport, a vanity project for King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is nowhere near finished and the Swaziland Government is still trying to find E1.5 billion (about 200 million US dollars) to complete it (this works out at about E1,500 for each man, woman and child in Swaziland, in a kingdom where 70 percent earn less than one dollar a day).

This week Swaziland Senator Moi Moi Masilela started on the excuses.

He said the target of 2010 was unrealistic. ‘As a result of the pressure we will end up building an airport that is not up to standard, something that would result in the tarmac collapsing when flights land.’

He told the Minister of Economic Planning and Development Prince Hlangusemphi during a Senate Portfolio Committee debate, ‘Let’s not rush the airport in the name of meeting deadlines but we should take our time to avoid having a structure that’s of poor standards.’

There are also doubts that the new airport will meet standards demanded by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). If the ICAO doesn’t license the airport, planes will not be able to use it.

Senator Masilela needs to be careful. It was King Mswati himself who only last month announced that the airport would be ready in March 2010. The king told an audience in Kuwait, ‘The completion of Sikhuphe International Airport in March 2010 will further improve our [Swaziland’s] standing.’

Whoops. Of course, the airport was never (is never, will never) going to be completed in 2010 and since no organisation is prepared to fund the airport’s completion it’s a fair bet it never will be finished.

As I said before, the whole Sikhuphe International Airport is just a sad fantasy of King Mswati and the people around him who are too self-interested to tell the king he is wrong.

WHO NEEDS FRIENDS LIKE THESE?

2009-11-20T14:16:00.002+02:00

I see Swaziland’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Lufto Dlamini is off on his travels again.

Last month (October 2009) he was with King Mswati III, in the Middle East – remember that very embarrassing poem he wrote saying Mswati was sent from God.

I didn’t mention it at the time but I wasn’t the only one struck by the fact that the king and his hangers-on only seem to visit places with appalling human rights records.

This time Dlamini is in Cuba at the invitation of that country’s government. Anyone who follows any of the Swaziland media will know Dlamini is being hailed as a respected friend in Cuba.

The reason is simple: Swaziland supports Cuba at the United Nations so that makes King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, a pretty good fellow in their eyes.

By a coincidence of timing days before Dlamini landed in Cuba, the New York-based Human Rights Watch reported that Cuban president, Raúl Castro, has crushed dissent and continued repression in the country since taking over from his brother Fidel in July 2006.

The government has even introduced a new law that allows the state to punish people before they commit a crime on suspicion they may do so.

Since coming to power Raúl has kept up repression and kept scores of political prisoners locked up, Human Rights Watch said.

He tightened repression with greater use of a provision in the criminal code which allows people to be convicted for ‘dangerousness’, defined as behaviour which contradicts socialist norms.

It documented more than 40 cases in which individuals were jailed for ‘dangerousness’, including such things as handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, staging rallies, writing articles critical of the government, and trying to organise independent unions.

The report said fear permeated the lives of dissidents in Cuba. ‘Some stop voicing their opinions and abandon their activities altogether; others continue to exercise their rights, but live in constant dread of being punished.’

So Dlamini must feel right at home with the Cubans. Dlamini can teach them a thing or two about how he and the government he serves treats the Swazis.

RULE OF LAW SWAZI STYLE

2009-11-19T09:26:00.001+02:00

Zwide Nxumalo has defied a court order to stop being chief of the Ezikhotheni area in the Shiselweni region of Swaziland because he was appointed to the post by King Mswati III.

Magistrates told him he couldn’t go ahead with a sibhimbi ceremony that officially introduces a new chief to his subjects because of a dispute about whether he had been correctly chosen as chief.

So he went with the ceremony anyway.

Now he is being accused by some of his subjects of contempt of court.

Nxumalo told the Swaziland High Court in a written affidavit to mind its own business. He was he says chosen by King Mswati (sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch) and that to him is the end of the matter.

SWAZI SNAPSHOT: MARRIED WOMEN

2009-11-17T14:42:00.001+02:00

Married women in Swaziland are the property of their husbands, despite what the Swazi Constitution may say.

And that’s not only women in isolated rural areas: it’s wives in the sophisticated towns and cities as well.

The constitution says ‘women shall have equal opportunities as men in political, economic and social activities,’ but try telling that to the banks. It’s Section 28 (1) guys; go look it up.

Women, including those with independent jobs and incomes, cannot get bank loans without the consent of their husbands.

Among the banks discriminating against women is the South African-based Standard Bank, which has branches across the world, including in the United Kingdom.

A consultant at the bank, when contacted by the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, said if a woman is married she definitely has to provide her husband’s contact details and identification.

The bank will then contact the husband to make sure the wife is telling the truth on her application for a loan. The bank also asks for the husband’s consent. No consent: no loan. And it doesn’t matter how much the woman earns, or if the money she wants is for her own personal use.

If the husband allows his wife to take out a loan with the bank, the bank gives him the right to revoke the agreement at any time he likes.

Another South African bank, First National Bank (FNB) also demands women give details of their husbands so FNB can confirm the woman isn’t lying.

Editor’s note: King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, who himself has at least 13 wives constantly tells the international community that Swaziland is on its way to becoming a First World nation.

SWAZI POLICE CHIEF SILENT ON RIGHTS

2009-11-16T18:19:00.005+02:00

I’ve written recently about the new Swaziland police commissioner Isaac Magagula and his desire to ensure that his ‘clients’ (that’s ordinary people to you and me) get a good and courteous service from his officers. .

Sorry, but I don’t believe it. The Swazi police are really just agents of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

He and his police FORCE – and no amount of soap soaping about ‘clients’ and ‘service’ will alter the fact they are a state force – have not changed one bit.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) knows this too. In a media release SCCCO says it welcomes Magagula’s wish to tackle crime. But what about the rule of law and human rights? Not a word, not a breath.

Here’s the SCCCO statement in full.

Press Statement Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations.

For Immediate Release – 13 November 2009

Swaziland Calls on Police Commissioner to Respect Human Rights.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations welcomes the appointment of Isaac Magagula as the new Commissioner of Police. We wish him good health and good judgement in his difficult and onerous task of leading the Royal Swazi Police Force in the 21st Century. We note with concern the rising tide of crime in the country and hope that he and his officers spare no effort in preventing crime and, detecting and prosecuting criminals. We support the police in all of their efforts to keep our families, communities and the country safe and free from harm.

However, we note with the greatest of concern what Commissioner Magagula has not said since his appointment. Not once has he mentioned the police’s role of upholding the law and the rule of law. He has also neglected to mention the RSP’s attitude to the constitution and the Bill of Rights. He has never once made a commitment to respecting the human rights laid out in the constitution and the international treaties that his political masters have signed and ratified.

This lack of concern for our rights has been made clearly obvious in this week that has seen the unlawful interference by the police with worker’s rights to demonstrate at the Manzini Bus Rank and of course of Mario Masuku’s right to address a student body on Wednesday.

The Coalition’s civic education facilitators and other members also continue to be on the receiving end of police harassment when they are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

We call on the Commissioner to make a clear statement about the RSP’s stance on respect for human, civil and political rights. We further call for a meeting with him so that these ongoing problems with his officers’ in the field can be resolved in a professional and courteous manner.

Finally we extend the offer that we made to his predecessor Senator [Edgar] Hillary that we would like to work with international colleagues to help to arrange training for his officers in policing under a bill of rights.

FANTASY WATCH: SWAZILAND CAPITAL

2009-11-15T09:54:00.002+02:00

Congratulations to the Swazi News for pointing out that the ‘hullabaloo’ surrounding plans to develop Swaziland’s capital city Mbabane has come to nothing.

It seems like we’re all playing Fantasy Watch, the game where we expose the myth that Swaziland is a rich kingdom and can afford grand developments for shopping complexes, hotels, business centres, football stadia and an international airport.

The Swazi News, part of Swaziland’s only independent newspaper group, the Times of Swaziland, reports, ‘The sorry site of the country’s capital, Mbabane has remained unchanged despite the hullabaloo when it was announced that there was going to be a corporate centre and co-operative bank.

‘Newspapers were awash with artistic impression drawings detailing how the two would look like and everyone was looking forward to that time when the projects would be utilised. That excitement went to an extent of even naming the people expected to occupy those shops and offices.’

But as anybody following Fantasy Watch will know, nothing has happened.

Over the past few years there have been many claims for development in Mbabane and some building has even started only to be abandoned unfinished when the money ran out. There are two in particular that every visitor to Mbabane knows well: the Corporate Centre (abandoned after a dispute over funding between the two organisations developing it) and the Swaziland Association of Credit Organisations development behind the Mbabane Mall.

The Swazi News quotes an (alas) anonymous economist who says Swaziland’s organisations were not capable of managing projects of this magnitude.

That about sums it up.